(The Center Square) – Alaska is one of the most federally dependent states in the nation, according to a report.
Personal finance website WalletHub compared states based on five dimensions to determine the most independent. Alaska ranked 47th based on its scores for consumer finances, government dependency, the job market, international trade, and dependency on personal vices.
Alaska is also the most federally dependent on jobs supported by exported goods, according to the report.
Additionally, the report found Alaska was among the states with the highest percentage of adult drug users.
The other most dependent states in the bottom five were West Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Utah, Colorado, Florida, Washington, and Virginia were the most independent states.
Experts vary on what actions, if any, states should take to influence their level of dependency, particularly on international trade.
“States shouldn’t make their economies do anything,” said Brian Strow, a professor of economics at Palm Beach Atlantic University. “Economies don’t need governments to direct them. That role is best left to Adam Smith’s ‘Invisible Hand.’ If workers, firms, and consumers prosper by trading with others, be they in state, out of state, or in a foreign country, the best thing a state can do is to let individuals increase their own prosperity and not artificially restrict voluntary trade.”
The report weighed financial dependency using a variety of indicators, including median credit score, the share of adults with rainy-day and emergency funds, adults saving for children’s college education, median debt per income, poverty rate, the percentage of millennials living with their parents, the share of seriously underwater mortgages, homeownership rate and foreclosure rate.
Indicators measuring government dependency included federal dependence, the share of households receiving public assistance and SNAP/food stamps, among others.
Job market dependency factors included job growth rate, unemployment rate, underemployment rate, industry variety, long-term unemployment rate, and job creation.
The report measured each state’s share of jobs supported by exported goods, the percentage of private-industry employment at foreign-owned firms, and the share of state GDP generated by exports to other countries to determine dependency on international trade.
Vice dependency looked at the prevalence of eleven personal vices, including drugs, opioid use, binge drinking, smoking, gambling, average time spent on adult entertainment sites, median daily time watching TV, and the number of smart device users.
