Cost of Living Red vs Blue States

I mean well obviously. The blue states are doing better, the only reason Hawaii has high cost of living is because it is an island, and resources are limited. Why are the blue states doing so well? You can see by the cost of living, the thing is the people who live in North Dakota have lower cost of living, because nobody wants to move there, the people in New York have a higher cost of living, because it is something that is idolized.

So no, cost of living doesn't make a state better than an other state.

Yes, you have to look at migration patterns and not wealth numbers to see which states are performing well.

It's the only metric that shows whether the cost of living is artificially inflated to a noticeable degree by government policies in an area or not.