In a much more realistic accounting of the quality of business opportunities in Washington State than the 7th best spot Forbes offers, ChiefExecutive.net named Washington the 37th best state for business.
In part, the discrepancy is likely due to Forbes not considering Washington's unique taxation system for business, and at least some underestimation of the negative impacts of regulation in the state, but that's not the whole story. There's a very clear difference in bias between the organizations where Forbes favors generally liberal, Democratic states much more highly than it does more conservative, Republican states (and ChiefExecutive.net, vice versa).
Whether this is an intentional bias on the part of one or both organizations, or bias in how the various criteria are chosen, or some other reason, the results are striking: Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, and Minnesota are all more than 20 spots higher in Forbes than in CEO. And Indiana, Nevada, Florida, and South Carolina are more than 20 sports higher in CEO than in Forbes.
Mapping these results to E.C results or party control is left to the reader.
| State | Forbes Rank | CEO Rank | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oregon | 9 | 42 | -33 |
| Washington | 7 | 37 | -30 |
| Massachusetts | 18 | 47 | -29 |
| New York | 22 | 49 | -27 |
| Maryland | 19 | 40 | -21 |
| Minnesota | 15 | 36 | -21 |
| Nebraska | 8 | 27 | -19 |
| Pennsylvania | 26 | 43 | -17 |
| Iowa | 10 | 22 | -12 |
| North Dakota | 4 | 15 | -11 |
| California | 39 | 50 | -11 |
| Kansas | 12 | 23 | -11 |
| Connecticut | 35 | 44 | -9 |
| Utah | 1 | 9 | -8 |
| Illinois | 41 | 48 | -7 |
| Colorado | 5 | 11 | -6 |
| Montana | 23 | 28 | -5 |
| Virginia | 2 | 6 | -4 |
| Oklahoma | 13 | 17 | -4 |
| South Dakota | 17 | 19 | -2 |
| Idaho | 16 | 18 | -2 |
| Wyoming | 14 | 16 | -2 |
| New Mexico | 32 | 33 | -1 |
| New Jersey | 44 | 45 | -1 |
| North Carolina | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Kentucky | 25 | 25 | 0 |
| Arkansas | 29 | 29 | 0 |
| New Hampshire | 27 | 26 | 1 |
| Michigan | 47 | 46 | 1 |
| Ohio | 38 | 35 | 3 |
| Georgia | 11 | 8 | 3 |
| Texas | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| Vermont | 45 | 38 | 7 |
| Missouri | 31 | 24 | 7 |
| Hawaii | 49 | 41 | 8 |
| West Virginia | 43 | 34 | 9 |
| Rhode Island | 48 | 39 | 9 |
| Arizona | 20 | 10 | 10 |
| Alaska | 42 | 31 | 11 |
| Mississippi | 46 | 30 | 16 |
| Alabama | 37 | 21 | 16 |
| Louisiana | 30 | 13 | 17 |
| Tennessee | 21 | 4 | 17 |
| Maine | 50 | 32 | 18 |
| Delaware | 33 | 14 | 19 |
| Wisconsin | 40 | 20 | 20 |
| South Carolina | 28 | 7 | 21 |
| Florida | 24 | 2 | 22 |
| Nevada | 36 | 12 | 24 |
| Indiana | 34 | 5 | 29 |
The irrelevant comments furnish us with ineloquent irrelevance, plus a giggle or two.
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive` on May 11, 2012 08:12 AMOther than that, I would be more inclined to go with the CEO's rating over Forbes, but they are both suspect.
Posted by: KDS on May 11, 2012 11:33 AM....because it matches what I already think.
Posted by: Vote Obama on May 11, 2012 01:14 PMLiberals have become Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru caricatures.
Posted by: RagnarDanneskold on May 11, 2012 01:31 PM