We in Maryland certainly are trying our best NOT to brag about hauling 30 percent of the U.S. Olympic gold medal load and 21 percent of the total medal count, even though we’re only 1.84 percent of our nation’s population.
We’re not shy. It’s just that bragging isn’t necessary.
But Olympic competition isn’t the only worldwide game in play. There’s plenty of competition to go around, and our little state fights way above its weight class in a lot of arenas. Size does matter, but it’s not the biggest factor.
In fact, the only area in which we fall statistically short is in what our own government is doing to impede our performance.
Take a look at Maryland pro-rata as if we were competing in the Olympics.
For example, Best Olympics Statistics calculated what a nation’s Olympic medal take would be proportionate to population. The United States should get 42. We were up to 81 entering the final weekend. China should get 182.
So how does Maryland rank nationally in other areas, relative to our population size as the 19th largest state? Pretty good. For one thing, we’re officially second in median household income and 49th in persons below the poverty level.
Maryland ranks No. 1 in percentage of professional and technical workers and first among states in the total number of doctoral scientists and engineers as a percentage of total employment.
We’re second in biotech companies per capita. And we’re second in concentration of doctoral scientists and engineers, including first in health sciences and second in biological and agricultural sciences. We’re second among states in percentage of population 25 or older who hold a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Maryland is tops in women-owned businesses and percentage of black-owned firms. The list goes on and on.
All this is great. But where do we lag?
According to the Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index, Maryland ranks 24th overall, but seventh in the crucial corporate income tax and sales tax categories.
Our overall state-local tax burden is now the fourth highest in the nation, up from eighth place 30 years ago, and our overall rate is 11 percent higher than the national average.
It’s easy to make statistics prove anything, but it’s clear one thing really encumbering Maryland competing in the world arena is our own state government’s spending and taxes.
This is only going to get worse, as upcoming tax revenue forecasts show Gov. Martin O’Malley’s alleged “emergency” tax increases last year and failure to adequately cut expenses merely set us up for a catastrophe.
The single most important thing we can do to get in shape for economic competition is cut government spending and lower taxes.
WEB EXTRA
Click on these links and have some fund with the numbers.
http://best.olympicstats.ever.com/?skip_login=1
http://thirstywebsites.com/OlympicStats.pdf
Tax Foundation
http://taxfoundation.org/
Choose Maryland rankings
http://www.choosemaryland.org/Resources/pdffiles/marylandrankingsfiles/MarylandRankings.pdf
http://choosemaryland.com/businessinmd/Biosciences/bio.html
Statistical abstracts
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/rankings.html
U.S. Department of Justice
http://bjsdata.ojp.usdoj.gov/dataonline/Search/EandE/index.cfm
Geocities Top 10 Worst list
http://www.geocities.com/grantorino.geo/topten2001.htm
