Missing the point

CNN's got an interactive map up showing the projected job gain, by state, from Obama's economic stimulus plan. Here's a screen grab; you can roll over the actual map to see exact numbers in each state:
Which states look like they'll be helped the most? California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey -- all big states (in terms of population). Why is the plan biased towards big states? It's not. The map is colored based on the number of jobs created in state, but that's not very meaningful. Of course more jobs will be created in states with more people; coloring the states based on the new jobs per capita would be far more interesting.

Or maybe boring. Based on the data from the report, it looks like the states will see very similar job creation rates per capita. This graphs shows the number of jobs forecast to be created per thousand people, ranging from Mississippi, which will get about 11 jobs for every thousand people, to Wyoming, which is forecast to see about 15 new jobs for every 1,000 people. That's not a very large range at all.