Take this Job and Rank it..........

In my "Scar of the North" posting I focused on Minnesota's dismal #47 ranking in the Small Business Survival Index for 2005 (Source: Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council) but today comes good news for our state regarding the perceived quality of life for workers in Minnesota. My thanks to Julie for making me realize I need to balance my postings with some of Minnesota's positive attributes which will be done in several future postings as I travel the state to enjoy our great natural assets. My local newspaper published a summary of a report just released by the Political Economy Research Institute in Massachusetts, http://www.umass.edu/peri/ (PERI). PERI's report concludes that "states with high quality work environments enjoy better economies as a result" and creates its state by state rankings utilizing criteria including -- average pay, employment opportunities, benefits, and other factors. When I read the newspaper account of PERI's work I speculated that this group focused on issues such as the apex of social engineering known as "living wages". Activist groups such as ACORN, http://www.livingwagecampaign.org/, focus their efforts on lobbying government bodies to mandate what is known as a living wage which for argument sake let's say the hourly living wage is determined to be $15.00 in Anytown, Montana by the ACORN leadership (apparatchiks).

Why $15.00 per hour? Sure ACORN's website discusses their formula for calculating wages around the country but why should our political leaders and workers more importantly defer to ACORN to determine such economic matters? Perhaps I personally believe that $300,000 per year is a living wage since I want my home in Minnesota and a condo in the Caribbean so I can enjoy more scuba diving. Workers of the world should unite AGAINST the social engineers at ACORN out of personal pride. My first job for example paid me $1.20 per hour and the government still deducted money from my paycheck!!! Of course this early career experience encouraged me to avoid poverty by working and studying hard so I could progress up the economic ladder. I should have treated the ACORN agenda in a separate posting so let me return you to your regularly scheduled posting regarding the PERI study.

The rankings of the Best and Worst states (including Washington DC so 51 total entities studied) found in the PERI study included:

BEST STATES FOR WORKERS:

1.) Delaware
2.) New Hampshire
3.) Minnesota
4.) Vermont
5.) Iowa

WORST STATES FOR WORKERS:

46-48 tie.) Mississippi, South Carolina, and Utah (for Utah, check my posting titled "Geography of Death"
49.) Arkansas
50.) Texas
51.) Louisiana

Several observations jump out at me based on this ranking list which I highlight below with commentary:

1.) Delaware -- ranked #1, not only was this the "first state" of the USA to ratify the Constitution but Delaware is known today as THE ideal home for corporations to be headquartered due to their pro-business legal/judicial system.
http://www.ailcorp.com/why_incorporate.asp#whydel -- my thanks to American Incorporators, Ltd. for this background information:
Delaware, the second smallest state in the nation, is the home of nearly 60 percent of the companies listed on the New York and American Stock Exchanges and more than half of the Fortune 500 firms. Many international companies interested in doing business in the United States and in other jurisdictions worldwide choose Delaware because of its favorable corporate law structure, stability, and reputation as the "American Corporate State."

2.) Worst States --- of the six (6) states at the very bottom in terms of the PERI study at numbers 46 to 51 five (5) of these states are south of the famous Mason-Dixon line. The Reconstruction Period following the American Civil War lasted from 1865 to 1877 but it appears that this reconstruction left remnants of the slave culture in place since human capital does not appear to be valued and nurtured in this region.

3.) Louisiana -- as if the hurricane damage this year wasn't enough the State of Louisiana ranks at #51, even below Washington DC (for more information please check my postings -- "Scar of the North" and "Geography of Death"). New Orleans and Louisiana are rebuilding their economies and institutions so perhaps they could look north for advice without fear of the carpetbaggers controlling their governments.

Working for the weekend,

Todd