Five man-made reasons to be thankful for living in New Hampshire

Thanksgiving is a time to count your blessings, and Granite Staters have a cornucopia of them. 

Aside from the obvious charms of the state’s natural beauty, its variety of coastline, lakes, hills and mountains, its plentiful ice cream shops and its abundant maple syrup, humans have created additional benefits of living here.

Below are five man-made reasons to be thankful for calling the “live free or die” state home.

1. Freedom. New Hampshire ranks No. 1 in overall freedom in the Cato Institute’s Freedom of the 50 States report, last year scoring the highest freedom ranking in the history of the report. It ranks No. 1 in economic freedom in all of North America, topping U.S. and Mexican state and every Canadian province. Though New Hampshire has a high regulatory burden compared with other states, its low taxes and generally restrained government leave Granite Staters freer than any other people in North America. 

2. Low taxes. Though New Hampshire ranks just 16th in total state and local tax burden according to the Tax Foundation, it is has by far the lowest burden in the Northeast. (Alaska, Wyoming and Tennessee tax their residents the least.) No other New England state is in the top half. Rhode Island ranks 36th, Massachusetts 37th, Maine 41st, Vermont 47th and Connecticut 49th. To find a state with a lower total tax burden, you’d have to drive south all the way to Tennessee or west all the way to Michigan. We can do better, but for our region we pay a lot less in taxes than anyone else.

3. Government ROI. New Hampshire’s tax structure (no sales tax, no income tax as of next year, keeping many decisions at the local level) forces government to be more frugal. New Hampshire consistently ranks No. 1 in Return on Investment (ROI) for taxpayer spending. That is, we get very high quality services at a relatively low cost. We’re sort of the anti-California in that respect. A DOGE-like review of state spending surely could find some additional efficiencies. But relative to residents of other states, Granite Staters get more for their government dollar.

4. Earnings. For a remote, rural, cold-weather state tucked up in the Eastern tip of the country, New Hampshire posts impressive personal financial numbers. Whether measured by per-capita or median household income, Granite Staters earn significantly more than our neighbors in Maine and Vermont. The median household income here is $13,500 (16%) higher than in Vermont and $23,000 (30%) higher than in Maine. Massachusetts’ median household income is only $7,700 (8%) higher than ours. New Hampshire also boasts the nation’s lowest poverty rate and the lowest percentage of families living in poverty. Granite Staters also have the lowest median debt in the country, according to Census data. We’re frugal and hard working in both our public and personal lives. “Household income and wealth are essential components of individual well-being,” as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development puts it. “The ability to command resources allows people to satisfy basic needs and pursue many other goals that they deem important to their lives.” Granite Staters earn a lot relative to most other states, and we’ve made sure that our government takes very little of it.

5. Overall well-being. A lot of people believe that high taxes and aggressive government interventions are necessary to creating a high quality of life. New Hampshire proves that wrong. Our low-tax, limited-government state measures high not just on rankings of overall quality of life and places to live, but also in areas such as places to raise a family, child well being, health of women and children, safety and places to find a job. Government does provide basic services and infrastructure, but the culture and habits of the people matter more. Without massive interventions and redistributions, Granite Staters have created wonderful communities.

Capt. John Smith, who named New England, imagined the human promise of the region this way in his 1616 book “A Description of New England:”

“So freely hath God & his Maiesty bestowed those blessings on the ~ that will attempt to obtain them, as here every man may be master and owner of his own labour and land; or the greatest part in a small time. If he have nothing but his hands, he may set up this trade; and by industry quickly grow rich; spending but half that time well, which in England we abuse in idleness, worse or as ill.”

Of all the New England states, New Hampshire most embodies that hopeful vision of a free land where individuals can shape their own lives largely unconstrained by the controlling hands of powerful elites.

We’re not all the way there. But we’re closer than anywhere else in North America. And for that we all should be grateful.