The state of North Carolina ranked No. 14 in economic freedom in 2018, a development the Carolina Journal argued is a clear and present indicator for the need for the state to tax less and deregulate more in order to remain viable.
For the year, the state lost some 338,000 private-sector jobs, or 9.1 percent of the overall total, while adding 413,000 for a net gain of around 75,000 jobs.
“Because net changes in economic conditions get more political and media attention, we can sometimes forget just how much churn is a feature of any modern economy,” the Carolina Journal said in a recent opinion article. “New technologies replace old ones. New ideas do, too. Consumer preferences change. Producers must adjust to that, or suffer the consequences.”
In the eyes of many, working to protect threatened businesses from market forces ultimately does everyone a disservice.
“Churn is a sign of vitality,” the Journal said in the article. "Indeed, North Carolina would benefit from more of it. While 2018 was a good economic year for our state, it wasn’t a great one, comparatively speaking. Growth in real gross domestic product was a bit below the national and regional averages.”
Thus far, things have picked up a bit in 2019, though some have said they think things would be even better if more entrepreneurs were added to the mix.
Based on the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s annual compilation of such statistics, North Carolina scored a .44 on the Early-Stage Entrepreneurship Index, higher than the average but much lower than in areas of regional competitors such as Florida (2.27) and Georgia (1.47).
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