Fact: The U.S. News rankings linked here are largely about access to mild climates, live music venues, and sports, so North Carolina does pretty well. Marriage amendments don’t usually affect the weather. The CNBC 2011 ranking linked here shows Massachusetts at number 6, and North Carolina ahead at number 3. The rationale behind these rankings points to factors like 'access to capital', 'education', and 'innovation' in the plus column for Massachusetts, and to 'education', 'quality of life', and 'economy' as counting against North Carolina. So Massachusetts, the first state to recognize same-sex unions, only ranks 3 points below our anti-marriage state. By these criteria, it's just as easy to argue that Massachusetts isn't suffering from gay marriage as it is to show that North Carolina is benefiting from banning it.
In
the CNBC rankings, unionization seems to be a significant consideration
in the 'workforce' categories, and the methodology explains that
unionization drives down a state's "workforce" ranking. This would put
the "workforce" ranking in conflict with the "quality of life" ranking
in a strongly unionized state, if you were asking the citizenry.
Depending on the criteria, a good place to live may be very different
than a good place to do business. Any rankings we'd trust to advise us
on public policy must involve all relevant questions asked consistently
and methodically.
--
(*) These are the misleading sources linked from the NC Values Coalition web page ‘opinions’ above:
(2) Ranked #3 in CNBC"'s, "America's Top States for Business 2011" at http://www.cnbc.com/id/41665883; Raleigh, NC Ranked #1 in Forbes"', "Best Places for Business and Careers," June 29, 2011, at http://www.forbes.com/best-places-for-business/; US News: Money, "Best Places to Live 2009" at http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/real-estate/articles/2009/06/08/best-places-to-live-2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment