Religiosity Inversely Related to Upward Mobility

It seems that increasingly religiosity - certainly of the Christian fundamentalist variety - correlates with an embracing of ignorance and a rejection of science and modernity in general.  This does have real world consequences if one seeks to move upward economically both for individuals and states.  Not surprisingly, a new Pew study and analysis by Richard Florida find that the lowest economic upward mobility is in the Bible belt states (Note: the results for Georgia and Tennessee are likely skewed by Atlanta and Nashville) .  Likewise median incomes are higher in states where there is less extreme religious fervor.  The message: innovative individuals and companies are attracted to more tolerant and diverse states.  It's a message that Virginia ought to get as the Republican Party of Virginia works to drag the state backwards in time and to establish a quasi-theocracy run by The Family Foundation and its Christianist extremist allies.  Here are highlights from Richard Florida's article on the phenomenon:

Economic mobility - the quintessentially American idea (ideal, really) that any one, no matter how humble their origins, can become wealthy - has taken some terrible hits in the last few years. Writing in The New Republic, Timothy Noah notes that. . . .  “Mobility in the United States has fallen dramatically behind mobility in other comparably developed democracies," . . . we can now add Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and Pakistan to the list of societies that are more mobile than the United States.

[E]conomic mobility varies by geography within the United States as well. The map above shows that economic mobility is highest in the New England and the mid-atlantic states, especially New York, New Jersey, and Maryland. The states where residents experience the least economic mobility are all in the south, with Louisiana, Oklahoma, and South Carolina scoring at the bottom.

I enlisted my Martin Prosperity Institute colleague Charlotta Mellander to help me examine the possible effects on economic mobility at the state level of factors like economic output and income, poverty, inequality, knowledge/ high-tech economies versus working class structures, college grads, religion, openness to immigrants, artistic creative and gays, and political affiliation. 

Education is a key driver of economic development. Incomes and wages are higher in states with more highly educated people. So it stands to reason that mobility would favor states with more highly educated populations.  .  .  .  .  absolute national mobility to be positively associated with public education spending per student . . . .

Openness matters to mobility. Places that are more open to outsiders appear to have more mobility. Immigrants, for example, signal openness. And there are positive correlations between immigrants and national relative upward mobility (.57) and regional relative upward mobility. . . .

Despite President Obama’s embrace of same sex marriage, gays and lesbian remain among the most discriminated-against groups in society. Recent successful moves to ban same-sex marriage in a number of states reflect this. We found positive correlations between the Gay Index and national relative upward mobility (.37) and regional relative upward mobility (.21).

Click image to enlarge

Religion factors in as well. The percentage of adults who say they are "very religious” according to Gallup polls is negatively associated with national relative upward mobility (-.51)—a pattern that is graphically represented on the above scatter graph.

Much has been made of America’s sorting across political lines, into the proverbial “red” versus “blue” states. Economic mobility maps onto this divide. Mobility is higher in blue states and lower in red ones.  .  .  .  .  There is a positive correlation between national relative downward mobility (.46) and whether or not a state voted for McCain.

In its slavish obedience to The Family Foundation and its support for religious extremism, the Republican Party of Virginia may well be killing Virginia's future.  Ignorance and bigotry carry a high economic price.