The great election wave of 2010 brought a slew of new "scientists" who wanted to try their hands in the laboratories of democracy. Make our states attractive to businesses! Cut unfriendly regulations. Terrible red tape they called it. Cut taxes or businesses will move they declared! The Taxpayers League says places like Minnesota are 43rd on the list for business climate. Granted, the more intellectual Forbes ranks Minnesota in the top 15 for business climate, not the bottom 15. They take a more holistic approach. I guess the taxpayers ideas are easier to explain, so we'll just go with those as our facts. Finally, cut labor costs by making us right to work they said. Cut taxes, cut regulations, and cut labor and our economy will flourish. Like any good scientists, I am sure these Tea Party Laureates will analyze their results carefully. They will view the benefits and the repercussions of their experiment. Then I am sure they will modify their ideology if the facts dictate that. They will, right? Well, in case they don't I'll give them a few results after the break.
Cross posted at MNProgressiveproject
Let's take a look at corporate tax rates. We know lower corporate tax rates create job upon job. If you go here ,you can see the most updated statistics on unemployment rates. If you go Here ,you can see the most updated corporate tax rates.
The top 10 states for business tax climate include Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. These are the states that are stealing all of our jobs.
How the top 10 business tax climate states rate for attracting jobs. Let's go to the unemployment data:
Nevada --- 13.2 ranked 50th
Florida --- 11.1 ranked 48th
Indiana --- 8.5 ranked 27th
Delaware--- 8.4 ranked 26th
Utah --- 7.6 ranked 17th
Montana --- 7.4 ranked 14th
Alaska ---- 7.4 ranked 14th
Wyoming --- 6.2 ranked 8th
New Hamp-- 5.2 ranked 4th
South Dako--- 4.9 ranked 3rd
Only 3 of the top ten best business tax states actually make the top 10 for jobs. Heck, two of the top ten states for taxes are in the bottom ten for jobs. Well, those high tax states must be doing terrible. Let's take a look. The bottom ten states for business taxes are: California, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.
Unemployment rates for the most taxed states and their rank
Iowa --- 6.1 Ranked 6th
Minnesota --- 6.6 Ranked 11th
Maryland --- 6.9 Ranked 13th
Wisconsin --- 7.4 Ranked 14th
Ohio --- 8.9 Ranked 29th
Connecticut --- 9.1 Ranked 30th
New Jersey --- 9.3 Ranked 36th
North Caro --- 9.7 Ranked 39th
Rhode Island --- 11 Ranked 47th
California --- 12 Ranked 49th
**The District of Columbia was not included in these lists
Well, some states have high taxes and low unemployment, and some low tax states have high unemployment. Our Tea Party Laureates believe that keeping more of their "own" money certainly will improve their quality of life though. Maybe we should look at those quality of life statistics in the right to work, red states. If you want right to work in all of our states, you should take a look at what you get.
For ease of comparison we will generalize the right to work, conservative, southern red states and compare them to the blue states
Speaking of Red States with their awesome business policies and cheap labor, I wonder where you are more likely to get killed. The states in red have above average homicide rates.
Well, not all crimes are murder, you say. You may consider a welfare recipient a "leech" on society, but how much more does an actual inmate take from society? What's worse, a welfare state or a prison state? Don't be confused by the next one. The darker the blue, the higher the incarceration rate:
Maybe all the folks are in jail because there are no jobs in those states. The dark blue are the most unemployed states. The grey are the highest employed.
Letting people keep their own money has got to, just got to reduce poverty. Also, those right to work states have lots of good jobs, right? Again, the darker the blue, the more the poverty.
At least those Southern, conservative states are morally superior, with their abstinence, and their traditional marriage.
Did I mention traditional marriage?
Again, the darker red, the higher the state divorce rate.
With all that tax money saved, those southern folks must have a lot of money for fancy colleges. I wonder which states are more educated?
Well, they may be poor, jobless, knocked up, uneducated, and in jail, but at least those red staters are healthy young bucks.
Again, the redder the worse it gets.
Well, those right to work states promise great jobs at great wages! How about the median income?
Red or black is bad.
Update: Someone mentioned to me that things like health, pregnancy, etc. have nothing to do with tax rates. A lower tax base supports fewer education programs, and safety net programs. Loss of lose programs is directly correlated to all of the social problems illustrated here. As one last example, I will include state access to health care. Lack of health care access is tied to tax base and is in turn tied to a myriad of problems if it isn't good. The map shows percent 18-64 uninsured. Darker blue is worse.
One final review for those who are lost. Our Tea Party Laureate (TPL) premise is that low taxes, right to work laws, and de-regulation kick start an economy. Our TPL premise also states that there are no negative ramifications to our initial premise. Take one last look at who has the lowest taxes. Then remember all of the quality of life factors associated with those low taxes.