[Vision2020] Why don't any top 100 companies have any Idaho site?

[Kenneth Marcy]

On Wednesday 26 January 2011 13:36:11 Art Deco wrote:
> A mystery?
> 
> We have very favorable tax breaks for businesses, a lot of very beautiful
> country, and relatively cheap energy.
> 
> Partly and very generally:
> 
> We lack extensive, quality transportation infrastructure in a
> geographically spread out and topographically varied state, a workforce
> suitably educated for participation in many modern industries and
> businesses, and part of the workforce willing to relocate or undergo
> retraining in order to be more employable.
> 
> Parts of the workforce appear to mirror some of the attitudes found in some
> of the citizens:  rigid independence, stubbornness, and with unwillingness
> to come to grips with the complexities of modern life.
> 
> Note:  Partly and very generally prefacing the two paragraphs above.

To shed a little light on the mystery, partly and very generally, as you 
suggest, one might look at where the work sites are located. The top ten 
states with the most work sites are CA-45, TX-34, NY-30, NJ-17, FL-16, IL-16, 
WA-14, VA-12, GA-10, and MA-10. Cities in these states have combinations of 
attractive living characteristics -- warmer and richer, or colder and richer, 
and some combination of better educated, more powerful, or hipper culture 
within higher population densities. The have-not states tend to have lower 
population densities, lower concentrations of money and power wielders, fewer 
intellectuals and culture influencers, and less desirable living environments.

So, I suppose it should not be surprising that the majority of the desirable 
jobs are located where people want to live. With higher population densities 
and two-thirds of the better jobs located in only 10 of the 36 states that 
have any of the better jobs, it may appear that the cards are stacked against 
the have-not states. On the other hand, if those states' efforts to improve 
their situations concentrate on only increasing opportunities for existing 
businesses, with little new business enterprise recruitment, lower levels of 
business diversity with fewer newer success stories should be expected.


Ken