47 thoughts on “Monday Trivia #131”

  4. This one has me stumped. Just about any demographic thing I can think of would have Hawaii, Utah, or Nevada at one extreme or the other. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a list of anything that puts Utah at #22. It’s not population density, or congressional representation per person (WY made me think of that). There are some energy producers near the beginning, but then North Dakota should be right there with them. It doesn’t even match last night’s Miss America rankings (and how cruel would it be to publish the bottom 10%, anyway?).Report

  11. Tuesday Hint: It’s a bit surprising that there isn’t a stronger political correlation on the list, because it’s mostly or entirely a matter of state government policy.Report

    2. OK, so I thought speed limits, and Wyoming is along the top at 75 mph, but Utah has some 80 mph roads, and Texas goes up to 85 mph. Whatever you do, don’t mess with a Texan going 85 mph! Montana used to have no speed limit other than “reasonable and proper”, but the courts held that the law was too vague, so now they’re suffering under a 75 mph maximum.Report

      2. Some background on Wyoming: Wyoming is, surprisingly, one of the wealthiest states in the country in terms of per-capita GDP. My guess is that this is due to a fair bit of natural resource wealth divided by a very small population. America’s Norway, essentially.

        Actually, I guess Alaska is America’s Norway. Same deal economically, but they also have the weather for it.Report

      3. Up until recently, Wyoming let out-of-staters take their distance ed courses for $100/hr, which was roughly half the cost of the next cheapest option. Unfortunately, they decided to start charging out-of-staters more. North Dakota doesn’t, but is still over twice as much.Report

      6. Wyoming is, surprisingly, one of the wealthiest states in the country in terms of per-capita GDP.

        They fall significantly when you use median household income instead, which I’ve always thought was a more useful measure — . Nevertheless, Wyoming has tucked away a lot of severance tax revenue (largely paid by people in other states) to support higher ed.

        Colorado’s spending on higher ed demonstrates that Grover Norquist’s “starve the beast” strategy can work at a state level where there are balanced budget requirements. The Taxpayer Bill of Rights amendment (TABOR) added to the Colorado state constitution in 1992 was designed to permanently ratchet down state spending every time there was a recession. The ratchet was removed by voters in 2005 (then-governor Bill Owens probably cost himself a national role for the Republicans by campaigning for the 2005 change). Absent those “Ref C” changes, the 2007-09 recession would probably have taken Colorado out of the higher education business entirely. At one point during the recession, the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee required every state post-secondary school to submit their plan for dealing with the situation of zero state funding.Report

      7. They fall significantly when you use median household income instead, which I’ve always thought was a more useful measure

        Which one is more useful depends on how you intend to use it. GDP is a better measure of money available for the state to tax, I would think.Report

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