New Jersey's Legislature is the "smartest" in the nation. So why are we 49th out of 50 in the "Freedom Rankings"?

Maybe the first statement answers the second question. NJ.com :

It is the state that brought you The Sopranos and The Situation, Einstein, insufferable property taxes and Snookie.

And now, to this calvacade{sic!} of distinction, add one more.

We have the smartest Legislature.

The Legislature that has endured more than its share of indictments, jokes and scandal has also carved a niche as the one with the highest percentage of lawmakers with graduate degrees in the nation, according to a study of all 50 state Legislatures published by Chronicle of Higher Education.

Go figure.

Almost 60 percent of members of the state Senate and Assembly in New Jersey have an advanced degree, whether it’s a master’s, law degree or doctorate, the study says.

That’s a higher proportion than any other state, and far higher than the general population, where only 13 percent of the state’s residents have more than a bachelor’s degree.

So where has our enlightened New Jersey leadership taken us? Mercatus provides the answer:

Freedom Rankings
•#49 Overall
•#47 Economic

•#45 Personal

Change in overall freedom, 2007–2009:

–0.098

Change in overall freedom ranking since 2007:

–1

Net domestic migration, 2000–2009 (% of 2000 population):

–5.5%

New Jersey is a highly regulated state all around, near the bottom in both personal and economic freedom, and it deteriorated further in 2007–2008. ...Property taxes are among the highest in the country, and individual income taxes are also high. Gun control is extensive and worsening.  New Jersey has primary seatbelt enforcement, motorcycle- and bicycle-helmet laws, a cell-phone driving ban, an open-container law, sobriety checkpoints, and mandatory underinsured-motorist and personal-injury coverage for drivers. Fireworks are prohibited. Asset forfeiture is largely unreformed. Cigarette taxes are stratospheric, and smoking bans are as draconian as any in the country.... On economic regulation, labor laws are predictably costly (the minimum wage was allowed to lapse, but paid family leave was legislated), statewide land-use planning (“smart growth”) is in force, occupational licensing is severe, and there is extensive community rating for private health insurance.

So why would a state run by so many of the intellectual elite be a place where people are fleeing from, rather than running to (as opposed to, say, hidebound Texas)?  How could it be one of the very least "free" places in the United States of America, and be known derisively as "The People's State of New Jersey"?  Why would it be in such economic disarray? Why would there be so much political corruption?

Why not ask...Ayn Rand?

Socialism is not a movement of the people. It is a movement of the intellectuals, originated, led and controlled by the intellectuals, carried by them out of their stuffy ivory towers into those bloody fields of practice where they unite with their allies and executors: the thugs.

We don't want socialism. Our over-educated and otherwise socially useless leaders want to force it upon us for the gains it brings to them, both egotistically and monetarily.

Time to go back to original principles, and make state legislatures a community service (like in Texas, where they meet for six months every other year) as opposed to a lifetime profession. Otherwise, before we know it, our state flag will be the hammer and sickle...