You mean there's 37 states worse than ours?

Introducing my first-ever ranking of economic fairness among the 50 states and D.C.

I've developed a formula that factors in various public policies to produce this ranking. To make a long story short, Oregon is the best state for economic freedom and justice; Texas is the worst.

This ranking may yield some surprises, but overall, it makes some sense. The Northeast and Appalachia tend to perform well, while the South tends to gravitate towards the bottom:

1. Oregon
2. District of Columbia
3. New Mexico
4. Delaware; Montana (tie)
6. New York
7. Missouri
8. Massachusetts
9. Wisconsin
10. Ohio
11. Washington
12. Kentucky; Maryland; West Virginia (tie)
15. New Jersey
16. Illinois
17. Colorado
18. New Hampshire
19. Michigan
20. Vermont
21. Connecticut
22. Hawaii
23. Pennsylvania
24. California
25. Maine
26. Rhode Island
27. Minnesota
28. Alaska
29. Indiana
30. Virginia
31. North Carolina; Oklahoma (tie)
33. Kansas
34. Arkansas; Iowa (tie)
36. Wyoming
37. Alabama; Georgia; Louisiana (tie)
40. North Dakota
41. Nebraska
42. Arizona
43. Tennessee
44. Idaho; South Carolina (tie)
46. Mississippi
47. Utah
48. South Dakota
49. Nevada
50. Florida
51. Texas

Now you know why Republicans in West Virginia are trying to pass a law to replace the state's entire legal code with that of Virginia. It's because Virginia is the more unfair of the two.

I'm not going to reveal the exact formula I used for this ranking, because this is part of my livelihood.

With unemployment soaring in Southern states that have some of the worst rankings on this list, this also shows that unfair economic practices don't exactly bring in jobs like their apologists claim.