Miserable Numbers
Today’s information is thanks to frequent guest, Creighton University economist Dr. Ernie Goss, the nation’s leading expert on the Midwest economy.
He recently posted numbers tied to a revised “Misery Index”…he noted that in the 1970s, economist Arthur Okun created the Misery Index to calculate how the average U.S. resident was suffering from an economic standpoint. Okun added the unemployment rate to the annual inflation rate in coming up with his numbers.
Ernie Goss has taken the idea and added each state’s current COVID-19 deaths per capita to the state’s most recent percentage of job loss since the pandemic began…and has come up with his “State Misery Index”.
Iowa ranks 30th in the country in overall misery…out of the 50 states and District of Columbia. New York state is the most miserable, while Utah is least miserable. I suppose the middle of the pack is not a bad place to be when looking at such things.
But here’s an interesting point…New York has the most deaths per capita and most job loss per capita, when those factors are combined…but has a vaccination rate of 67.1 percent. Iowa, by comparison, has far fewer deaths and far fewer lost jobs, with a vaccination rate of well below that, of 55.8 percent.
By the way, 9 of the top 10 most miserable states in this assessment have Democrat governors…and the 10th is Massachusetts, which is pretty liberal despite having a Republican governor.
