But that’s just income. I wanted to know who is richest after adjusting for cost of living and state/local taxes. After all, the extra income doesn’t help much if you don’t get to spend it, or have to spend a lot more of it to get the same stuff.
So I’ve taken cost-of-living adjustments from this report (equally weighting the four studies), and state/local tax rates from here , and crunched some numbers. Connecticut and New Jersey still do reasonably well (6th and 7th, respectively), but the big winner is New Hampshire, followed by Maryland, Minnesota, Virginia, and Colorado.
Well, the Granite State certainly deserves its nickname, as it tops the richest list, it bottoms the generous list.
ReplyDeleteThis must seem fairly remarkable, in anyone's book.
Here's the 5 richest (as listed by Morgan) followed by their 'generosity' rank (and 'rank' is the word for it):
NH (50), MD (30), MN (45), VA (38), & CO (43).
One good thing, the scrooges are fairly evenly distributed, one each south, west, midwest, new england, and the littoral.
Okay, Morgan, how about a cross-weighting of the two lists into a sort of 'virtue index'? I'd do it but my TI-84 needs a new 9 volt.
ReplyDeleteI think that's within the realm of possibility.
ReplyDeleteState : Adjusted Income Rank : Giving Rank : Rank Relation : Virtue Index
ReplyDeleteMississippi 48 6 42 1
Arkansas 45 5 40 2
Louisiana 47 12 35 3
Oklahoma 41 8 33 4
Alabama 39 7 32 5
New York 42 10 32 5
West Virginia 50 22 28 7
Tennessee 30 3 27 8
Wyoming 27 1 26 9
Florida 36 14 22 10
South Carolina 35 13 22 10
South Dakota 31 9 22 10
Texas 24 4 20 13
North Carolina 29 16 13 14
Idaho 32 20 12 15
North Dakota 38 29 9 16
Kentucky 40 33 7 17
Utah 9 2 7 17
California 25 19 6 19
Georgia 15 11 4 20
Montana 49 45 4 20
New Mexico 44 40 4 20
Hawaii 46 43 3 23
Nebraska 20 17 3 23
Kansas 16 15 1 25
Pennsylvania 34 34 0 26
Missouri 23 24 -1 27
Nevada 18 21 -3 28
Alaska 22 28 -6 29
Maine 43 49 -6 29
Arizona 26 37 -11 31
Illinois 13 26 -13 32
Oregon 28 41 -13 32
Rhode Island 37 50 -13 32
Indiana 17 31 -14 35
Vermont 33 47 -14 35
Washington 10 25 -15 37
Maryland 2 18 -16 38
Virginia 4 23 -19 39
Connecticut 6 27 -21 40
Delaware 8 30 -22 41
Iowa 19 42 -23 42
Michigan 12 35 -23 42
Ohio 21 44 -23 42
Massachusetts 14 39 -25 45
Colorado 5 32 -27 46
New Jersey 7 38 -31 47
Minnesota 3 36 -33 48
Wisconsin 11 46 -35 49
New Hampshire 1 48 -47 50
New Hampshire: The Skinflint State?
ReplyDeleteAnd here's a report of a reanalysis of giving accounting for cost of living and tax burden.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/bc-nro111405.php
Hmmm...Boston College found some sets to raise their state from #49 to #11. Do they have a "massage" dep't? ;-)
ReplyDeleteOne thing here --- and awful lot of people live in New Hampshire but work just over the border in Mass. Tax situation, you know....
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