Study: Residents Moving Out of 'Nanny States'

Study: Residents Moving Out of 'Nanny States'

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/769a9e8e4dce.jpg[/atsimg]
Most free states, by lighter color, to darker by least free.
(map from source below)

New Jersey and New York Ranked as Worst States for "Individual Freedoms"

Live free or die? New Hampshire may be on to something, according to researchers at George Mason University's Mercatus Center.

They used a variety of statistics to rank the 50 states for their just-published report on which states are the freest -- and least free -- from taxes and government regulation.

Their horserace has ranked New York as the "least free state in the Union" followed by neighboring New Jersey. New Hampshire and South Dakota were in a virtual tie for most "free" state.

The professors who authored the study believe that this freedom as they define it makes a lot of difference to the happiness and well-being of the governed.

Many people "don't want to have their lives dictated by people in their state capital," says William Ruger, political science professor at Texas State University-San Marcos, who co-authored the report with Jason Sorens, political science professor at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York.

For source* and more...
ABC News/ Money
*Which has the two titles shown above.

I'm not shocked that it's come to the migration of citizens tired of all the laws put on them. It's about time. Stand forth and implement change if you can or move to a state where you have more freedom. Then again there's the possibility, if you can afford to move.

I'm not shocked that a free-market think tank primarily funded by Koch Industries is defining "freedom" as "most beholden to corporate interests"

South Dakota is "free" if your idea of freedom is the ability to exploit others without government intervention.

People can vote in many ways, voting with their feet is one I am glad people still use. Perhaps when New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and California begin losing large amounts of population and federal representation along with tax payer dollars they will learn that not everyone wants their state bureaucrats involved in so many aspects of individual life and business investment.

The Great Lakes region has lost its manufacturing base not just because of our corrupt and unfair trade policies but also because those businesses see it as more lucrative to relocate to the more fiscally stabile and free states in the union.

Hopefully some day soon the politicians in Albany, Trention, Lansing, and Sacramento will learn that tax-regulate-repeat is not a sane political policy which people respond to or a rational policy to attract business investment.

simple reasoning... the most corrupt states have the most corrupt laws and ways of taxing and mistreating its citizens.

You can't really even blame the gov't, many of the lowest ranked states and counties regarding heavy laws used to be the hubs of organized crime and high crime rate...

Its not that these states want to regulate citizens so densly, its that for the most part they've been forced too... blame it on the mafia, gangs and unions of old.

I'm glad these nanny states are being exposed for what they are. They are running businesses out with their high taxes and high maintenance. Who even wants to start a business in one of these states that makes it a burden on the owner to do so? So much that it is nearly impossible to run a business efficiently without causing a strain on your employees' salaries. It's just that people can't see this directly because they are only seeing one side of the story...they like to think of themselves as victims of their employers. Well...perhaps if you are employed by a major corporate conglomerate...I suppose I can see that, but they're also the ones that find the means to seek out legal loopholes that will keep them from having to pay their share of taxes. So what's the next target?
Small business owners, of course.
Screw those nanny states..Just a bunch of bureaucratic trash in high places that lean in favor to apathy and free handouts in exchange for votes.

Florida....is free? I Think NOT!

As if there is some acceptable "partisan" level of freedom we can have as Americans. How about, I do whatever the hell I want, so long as I am not hurting anyone (physically).

reply to post by dreamingawake


Star and Flag for Illinois.

I notice it is pretty much the darkest around. Go Chicago....yeah

Southern Illinois suffers because of big city politics. Chicago chould be it's own state.

Oh Texas, big, bad, and mediocre. I agree with the New Mexico coloration, it's own citizens call it "The Land of Entrapment", Oklahoma being lighter than Texas, I somewhat disagree with. Yea, you can buy a bong in a gas station there, but don't get caught taking it home, used or not. I can only comment on the places that I'm familiar with, as I don't like to travel very far at the present time. This is an interesting thread nonetheless.

Just know that if we all flock to South Dakota or the other states with more "freedom", they will turn black in an instant. Running won't help. Make a stand where you are. We are supposed to be the United States of America. That once stood for something. I realize we are now the Incorporated States of America which just stands for our cowardice as a nation.

Call out the Jack-tards of your state. Expose their defication upon liberty. It is where we come from. It is what we are meant to do.

reply to post by liejunkie01


im from southern illinois too..:0

It's not a great as it seems.

They ruined their states and now they're coming to ruin ours.

Sure, they'll be all liberty drunk for a couple of years but they always return to their nanny state tendencies.

One of them will see somebody openly carrying and all their carpet bagging buddies will push for a law.

Then they'll miss the trash pick up and the library on every block and the buses that stop every 10 feet and the pretty well groomed walkways that none of them ever use because libraries are for poor people and they drive BMW's and walking threatens to damage their frail skin but still these things are nice to have and dammit we should have them.

They'll ruin the states they flee to.

reply to post by dreamingawake


I guess I should move

reply to post by FoxStriker


It has nothing what so ever to do with the Mafia, who would actually support politicians who were supporters of freedom. Washington, California, Hawaii, Alaska and New Mexico have no history of organized crime. Nevada, one of the most free is likely the state most heavily influenced by organized crime. What they have is a history of rampant liberalism and have been run by utopian fools for decades.

People have been moving out of these states for decades, with the primary population growth being immigrants, both illegal and legal. These states are anti-business and high tax. The higher the tax the less freedom, by definition.

I would love to see the states bordering these freedom killing states pass zero business tax laws. Then the exodus would really start. These states are going to have to fail before they are fixed and the sooner they fail the better.

reply to post by dreamingawake


I am a bit confused Pennsylvania is pretty darn free, this map has gotta be screwy

reply to post by dolphinfan


Then why are NJ and NY dark blue, home of American organized crime

reply to post by 4Starlight2Decay0


I grew up in NJ and lived in NY for 13 years. Both states are blue because they are run by typical NE liberals. There is not a pressure group that does not get prime treatment in either state. They are among the highest taxed states in the country, the permitting processes are extremely onerous. There is not a social program that the politicans in NY and NJ don't like. They have been taxing and spending for decades.

Much of Wall St. used to have all of its operations, the bulk of their employees in NYC. In the 80's Christine Whittman created tax free enterprise zones in Hoboken and Jersey City and lured all of them across the river, much to the consternation of the NY governor, Mario Cuomo. Thousands of jobs in NYC lost - all due to a hostile business climate, union thuggery and high taxes. Once technology, mostly networking made it viable to have real-time remote data centers and operations centers, those firms began to pull out of NJ to places like North Carolina. Tens of thousands of jobs gone. The same thing has happened in the financial services industry in Boston.

15 years ago, where were pretty much all of the Boeing airplanes built? Washington. Where are they being built today? South Carolina. As soon as the real estate assets Boeing has in Washington are fully depreciated, the rest of it will be gone as well. Why? union thuggery and extortion, a hostile business climate and high taxes.

Organized crime is certainly a problem, througout the NE, but it has nothing to do with the tax burden. How does the mob drive outrageously high property taxes? How did John Gotti make folks in NY spend years getting through environmental approvals to start a business? You could argue that the LE budgets of the states to combat organized crime are a cause of the high taxes, but that simply is not true.

If anything, the mob wants a libertarian government.

Originally posted by Bobaganoosh
Just know that if we all flock to South Dakota or the other states with more "freedom", they will turn black in an instant. Running won't help. Make a stand where you are. We are supposed to be the United States of America. That once stood for something. I realize we are now the Incorporated States of America which just stands for our cowardice as a nation.

You never became free. It was all an illusion. You are still a colony of the British crown. Don't believe me? Go read the Treaty of Paris.

Originally posted by dreamingawake
I'm not shocked that it's come to the migration of citizens tired of all the laws put on them. It's about time. Stand forth and implement change if you can or move to a state where you have more freedom. Then again there's the possibility, if you can afford to move.

edit on 9-6-2011 by dreamingawake because: edit

I think the title of the article should be:

American Manufacturing Collapses

As that is why this migration has really happened. The premise of your conclusion and the study itself are ridiculously faulty. If you'll notice, the "least free" states that loss population are conveniently the manufacturing states that had their economies collapse when US manufacturing collapsed.

They used a variety of statistics to rank the 50 states for their just-published report on which states are the freest -- and least free -- from taxes and government regulation.

So a right-wing think tank basically pulls a bunch of conditions out of their rear ends and comes to a conveniently pre-determined conclusion to support the conditions they created.

I would also like you to ask a gay couple in Massachusetts that can easily afford health care if they would feel more free in Oklahoma than where they are now.

Or perhaps you should ask a Mexican immigrant in California if they would feel more free in Arizona, where they could be asked to show their papers simply because they didn't look right?

Or maybe you should ask a steel worker in Maryland if they would be better off in right-to-work Mississippi?

South Dakota looks like it was the free-est (lightest color)...

... and now they are flooded. Guess when FEMA gets there they will be changing colors.

not surprising that the most darkest states also have the highest crime rate. when you constantly oppress every aspect of peoples lives, they rebel by breaking laws.

which isn't saying much, because in these states everything is against the law.