Minnesota is best in U.S. For Business in 2015 (Minneapolis: rental, student loan)

[Saul Bunyan]

Cool. Hard to argue with any of those numbers.

[Ghengis]

Originally Posted by Thedosius

There is info on methodology and it does say where the list came from.

Per the article, the list came from CNBC.

Here is an overview of the methodology from the CNBC site

America's Top States for Business

I kinda wish Hawaii ranked a bit higher

[Mason3000]

Originally Posted by sandefjord

I call BS on a good state for business. Utah, Texas, North Dakota, and Colorado all have much better business climates, lower/no income taxes and cost of living is less. MN has fortune 500 companies that would cost too much to relocate, so instead they lay off hundreds of works at a time (look at Target and Cargill) so MN being a good business state is a joke. A majority of businesses that were here before that tax hike have their customer base here and cant afford to move their business because they are paying hand over foot to the state government so that they can rename lakes.

Paying "hand over foot"? Is that something you guys say in Utah? wtf,

[Ghengis]

Originally Posted by Mason3000

Paying "hand over foot"? Is that something you guys say in Utah? wtf,

there's lots of those instances in "his" posts...I suspect this is some kind of forum bot from Russia

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Originally Posted by sandefjord

I call BS on a good state for business. Utah, Texas, North Dakota, and Colorado all have much better business climates, lower/no income taxes and cost of living is less. MN has fortune 500 companies that would cost too much to relocate, so instead they lay off hundreds of works at a time (look at Target and Cargill) so MN being a good business state is a joke. A majority of businesses that were here before that tax hike have their customer base here and cant afford to move their business because they are paying hand over foot to the state government so that they can rename lakes.

Sour grapes?

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Originally Posted by sandefjord

The 10 Worst States in the U.S. for Taxes | The Fiscal Times

So you cherry-pick the things that back up your point of view? How objective of you! Where's the troll police?

[sandefjord]

Cherry picking is exactly what you are doing

[Thedosius]

Originally Posted by Saul Bunyan

Cool. Hard to argue with any of those numbers.

Well...we have to take any list- even ones that put Minnesota at the top- with a big grain of salt. There are always going to be controversial decisions in any metric of this kind (i.e.: "Why is x weighed so highly in your numbers?"). Furthermore, "business" is like "people"...what's the best state for "people" is such a silly, broad generalization. Whatever benefits we have in living in Minnesota, if you can't live without the ocean or mountains you're out of luck here. Similarly, many kinds of business would not thrive here.

Lists are pseudo-science, vague indicators. They do have some meaning (for many if not most businesses, Minnesota probably is a better business environment than Mississippi), but they can't be taken as gospel. The fact that Minnesota scores highly on many lists is also meaningful but still we shouldn't take it too seriously. Obviously, if people truly did take these lists seriously, there would be massive immigration to our state from most of the rest of the country.

The odd subset of Minnesota haters on this forum are as silly and biased as many of Minnesota boosters. As others have pointed out, given the significant number of transplants in Minnesota if you've spent years here and NOT many any strong relationships the problem isn't Minnesotans (though it is true this is a hard community to break into) - you've also failed to connect with fellow transplants.

[Saul Bunyan]

I tried to post a screen shot in a previous post but it didn't work. I just meant the numbers in that list look about right. Whether or not they constitute a valid metric about the business climate in MN is another story. What's interesting is the specifically "business" related metrics are average or below average, and the other metrics like education and QoL are what bump it to the top of the list.

[Thedosius]

Originally Posted by Saul Bunyan

. What's interesting is the specifically "business" related metrics are average or below average, and the other metrics like education and QoL are what bump it to the top of the list.

This would underscore my point about what to include in a metric can be controversial. I disagree that education and QoL are not "business" related.