Gov. Cox: Utah is no longer a ‘spunky upstart'
Utah has arrived. It's no longer the 'spunky upstart' trying to make its way onto the stage, Gov. Spencer Cox said in remarks to a room full of the state's political and business leaders.
After Utah was named the best state in the nation for the third year in a row by U.S. News and World Report, Cox is taking a victory lap of sorts, celebrating the strong human capital he sees as the basis for the state's success.
Cox spoke about Utah's success on Thursday at the Crossroads of the World International Trade Summit, a two-day, invitation-only event sponsored by Zions Bank and World Trade Center Utah that invited 'world leaders and top business minds to discuss the uncertainties, trends, and opportunities surrounding international business.'
Utah does well in rankings, Cox said, because the state's residents don't engage in zero-sum thinking. Instead, the state's residents embrace an abundance mentality, he said.
Cox started his remarks by praising the book 'Superabundance,' written by Utah Tech University professor Gale Pooley. The book counters the idea popularized by Paul Ehrlich in the 1960s that the world's growing population would be a strain on resources, leading to widespread famine and human suffering.
'The thing is that the greatest resource we have are our people, human beings,' Cox said. 'You see all of those minerals, all of those commodities, all of those important things are just atoms. They're basically worthless. They don't mean anything until you put human knowledge and ingenuity behind them.'
Natalie Gochnour, director of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah, who spoke at the summit earlier on Thursday, shared some of the numbers behind the state's numerous awards.
Utah's workforce is the third most 'well-trained, well-educated' in the country,' Gochnour said.
The state also has the lowest poverty rate in the country, and, when adjusted for cost of living, Utah also has the highest median household income in the country.
A study released by the institute Thursday also showed Utah is punching above its weight in international trade.
The state had $18.2 billion in merchandise exports and $21.9 billion in imports in 2024. The study said international trade supports over 70,000 jobs in the state.
Utah's largest trading partners are the United Kingdom, Canada, China and Mexico.
Amid her discussion of the state's international exports, Gochnour brought up the tariffs recently levied by the Trump administration on most of the country's trading partners.
She said she wasn't going to 'make a judgement' about the policy decision, and said there could be some mid- or long-term benefits to the administration's economic policies, but said economists are mostly united in their belief that tariffs will hurt trade and the economy.
Tariffs could make housing more expensive at a time when the state is already struggling, she said, and a recent drop in consumer confidence is also worrying.
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