Its ratings are more or less based on how many things a state does to protect the rich from the poor. States get high ALEC ratings for things such as low minimum wages, tax structures that are not just low but pointedly regressive — putting greater tax burdens on low-income households than higher-income ones — and laws that make labor unions powerless.
It is not a straight correlation. But there is a lot of overlap between the states ALEC says are the best and the states Oxfam says are the worst. Oxfam’s ratings are based on things that affect people who are trying to get by. For example, it specifically downgrades states that, like Utah, have so-called “right-to-work” laws. Laws that might be better described as right-to-a-starvation-wage-and-no-economic-power laws.
We are known as a cheap educated labor force. Can’t afford to live here but we finished HS and more than 50% continue to some kind of college. Kinda ridiculous.