INTERACTIVE MAP and you will see "What $100 Will Buy In Your State"

"What Will $100 Buy in YOUR State?

Ever thought about how far a $100 bill will go in Minnesota? In Wisconsin? Iowa? Check out this map and story from TaxFoundation.org on what your $100 bill will buy you.
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here's a new map that shows how much $100 is really worth in each state.

The Tax Foundation used federal data on regional price variations including taxes and cost of living to calculate just how far a Ben Franklin goes and Mississippi tops the list with a Benjamin being worth about $116 in the state.

Mississippi was followed by Arkansas ($114.16), Missouri ($113.51), Alabama (113.51) and South Dakota ($113.38).

The District of Columbia came in last with $100 really being worth $84.60.... it was followed by Hawaii ($85.32), New York ($86.66), New Jersey ($87.64), and California ($88.57)."

"How far can you stretch a buck? It totally depends on where you live.

The map below, created by nonprofit research organization Tax Foundation using data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, shows the real value of $100 adjusted to reflect average price levels in each state. In Mississippi, for instance, $100 would be enough to buy what would cost $115.74 in a place where prices are closer to the national average. In a pricey state like New York, $100 is only worth about $86.66.

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The BEA originally calculated these values based on what are called "regional price parities," which measure differences in prices for goods and services between regions. The data also reflects the BEA's Personal Consumption Expenditure price index, which tracks changes in average national prices over time.

The wide range between states is in part due to the number of large cities in each state.

"As people gather into densely-packed cities, the price of real estate in those cities rises as people and businesses compete for ownership of scarce land," Alan M. Cole, an economist at the Tax Foundation, wrote in an email to The Huffington Post.

States on the Gulf Coast or the Mississippi River tend to be cheaper places to live because it's easy to ship goods there, Cole said. States that are more isolated from transportation networks, like Alaska and Hawaii, have to pay more to import goods, so things generally cost more.

Cole argues that the U.S. often overlooks these regional differences in purchasing power when designing tax and welfare policy.

"This data highlights the problems of basing federal policy on nominal income data alone," Cole said. "Income data without context is a poor measure of people's well-being."





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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_5691571.html