When Mary and I lived in Houston, the city moved from second to first in the USA in severity of its air pollution (Quiz: overtaking which city?) The headline in the Houston Chronicle was, "We're Number One!" I assume there was irony there.....but in any event, the media love rankings and ratings.
Today the papers are telling us that Forbes magazine has rated Maine as worst in the US for establishing new businesses. These kinds of announcements are based on fake statistics, since the commercial entity doing the announcing also invented the criteria by which their rating is made. It's different from some of the demographically-based statistics I'm going to mention in a moment. One wants to say defensively, "Sez who?"
But Forbes is probably right, because Maine is poor, has several very troubled legacy industries, and an aging population - we have the highest average age in the US. By the way, we're also the only state that only borders on just one other state (Do you know which one?)
No, Canada is not a state.
So we don't have a good business climate here. Politicians of every stripe will make hay from Forbes' press release, they're possibly the real constituency for the magazine's pseudo-fact. Here's another new state statistic:
Graduating college students here in Maine have the second highest debt load in the country. I'd imagine this helps drive kids away, since they can't stick around to pay their debt load in low wage jobs without much chance of advancement. The college debt statistic supports Forbes.
While there are many different cultures and communities in our state, we are the least racially diverse - the whitest state in the USA. I think this is a real factor in Maine's woes, since monocultures are less resilient and I believe have more trouble growing and thriving. Also people of color have told me that this fact about Maine makes it less desirable for them to come here to live and work. So the racial monoculture is self-reinforcing, to our lasting detriment.
The Salt Marsh in Early Autumn
