Tag: Southern States

Poverty: Mississippi’s Shame

I write about the conditions in my state, Mississippi……we are always at the top of the “worse” lists and the bottom of the “best” list…..healthcare…bottom, wages…..bottom, poverty….top…etc.

Regardless of what most state politicians want the world to believe there is NOTHING good going on in Mississippi for the people……

Take a trip through the Northwest part of the state along the Mississippi River…..you will see poverty like you have NEVER seen both….basically, if you did not know where you were you would swear it was a third world nation.

There are homes in the “Delta” that still do not have indoor plumbing….yes, I know…it is the 21st century……

These photos of today’s Mississippi Delta…….

 

I bring all this up because we were promised back in the early days of NAFTA that scenes like this would become a thing of the past written about only in history books…….

Globalization has been one of the worse ideas to fight poverty, especially in the South…….if anything it has made poverty even more brutal than before….

Source: Brutal Poverty in the U.S. South Is Caused by Globalization — and Statistics Don’t Make it Better | Alternet

Now we have another promise of less poverty with the new trade agreement….TPP….

You can write about poverty and its effects….but if you have never looked it in the face….then your opinions are worthless as the promises of better days.

 

Mississippi Is Number 1!

A change of pace today…….

Everybody should be proud of their state when it reaches the top of the lists that tell the tale of what it is like to live in that state…….unfortunately Mississippi is NOT one of those states.

It is my state and I have been writing about the damage that conserv politics has done to the state…..even under a Democratic governor and legislature…….for many long decades the voters of Mississippi have bought into the conserv talking point of small government and lower taxes and the world will be a brighter place…….

After decades of these failed policies Mississippi is number 1 in diabetes, obesity, poverty, etc…..and number 50 in things like education, health care, etc……and the voters keep believing that these lower taxes and small government will change things……..the only change it has brought about is the Mississippi is at the top of another list…….dependent on the federal government for its existence……..

1. Mississippi

  • Return on Taxpayer Investment: $3.07
  • Funding as Percentage of Revenue: 45.8 percent
  • Federal Employees Per Capita: 8.67

Along with its neighbors Louisiana and Alabama, Mississippi is heavily assisted with federal dollars. So much so, that WalletHub’s calculations place them at the top of the list for the most dependent on Washington for subsistence. Mississippi suffers from some serious socio-economic issues, including having the highest poverty rate and one of the lowest income rates in the country.

These are issues that have plagued the state for a long time, and there doesn’t appear to be any hope for change in the near future. There are a few things that capture federal funding that add to the state’s total, including several military bases, but the major issue appears to be the lack of jobs and opportunity suffered by the state’s citizens.

This is what I am always going on about…..Mississippi depends heavily on the Fed government for ots existence and yet the voters want to destroy the “Big Government” in DC…….at what point do these morons realize they would be cutting off their nose in spite of their face?

Is the South Dragging the Rest of the Nation Down? | Alternet

First let me answer the question……unequivocally………..YES!

The South is a hot bed of conservative politics….well that is not accurate…..it is hot bed of Tea Party politics……and for decades I have wondered just what they were doing…they seem to vote to screw themselves and then continue to screw themselves…..I have asked where is the rationale?

I read this piece and thought that it would explain it situation a bit………

 

Is the South Dragging the Rest of the Nation Down? | Alternet.

Southern Blacks Are Biggest Victims Of GOP’s Obamacare Obstructionism

I live in the Deep South….so today I would like to post on the region and give those that do not know much about it a little education……

For decades the people of Mississippi, my state, as well as most of the South, been voting conservative…..and for decades those votes have kept the people from having a descent life and services……the sad part is…the voter still does not equate a sucky life with their vote……..

 

Southern Blacks Are Biggest Victims Of GOP’s Obamacare Obstructionism.

The 10 best and worst places in America to educate your child – Salon.com

I am constantly pointing out just how bad things are in my state of Mississippi…..and now there is one more thing that the politicians in the state can be proud of….(that is called sarcasm)……once again we, Mississippians,  find ourselves at the bottom of another national list….(and the peasants danced).

 

The 10 best and worst places in America to educate your child – Salon.com.

Just Like A Novel

As most of my readers know I live in Mississippi….on the Coast which is a bit more progressive than the rest of the most conservative state in the country……I seldom write about the political life of the state because it is just too predictable to be interesting……but recently it became a nationwide story……..I am talking about the runn0off election for us Senator between the incumbent Cochran and the Tea Party brainless McDaniel…..

In case you missed it….it was about as nasty as two rednecks can get…….accusations, blackmail, break-ins, and voter fraud (well this one is just McDaniel whining over a lost to Cochran)….but there has been a development that would be perfect for a novel…….

Mark Mayfield, a Tea Party official and member of the board of directors for the Central Mississippi Tea Party, was found dead in an apparent suicide Friday morning, TPM reports.

Mayfield was arrested in May and charged with conspiracy after he allegedly directed a political blogger to break into a nursing home in order to photograph Cochran’s ailing wife. The photo was apparently planned to be used in an anti-Cochran video.

Mayfield’s case was scheduled to be held before a grand jury in July.

– – Meghan DeMaria

Just like a true pundit I first thought of a conspiracy…..he was killed to make sure he did not testify about who ordered the break-in at the hospital where Cochran’s wife is being treated…….I find it hard to believe that this guy was so upset with a McDaniel loss that he had of oft himself……..his day in court he would have been asked pertinent questions and he would have had to place his hand on a Bible and “to tell the truth nothing but the truth so help you god”.  Mississippi is also the most religious state in the country and maybe Mayfield could not lie after his ‘swearing in”…….

Or could another operative have made sure that this person would keep his mouth shut…..shame this will not start a trend….we could be so much better off…..

You guys reading the news…..whatcha you think?

What Of The New South?

I have always detested the political term, the “New South”….it infers that things are changing…..I live in the deep South….nothing is changing, sports fans….we can say it all you want but any change is NOT happening…….For a long time I have been trying to explain the South…..but to this day I have been unsuccessful….I have rambled on and on about the problems in my state, Mississippi, but it does not explain evrything that is happening in the “New South”.

But thanks to Stephen Rosenfeld of AlterNet I can pass on his observations….which in my opinion are accurate………

1. Southern states have the most poor people.

Looking through the widest lense, one sees that America’s sunbelt contains the poorest states. This is not just because it costs less to live in a warmer climate. The Department of Agriculture, which measures poverty, found that every red state in a 2,500-mile stretch from Arizona to South Carolina along the southern tier had the highest poverty rates in the U.S. in 2011, between 17.9 and 22.8 percent.

From west to east, that poverty belt includes Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina. As many as one in four Southern children live in poverty, the Children’s Defense Fund reported earlier this year, compared to the national average of one in five.

As you would expect, the vast majority of people falling under the poverty line in the poorest states do not have white faces—although there are poor whites. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation compiles state poverty rates by race. In the poorest states, whites account for 15 percent to 20 percent of the poor.

2. Deep South states have no minimum wage.

People work hard, but that doesn’t mean they’re well paid—Southern business elites and politicians like it that way. Five states have no state minumum wage, meaning that the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour and $2.13 for tipped workers is the standard. While other states have raised these floors, that’s not so for Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and South Carolina. These states also are hostile to organized labor, like the entire South. The result is the 10 states with the lowest average household incomes are mostly southern. Starting at rock bottom, they are Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky, New Mexico, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina and Oklahoma.

3. Deep South has lowest economic mobility.

Politicans love to talk about the American Dream, which of course, is that hard work will result in a steady climb up the economic ladder. That promise is least likely across the South, according to the Equality of Economic Opportunity Project. It mapped economic mobility county by county across the U.S., and created this map showing that the South was where children born into poor homes were least likely to climb the economic ladder. The region’s businesses and business models overwhelmingly rely on low-wage work.

4. South has lowest per capita spending sy state government.

Given these private-sector proclivities, one might expect state and local governments to pick up the slack. While that may be true for education spending compared to other issue areas, at least as measured by high school graduation rates, the states that spend the least for their residents are mostly red states in the South and mountain west.

According to the Kaiser Foundation, per capita expenditures by states in 2011 averaged $5,385. At the very bottom were Nevada ($3,150), Florida ($3,482), Missouri ($3,858), Texas ($3,796), Georgia ($4,176), Idaho ($4,212), Alabama ($4,398), Tennessee ($4,743), and South Carolina ($4,797). Three Deep South states—Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana—spend more than the national average, as did West Virginia.

5. Forget about decent preventative healthcare.

When it comes to helping low-income households get access to healthcare, almost all red states, including most of the Deep South, have refused to do this under Obamacare. The U.S. Supreme Court gave states the option to open enrollment into state-run Medicaid programs for the unisured. Red-state Republicans have declined, although federal funds pay for more than 90 percent of this, with the feds paying the entire bill for the first few years. The Urban Institutemapped counties with the most uninsured people locked out of Obamacare. The result looks like a tornado track that starts in Oklahoma and Texas and goes into Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina.

6. One result: people self-medicate in response.

Human nature is human nature, regardless of geography. People will find ways to cope with life’s challenges. But public health statistics show the personal response in the poorest states produces some bad results. The Deep South has the country’s highest obesity rates, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The region has the most cigarette smokers. It has the highest teen birth rates. Now, other areas of the country take the trophy for other vices. But according to Gallup, the pollsters, the states with the most unhappy people are in that Deep South-Midwest swath: Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia.

7. Forget the lottery, just pray to Jesus.

Unlike Brandy Clarke’s new song, “Pray to Jesus, Play the Lotto,” Southerners do not spend the most on lottery tickets. Massachusetts takes that honor. But the South (and Utah) has the mostevangelical Christians. In Alabama, the third most Christian state (56 percent of residents) and the second most religious state, according to the Pew Research Center, Republicans recently proposed a state constitutional amendment to put the Ten Commandments in public buildings. Rep. DuWayne Bridges said school shootings and violent crime was “due to the Ten Commandments not being displayed.”

Whether politicians like Bridges believe that nonsense is not the point. He is promoting that pious view because he knows most Alabamans are likely to have more faith in God than in man, because they are very religious. That is a consequence of poverty. When people are poor and struggling and they can’t do too much about it, they seek escapes—overeating, smoking, doing drugs. Some look for answers in religion. People hold onto what they can control, such as their beliefs.

It’s no surprise that the poorest states are the most religious. Pew ranked the importance of religion, and found the 10 most religious states were, in descending order, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky. But there other ways people who are battered by society try to feel personally powerful, which brings us to firearms.

8. And hold onto that gun!

The poorest states, which are the most religious, also have the most gun violence. That’s a sad consequence of a widespread gun-owning culture that goes beyond rural traditions of hunting. Southerners don’t trust government because Republicans tell them not to, allowing the GOP to do little to help people live better. Democrats who ruled the South during segregation drove the same point home. So it’s no surprise that the poorest states have some of the highest gun ownership rates and highest rates of gun-related violence.

The 10 states with the most gun violence, based on federal statistics, are, in descending order, Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Mississippi, South Carolina, New Mexico, Missouri, Arkansas and Georgia. People who don’t have much power in the world know that guns are powerful. Like their religious beliefs, guns steel people against a hard life. Unfortunately, when people emotionally snap and grab a gun, the result can be deadly.

There you have the New South and the disturbing situations that keep the region from any progress….sadly there is NO indication that this cycle can be broken….residents do not want…..change.