Paul TostoIf you love Minnesota now, just wait until 2032!
The Gallup organization recently cited Minnesota and other north central states as among those that in 20 years “will have tackled unemployment, financial worry, healthcare costs, obesity, and education challenges. It will be a place where most residents are healthy, optimistic, employed in good jobs they love, and enthusiastic about their communities.”
That’s awesome, although it sounds a bit, uh, Utopian.
Remember, 40 years ago Time Magazine painted us in lush colors of success when it declared Minnesota “A State that Works.” We didn’t look all that successful in the longest state government shutdown in history.
Anyway, Gallup writes:
The West North Central region, which includes Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas, is the region poised for the brightest future. Workers in this area are most likely to be employed full time for an employer in the type of good jobs associated with high GDP.
Residents have the highest economic confidence in the nation, setting the region up for a strong economic future. They are also the most likely to report easy access to clean, safe water, meaning that this region is best positioned to address one of the critical resource challenges of the future.
Gallup used metrics from job creation to dental visits and smoking rates to “city optimism” in its calculations.
Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi sit at the bottom of Gallup’s list of places to live in 20 years, suggesting that income, education and poverty drive the underlying data on a state’s well being, even in the future.
— Paul Tosto