Want To Improve Your Lot In Life? Move To This State

The ability to achieve great things, regardless of where you start, is a key part of the American Dream. America has its share of rags-to-riches stories but making it to the very top is not the only measure of success. What folks really want is to know that if they work hard and play by the rules, they will be able to provide a good life for themselves and their families. A new report from the Archbridge Institute ranks the states based on how well they foster social mobility, or the opportunity for people to better themselves and those around them. Utah is ranked first, while Louisiana is last.

Any parent will tell you they want their children to have more opportunities than they did. But how do we create those opportunities? Parents do their part by instilling virtues in their children, things like prudence, perseverance, kindness, courage, and honesty. People who hone these virtues are enjoyable to be around and can build relationships that lead to opportunities.

A person’s upbringing is not the only thing that matters, though. There are external factors at play, things outside one’s immediate control that can influence the types of opportunities available. A place with a strong economy, high-quality schools, safe neighborhoods, respect for the rule of law, and neighbors who support one another will foster more social mobility than a place without these features.

The new Archbridge social mobility report by Justin Callais, Vincent Geloso, and Gonzalo Schwarz measures a variety of factors across four pillars—entrepreneurship and growth; institutions and rule of law; education and skills development; and social capital—for each of the fifty states. Some of the measures used to determine a state’s rank are occupational licensing restrictions, taxes, firm growth, perceptions of government corruption, university quality, share of households with single parents, and the percentage of people who spent time with neighbors in the last month. The authors then compare these measures across states to determine which ones create the conditions most conducive to social mobility.

Utah is ranked number one, followed by Vermont, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. Louisiana is ranked last, and it is joined by Mississippi, Alabama, New York, and Arkansas in the bottom five.

Utah ranks 3^rd in the entrepreneurship and growth pillar, 19^th in institutions and rule of law, 12^th in education and skills development, and 3^rd in social capital. It has one of the country’s strongest economies (ranked 2^nd in business dynamism), which generates numerous job opportunities and strong wage growth. Utah also has a lot of social capital: Its residents regularly interact with their neighbors, volunteer in their communities, and give to charities. People with a deep network of family and friends are more likely to get the help and encouragement they need to be the best version of themselves, and Utah’s culture enables people to build these networks.

That said, Utah is below average on education quality and freedom (35^th) and predatory state action (27^th). A few variables that comprise the education quality and freedom score are National Assessment of Education Programs (NAEP) test scores, percentage of students eligible for school choice programs, and community college graduation rates. Utah can improve its overall social mobility score by improving these things.

According to the report, predatory state action measures the ways states hinder economic opportunity through the legal system. It is measured by how much revenue governments collect through fines and fees, how states use civil asset forfeiture laws, and the perception of government corruption in a state. Civil asset forfeiture laws allow governments to seize property that may have been used in a crime, even if no person has been convicted. Utah has improved its law over the years, but there are additional reforms lawmakers should implement to further protect their constituents from abuse.

At the other end of the ranking is Louisiana. The Pelican State ranks 50^th in institutions and rule of law and 50^th in education and skills development. It ranks higher in social capital (43^rd) and entrepreneurship and growth (30^th) but is still in the bottom half in both. Louisiana is known for its government corruption, so its last place ranking in the institutions and rule of law pillar is not a surprise. The only sub-category it ranks in the top 25 in is regulation (23^rd), and it ranks in the bottom 10 in six of the nine sub-categories. According to this ranking, people should avoid Louisiana if they want to live somewhere that will help them reach their potential.

Moving to opportunity has been a feature of American life since the country’s founding. After Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, tens of thousands of people migrated to what is now the Midwest to set up new towns and establish new states. The California gold rush in the mid-19^th century attracted hundreds of thousands of people eager to improve their lives. Roughly 40 years later, 50,000 people participated in the Oklahoma land rush. A few decades after that, millions of Black people moved from the Southern United States to cities in the North to secure better jobs and escape the South’s Jim Crow laws.

Moving to opportunity is not easy. It is hard to leave family and friends behind, and getting established in a new neighborhood is challenging. Moving is especially difficult now due to the high cost of housing. In many high-opportunity cities, housing is too expensive for the typical family. Take Salt Lake City in Utah. The median home price in the city is $575,000, while median household income in the country is $83,730. This equates to a home-to-income ratio of 6.9, far above a ratio of four that signals a place is affordable.

The high housing prices in Salt Lake City make it difficult, if not impossible, for many families to move there to take advantage of the opportunities in Utah. Policymakers who want to foster social mobility must remember that a key piece of doing so is ensuring people have access to places with the most opportunities. This requires reforming the regulations that block new housing and inflate housing prices.

A prosperous country requires a high degree of social mobility. People who are unable to achieve a level of success commensurate with their ability and work ethic will become cynical and bitter, and rightly so. A country that creates too many of these people will crumble. Over the last 250 years, hundreds of millions of people have built fulfilling lives for themselves and their families in America, regardless of where they started. Maintaining this critical piece of the American Dream must be a top priority.