John Fail Edwards and the Louisiana Legislature have worked really hard for this distinction. The website 24/7 Wall Street has named Louisiana the worst state for business in the entire country. Louisiana even beat out places like West Virginia and Mississippi for that title.

Here’s why 24/7 Wall Street awarded Louisiana that title.

50. Louisiana
> 1-yr. real GDP change: 1.0% (12th lowest)
> Avg. salary: $46,784 (22nd lowest)
> Adults w/ bachelor’s degree: 23.2% (4th lowest)
> Patents issued: 399 (14th lowest)
> Working-age population chg. 2010-2020: -3.2% (7th lowest)

No state is worse for business than Louisiana. Working-age Louisianans are less likely than the vast majority of state residents to have the qualifications many businesses look for in job applicants — just 23.2% of adults in the state have a bachelor’s degree, nearly the lowest percentage of all states. The presence of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics-related occupations usually reflects a business-friendly environment where companies can grow. In Louisiana, just 3.2% of occupations are STEM jobs, the third lowest share of all states. Unlike most states, Louisiana’s working-age population is also shrinking.

According to Louisiana’s department of economic development, 80% of the nation’s offshore oil rigs are in waters off the Louisiana coast. This suggests that while Louisiana is not especially business friendly, some types of businesses do better in the state than others.

In other words; Louisiana’s workers are too dumb, the state’s infrastructure is terrible for anything other than oil and gas, and the state overregulates. That’s the fault of Louisiana governors and legislatures going back decades.

But John Fail Edwards and the current Legislature made things worse. They have increased taxes by hundreds of millions and have failed to reform the state’s regulation and legal climate. They have actively made things worse.

Our universities have failed. The reason is because we have way too many four-year schools and they’re fighting over scarce resources. As a result, we have a bunch of mediocre schools instead of fewer truly great ones.

Wake up Louisana, our leaders have failed us.