Americans are fleeing states like Minnesota precisely because the quality of life is so low. In 2025, www.nationalreview.com/2026/02/americans-vote-with-their-feet-for-red-states/ Vermont, Hawaii, West Virginia, New Mexico, and California lost population, while South Carolina, Idaho, North Carolina, Delaware(?) Tennessee and Montana gained. The biggest losers per capita were New York, Hawaii, Alaska, D.C, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Illinois. States like California and New York, which are taxing wealthy mob creators, are seeing their tax bases dwindle as the wealthy flee to free, red states.
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As readers might know, I live in Wyoming—2026 population: 590,784, putting it at #50 in population in America. We have no state income tax, and property taxes are low. Home prices, particularly compared with blue states, are affordable. We’re not burdened by unnecessary regulations; the business climate is outstanding; the deer and the antelope play, and the skies are not cloudy all day.
Yet, when the media regularly produce state rankings on all manner of things, like business climate, income, housing costs, and general niceness, it is as though Wyoming has ceased to exist—or, at the very least, Democrats can’t find it on the map.
Wyoming isn’t perfect, but it’s an awfully good place to live. So, in a way, the leftist media are doing us a favor, for which we are appropriately grateful.
At Powerline, John Hinderaker mentions yet another deceptive state ranking, this one by CNBC:
Businesses in top industries, from health care to renewable energy and manufacturing, understand the benefits of investing and growing in Minnesota.
Proud be ranked a top 5 state for business.https://t.co/xGCcdrmIV3— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) July 11, 2026A top five state for business? That is an utter joke. Minnesota taxes small businesses more heavily than any other state, and businesses are fleeing the state as fast as they can. That is why job creation in Minnesota is less than one-third the national average.
One-third of the national average? One would think that alone would disqualify Minnesota, but this is CNBC, where reality is manufactured to fit Democrat narratives. Even so, how can CNBC justify such obviously false calculations?
Continues Hinderaker:
CNBC also ranked the states as “best states to live in.” In CNBC’s view, the best states to live in are all blue, and the worst are all red–including the states to which people are flocking. John Phelan explains:
This ranking is completely bogus. As I noted last week, these rankings of “Top States for Business” are not correlated in any meaningful way with what businesses actually do, such as start themselves or hire people.
CNBC strips out one component of its “Top States for Business” ranking, “Quality of Life,” and bills it as a ranking of “best states to live in.” Let us remind ourselves of what this measures:
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As more companies mandate that their employees return to the office, they are also looking for locations that offer the best quality of life. We rate the states on livability factors like per capita crime rates, environmental quality, and healthcare. With studies showing that childcare is one of the main obstacles to employees entering or re-entering the workforce, we consider the availability and affordability of qualified facilities. We look at worker protections, including livable wage policies, paid leave, and rights to organize. We look at inclusiveness in state laws, including protections against discrimination of all kinds, as well as voting rights and secure election systems. And with surveys showing a sizeable percentage of younger workers would not live in a state that bans abortion, we factor reproductive rights in this category as well.
Ah. Adherence to Democrat policies and narratives equals a higher “quality of life,” then? Hinderaker sums up:
At this point, you really can only laugh. CNBC’s very “worst states to live in,” the bottom of the barrel in their rankings, are Texas and Tennessee–two states to which Americans are moving in droves. Which means that the rankings are utter BS.
Americans are fleeing states like Minnesota precisely because the quality of life is so low. In 2025, Vermont, Hawaii, West Virginia, New Mexico, and California lost population, while South Carolina, Idaho, North Carolina, Delaware(?), Tennessee, and Montana gained.
The biggest losers per capita were New York, Hawaii, Alaska, D.C., California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Illinois. States like California and New York, which are taxing wealthy job creators, are seeing their tax bases dwindle as the wealthy flee to free, red states.
Leftist media outlets are also suffering the effects of their own lies. CBS is being forced to move toward the honest center, and lazy, leftist journalists are squealing like stuck pigs. But their cries about losing journalistic integrity by being forced to be honest are no more credible than anything Tim Walz has to say.
Americans don’t listen to CNBC and the rest. They know what’s happening around them. They recognize real reality and vote with their feet. And U-Haul prospers.
Image created using AI.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, lifelong athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer, and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
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