If you are a CNBC viewer and have decided to check in on where might be best to move while looking to escape California, your eye might be drawn to this story in which the business-oriented channel ranked the places you should best avoid moving.
You'd expect tax rates, regulation, health care availability, and weather to rank pretty high on the list of attributes. You might take a look at where people are moving as they escape from Blue states. But it's hard to believe that getting top billing would be how trans-friendly the state is, or whether abortion-on-demand was a top government priority.
Yes, the worst places to live are where everyone is moving and the best places to live are actually the left-wing socialist states everyone is moving out of or something. pic.twitter.com/vxzUyJs5A4
— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) July 12, 2026
You would be wrong. CNBC wants you to know that abortion and "civil rights," which actually is a euphemism for trans rights, are the most important factors they cite when deciding which states are great to live in and which are not. High minimum wages and union-friendly laws make the cut for top rankings as well.
This explains why Red states fill the top 10 ranks of worst states to live in, with Tennessee, to which people have flocked, labeled the worst state in the country.
No kidding. Here's what you are greeted with when you reach the #1 worst state in its rankings:
Nuclear family month. Horrors. Next you will tell me that people in Tennessee are having babies!
Nearly every ranking, good or bad, on CNBC's list begins with some version of abortion or LGBTQIA+ issues as the top things to consider for where to live.
Here's the full description of Georgia, explaining why it, too, is a hellhole. You'll never guess why it sucks eggs.
Georgia offers few protections for LGBTQ+ people, making it one of America’s least inclusive states.
“Georgia still remains a state where there is no place for hate, and I can assure all Georgians of that today,” Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said in April, when he signed a bill aimed at protecting religious freedom.
But critics feared the law could be used to permit other types of discrimination, especially because Georgia is another of the five states with no public accommodation law protecting non-disabled people.
The Peach State offers minimal worker protections, particularly when it comes to the right to organize.
2026 Quality of Life score: 89 out of 290 points (Top States grade: F)
Strength: Childcare
Weaknesses: Inclusiveness, Health, Worker Protections
Seriously, who did they create this list for? Transgender "men" planning to get pregnant to abort a baby before they get their state-funded gender-transition surgery? They must be in a union as well, which is what they mean by "worker protections."
Oklahoma, my late mother's home state? It's not high on my list of places to move (it's flat and has too many tornadoes for my taste), but I am not certain that I would have consulted Oxfam America's rankings to determine where I should live.
Oklahoma imposes one of America’s strictest bans on abortion, even though studies, including one by the National Bureau of Economic Research last year, found abortion bans increase net migration outflows, particularly among single adults. The Sooner State ranked 40th for worker protections last year, according to Oxfam America, which said that the state’s $7.25 minimum wage covers only about 19% of the cost of living for a family of four, and noted that state law prohibits municipalities from setting their minimum wages any higher. A ballot measure last month to have voters approve a minimum wage increase failed.
If there is one thing I can guarantee you, the average CNBC viewer is not making minimum wage, and if they consider abortion the #1 issue in choosing where to live, they aren't checking in on CNBC to discover where abortion until birth is available.
It's absurd, of course, but par for the course when it comes to anything in the Pravda Media. They shape the narrative on "Quality of Life" by choosing variables that matter most to lefties, and then toss out a ranking as if it should persuade people based on issues that matter to the average person.
These lists won't change people's minds about much, except for this: lefties will use the "ranking" as propaganda. Democrats in Tennessee will be able to say that if they get in power, the state will rise up the ranks, and Blue-state governors will tout the rankings as proof that they are doing a great job.
Minnesota continues to climb in the ranks among top states for business, a testament to our strategic investments like paid leave.
— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) July 13, 2026
With policies that attract workers and strengthen families, we're bolstering the economy and creating an environment for businesses to thrive.
Minnesota, because we are a lefty state, ranks highly, and yet people aren't flocking to move here. Businesses aren't falling all over themselves to come here. Yet because CNBC publishes this tripe, Tim Walz gets to brag about it.
Go figure.
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