US Economic Freedom Index...Interesting to see the Red/Blue State rankings

Wall Street Journal ^ | 11/24/04 | WSJ

[laissez- faire]

American mobility is legendary and the notion that it is driven by a desire for liberty is the basis for the methodology behind the Pacific Research Institute's U.S. Economic Freedom Index released last week. Kansas is America's freest state while New York -- home of the Statue of Liberty -- ranks at the bottom. The Index uses five categories -- fiscal, regulatory, judicial, government size and welfare -- to measure and compare economic freedom in the 50 states. Among the variables are tax rates, state spending, occupation licensing, environmental regulations, income redistribution, right-to-work laws, minimum wage and tort law. Co-author Lawrence McQuillian writes that Kansas won the top spot "largely due to its respect for property rights: It engages in less income redistribution and attracts less tort litigation than most states."

[laissez- faire]

Interesting to see the entire list, with the "most free" states primarily "red" and the "less free" states primarily blue

[Bogey78O]

No free registration.

[jdm]

I'll have to try bugmenot.com to see if I can get in to read the whole thing.

[proxy_user]

You can't get passes to paysites there, it's against their TOS.

[jdm]

Thanks. I just found that out. Those pesky little Terms of Use.

[Willie Green]

Interesting to see the entire list, with the "most free" states primarily "red" and the "less free" states primarily blue

Makes no difference when they're ALL enslaved by the federal bureaucracy.

[jdm]

bttt

[PSPUN]

Here is the list in order of Freedom Index (most is first):
Kan, Colo, Va, Idaho, Utah, Okla, N.H., Del, Wy, Mo, Ariz, Nev, S.C., Ind, S.D., Iowa, Texas, N.D., Ga, Neb, Mont, Fla, Ark, N.C., Ala, Tenn, Md, Miss, Ore, Maine, Wash, W.Va., Alaska, Mich, Hawaii, Vt, N.M., Wisc, Ky, La, Mass, N.J., Ohio, Minn, Penn, Ill, R.I., Conn, Calif, N.Y.

[KarlInOhio]

How did the Peoples Republic of Taxachusetts get so high on the list?

[docbnj]

Of the top twenty best states, only two went for Kerry: DE and NH, and the latter was very close.

Of the worst ten states, only one, OH went for Bush, and that by a rather narrow margin.

See the report at: http://www.pacificresearch.org/

[Recovering_Democrat]

nine of the worst 10 states are blue. Little wonder.

[MEG33]

It would be if one had a subscription..

[PSPUN]

I am just the messenger, don't know how they calculate the index from the five categories.

[Moosilauke]

Ranking	State
1	Kansas
2	Colorado
3	Virginia
4	Idaho
5	Utah
6	Oklahoma
7	New Hampshire
8	Delaware
9	Wyoming
10	Missouri
11	Arizona
12	Nevada
13	South Carolina
14	Indiana
15	South Dakota
16	Iowa
17	Texas
18	North Dakota
19	Georgia
20	Nebraska
21	Montana
22	Florida
23	Arkansas
24	North Carolina
25	Alabama
26	Tennessee
27	Maryland
28	Mississippi
29	Oregon
30	Maine
31	Washington
32	West Virginia
33	Alaska
34	Michigan
35	Hawaii
36	Vermont
37	New Mexico
38	Wisconsin
39	Kentucky
40	Louisiana
41	Massachusetts
42	New Jersey
43	Ohio
44	Minnesota
45	Pennsylvania
46	Illinois
47	Rhode Island
48	Connecticut
49	California
50	New York

[DesertDreamer]

How did the Peoples Republic of Taxachusetts get so high on the list?

Bribery?

[MEG33]

Have a Happy Thanksgiving Willie!

[MEG33]

Thank you!

[SoDak]

SD dropped from 5th to 15th thanks to the boneheaded anti-corporate farming initiatives, which have in-effect capped how much one can expand their farming and ranching businesses.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I saw this in the print Joural today and also began immediately wondering about the correlation between Bush/Kerry margins and economic freedom. A little importing data from the WSJ and Real Clear Politics web sites and some bit twiddling in Excel and voila...

The Correlation Coefficient is 0.4 -- not bad. The trend is impossible to ignore ... Socialists and Economic Freedom do not co-exist.

In case you are wondering what goes into the index, here's the explanation from the article ... "The Index uses five categories -- fiscal, regulatory, judicial, government size and welfare -- to measure and compare economic freedom in the 50 states. Among the variables are tax rates, state spending, occupation licensing, environmental regulations, income redistribution, right-to-work laws, minimum wage and tort law. "

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I put a chart of Bush Election Margin vs. Economic Freedom in post #19.