The Last Best Place?

by Peter Saint-Andre

2003-06-04

Last week, Claire Wolfe lauded Montana as the best place for a free state, and yesterday she noted that Wyoming is the most wealth-friendly state in the Union for the sixth year in a row. Suprisingly, Montana's showing at #44 (yes, it gets a D-, even worse than places like California and New Jersey!) doesn't seem to have seriously dampened her enthusiasm for Montana. So on the off chance that she reads my blog, I'm providing some more facts for her:

• Economic Freedom Index: WY 4th, MT 26th
• Small Business Survival Index: WY 3rd, MT 38th
• Citizens Against Government Waste Congressional Average: WY 78, MT 54
• Average Household Income: WY $38,000, MT $33,000 (lowest in the USA)
• State Government Deficit (2003): WY $0, MT $118 million
• Federal Government Dependency: WY 1.14, MT 1.57 (dollars received for every dollar sent)
• National Education Association Members: WY 5,800, MT 14,000
• Voting Population: WY 213,000, MT 411,000
• Most Expensive Recent Election: WY $4.7 million, MT $10.9 million
• Income Tax: WY No, MT Yes
• Labor Union Members: WY 20,000, MT 48,000
• Green Party Votes (2002): WY none (couldn't get on the ballot!), MT 24,487

Let's see, that seems to put MT somewhere down around Vermont and Maine with the economically and politically least-free states among the ten FSP candidates, and even in the nation as a whole. Perhaps Montana is socially libertarian, but I don't see how that outweighs its terribly low rankings on the economic side.

Wyoming.

Peter Saint-Andre > Journal