As inflation has triggered a downshift in most private economies, we all know some components of the nation are more durable hit than others. In lots of circumstances the areas hardest hit are these the place economies have been already struggling, as right here in West Virginia. Private finance web site WalletHub took a have a look at “2022’s Finest and Worst State Economies,” and in case you are a Mountain State resident, you in all probability know what’s coming subsequent.
We have been lifeless final.
We’re forty ninth for financial exercise, forty second for financial well being and 51st for innovation potential. Washington state was ranked 1st within the examine, for which WalletHub mentioned it was figuring out “which states are pulling essentially the most weight even throughout this time of financial problem.”
It’s an fascinating phrase. West Virginia isn’t pulling its personal weight in the case of nationwide financial progress. We stay in a area the place implying a person will not be doing his or her share is taken into account an insult – however typically the sort that spurs an individual to do higher.
Within the eyes of researchers equivalent to these at WalletHub, nonetheless, our state doesn’t have rather a lot to work with for fueling enchancment. We’re forty ninth for fewest impartial inventor patents per 1,000 working age inhabitants; fiftieth for proportion of jobs in high-tech industries; 51st for median annual family earnings; fiftieth for startup exercise. In different phrases, we’re permitting ourselves to be left behind.
It’s as much as us to alter mindsets sufficient to reverse that pattern – and whereas elected officers bear a lot of that accountability, people must shift their pondering, too. Constructive change is feasible if we cease trying backward and pondering of our economic system as firmly rooted within the industries and values of 100 years in the past.
We will do it. We DO have potential right here — however we should cease being so very afraid to embrace it.