California poorest state in the union

[pbrower2a]

Re: Connecticut ranked best state to live
« Reply #42 on: June 29, 2013, 04:52:30 pm »    

Now let's look at credit scores. I see this as a good proxy for economic distress because

(1) everyone has a credit score, and
(2) even if a poor credit rating can reflect personal malfeasance or ineptitude with handling credit, on the large scale low credit scores usually indicate difficulty meeting basic obligations (such as utilities and taxes that people can't evade).
(3) they can make their own adjustments for the cost of living and for the degree of economic equality in a State.

Here goes:

https://www.creditkarma.com/trends/state

T-1 Hawaii, Minnesota 667
3 Wisconsin 663
4 District of Columbia 660
5 Massachusetts 659
6 New Jersey 658
7 New York 657
T-8 California, Vermont 656
10 Washington
T-11 Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut 652
14 Utah 650
15 Oregon 648
T-16 Illinois, North Dakota 647
T-18 Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Virginia 646
T-22 Montana, Rhode Island 645
24 South Dakota 644
25 Idaho 643
26 Maryland 642
T-27 Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Pennsylvania 641
T-31 New Mexico, Wyoming 637
T-33 Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio 636
37 Delaware 635
38 North Carolina 634
39 Georgia 633
T-40 Indiana, Missouri 632
42 Texas 631
43 Tennessee 629
44 Oklahoma 628
45 Kentucky 627
46 West Virginia 626
47 Arkansas 623
T- 48 Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina 622
51 Mississippi 613

Although one can have a modest income and have a high credit score, it is far more difficult to avoid trouble with credit if one is poor. A medical calamity can put any uninsured person in credit trouble.

I preferred a statewide credit score to per capita income as a measure of people

(1) being competent participants in the economy, and
(2) having a chance to recover if something goes wrong.

 

[pbrower2a]

As a general rule you might not want to live where there are large numbers of high-school dropouts. Texas is at the top of that dubious measure with 20.4%, and California is third at 19.8%. But, you say, that probably reflects a large number of illegal immigrants who live in economic distress. Mississippi is second at 20.1%, and the state seems to have people who are descended, whether black or white, from people whose ancestors have been there since before the American Civil War.  Mississippi has clearly underfunded public education for most of its sordid existence. On the other side -- the lowest states in high-school dropouts are places with cold weather -- among them Wyoming, Nebraska, Vermont, New Hampshire, Alaska, Iowa, Utah, and North Dakota.  

14.4% of white people in Mississippi have less than a high-school diploma, and 11.5% of black people in Washington State have less than a high-school diploma. The stats say that a black person in Washington State is more likely to have a high-school diploma a white person in Mississippi. In case anyone thinks that it is all race -- Mississippi white people do badly. It's not race -- Mississippi has treated poor people badly whatever their ethnicity for most of its history.    

OK, there are differences within states. The San Francisco Bay Area is toward the top in educational achievement, but the Central Valley of California is dreadful. I'm going to guess that one would not readily expect the demographics of Amarillo, Texas to be much like those of Brownsville.  

Getting a high-school diploma has been the minimum standard for avoiding poverty. People without high school diplomas generally do the crappiest, most insecure jobs. They generally do unskilled labor, and they are particularly vulnerable to any economic downturn.  They are the last hired, the first fired, and the worst-paid. They are also the people who do the bulk of the violent crime and the people on welfare.