CNBC says South Dakota is the best state in America for business! Whoo-hoo!
Of course, CNBC has its own pro-corporate agenda, so are we to trust this ranking?
I could counter with what you might brand liberal class-warfare responses. I could say that sure, South Dakota is a great place for capitalists but a rotten place for workers, who face low wages (something the CNBC report celebrates) and a higher chance of being hurt or killed on the job (hat tip to Owen!). I could argue that we fail to invest in education to raise and retain our youth and talent and thus depend on raiding other states (something else CNBC thinks is hunky-dory). I could argue that any methodology that considers education a minor factor in economic success, less important than seven of ten criteria in CNBC's scoring, suffers from terrible myopia (and South Dakota only gets 73 points out of 150 in CNBC's education column, ranking 30th, dropping 8 spots since 2012). I could point out that a low-tax, low-service culture may appeal to big capitalists who fancy themselves John Galt but that it doesn't appeal to the regular worker who recognizes that solid public investments raise everyone's quality of life.
But let's skewer CNBC's ranking on its own pro-business turf. The free market can be cruel, but it's not entirely stupid. Investors don't need CNBC to tell them where they can make a killing, and they aren't investing in South Dakota. On CNBC's venture capital category, South Dakota scores a meager 6 out of 25, ranking 39th. Capitalists aren't venturing here nearly as eagerly as they do to places like Massachusetts, California, New Jersey, and Colorado.
We also don't spark much innovative adventuring. South Dakota gets its worst score in CNBC's technology and innovation category, 70 out of 300 points, ranking 48th. The big winners in the market lead with new ideas, new practices, and new products. Our failure in this criterion suggests South Dakota isn't drawing the vigorous capitalists who do the heavy lifting of innovation; instead, we're relying on the complacent raiders who base their business decisions on squeezing labor, dodging taxes, and giving superficial readings to pro-business rags.
CNBC says South Dakota "has always been a quiet contender in our annual study, rarely finishing outside the Top 10." Being ranked #1 is cool, but we've always been near the top of this list. Years of such good press still hasn't lured a single Fortune 500 company to move here. Remember, Minnesota, ranked 15th by CNBC for business, has 19 Fortune 500 companies. California, ranked 47th, has 53. Let's see how many of those capitalist gargantua interrupt their board meetings this week and shout, "CNBC says South Dakota's great! Wagons ho to Aberdeen!"
We know it's true because of the millions of people who live here and everyone trying to enter our boarders.
I wish I could live in your reality. Must be fun. Instead I have bills to pay, work to pay for you social programs and want to retire without govt assistance some day.
James, not one word of your standard "Leftists are lazy bums" slogans addresses any of my critique of the CNBC rankings. Everybody needs good schools and roads; South Dakota invests less in such public goods. Everybody has bills to pay; South Dakota's low wages make it harder for workers to pay those bills. Everybody wants to retire comfortably; South Dakota's low wages make it harder to save up to do so. As John astutely notes, workers aren't flocking here to capitalize. Neither are venture capitalists or Fortune 500 companies. So go ahead, mock socialists like me, but explain why the capitalists aren't coming?
Nowhere to go but down. So let's get busy and fix what ain't broken!
Anybody seen any boarders worth entering? Sounds immoral to me.
Again, Republican ideology and reality do not match. Low rainfall makes for low wealth produced per acre, followed my low wages and negative attitudes. But we can still talk positive as if it will change someday.
So SD is on the bottom technologically, but the post about SD #1 for business includes a link to the article that boasts about the great tech security systems created and operated in and by SD. I'm not putting the two items together. Something doesn't fit. I seek enlightenment from any of the brilliant posters and commenters. Gracias.
Daktronics=international. Gun manufacturers using 5D technology. SURF Sanford Underground Research Facility. I would also wager none around us have a more complete broadband infrastructure. This is just a minute or two of reflection.
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I'd like to help enlighten you Deb, but we both came out of the 60's and that would be a whole bunch of wabbit trails...it'd be fun over a few beers someday though.
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Love it Stan, let's get busy and protect our state resources from the easy access through DENR.
Les ...
Right on. Let's not break what's already fixed. Let's know what we have before it's gone.
It would be fun Les. Ahhhh, the 60s. A far different world.