Steve Bailey has a piece on the decline of Massachusetts:
Name the last exciting company to come out of Massachusetts. None of the hot, new companies like Google and eBay and Yahoo were invented here. Biotech companies like Genzyme and Biogen Idec are the hope of the future, but together they employ just 5,000 people in Massachusetts. If life sciences is the future, it is a future we can lose as well as win. Meanwhile, Massachusetts' home-grown base like Fleet, John Hancock, Gillette, and Reebok are getting swallowed up by more successful players. We've become a franchise town like everywhere -- exactly the point.
but the significant fact is:
Last year we had the distinction of being the only state to lose population, a scary omen.
It doesn't make it any easier when New Hampshire is right next door with no sales tax or state income tax.
