How could Mississippi get out of poverty?

[Vega]

As it says on the tin, what could get the US' poorest state, Mississippi, get out of poverty, or at least on the right track? It could be State Legislation or Federal Legislation/actions.

[Famous Mortimer]

Birth control, abortion, and atheism.

[Zioneer]

Have it not be Mississippi. Or have it make its name easier to spell, at least.

Seriously though, greater education funding would be a good start.

[dead0man]

education

...and Mississippi is pretty easy to spell.  Maybe not as easy as Iowa or Alaska, but certainly easier than Hawaii or Connecticut.

[Zioneer]

education

...and Mississippi is pretty easy to spell.  Maybe not as easy as Iowa or Alaska, but certainly easier than Hawaii or Connecticut.

Connecticut I'll give you, but if you don't bother with the apostrophe, Hawaii is really easy to spell, just remember the two "I"s. Mississippi is a bunch of repetition in odd places that most people need a nursery rhyme to spell. Massachusetts is also annoying to spell. Spell check is the only way I get it right. Maybe I'm just bad at spelling.

[DC Al Fine]

Birth control, abortion, and atheism.

They have all these things in my home province and we're still poor

[Classic Conservative]

The Texas Model.

[dead0man]

The Texas Model.

oil?  They've got some, but not as much Texas.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Hellfire.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Hellfire.

Could get a decent amount of insurance money off a fire to be fair. Either that or sell national secrets to the Chinese.

[DINGO Joe]

Move

[Rockefeller GOP]

Birth control, abortion, and atheism.

Maybe the first two.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

As is always the way with poor regions, the main issue is one of (severe) structural economic problems. Essentially (and without going into detail; and the details would actually be very important) you would have to spend a lot of money. Which is logical give the problem being discussed is it not?

[bagelman]

Birth control, abortion, and atheism.

Maybe the first two.

Maybe the first one. Social policies aren't the primary concern here.

As is always the way with poor regions, the main issue is one of (severe) structural economic problems. Essentially (and without going into detail; and the details would actually be very important) you would have to spend a lot of money. Which is logical give the problem being discussed is it not?

This. Mississippi has been an agrarian backwater since the industrial revolution. It's always been like this. If anything the situation has been improving as industry moves in to the state.

I found this site, it's not an official looking site, but it does show that Mississippi's average income has been growing faster than the US average, which means if that website is accurate the state is catching up.

[DINGO Joe]

The recent KY election made me pick back up a book by Harry Caudill, a KY state representative, called  "Night Comes to the Cumberlands" which was written in 1962 and was about poverty and coal in Appalachia.  It became the hot book on the topic among the best and brightest and was a genuine catalyst for the "War on Poverty".  Well, Harry became disillusioned with the progress of the "war" in the early seventies.  He was convinced that the more capable had fled the impoverished region and all that was left were the dregs of humanity, people incapable of being lifted up.  He actually fell in with a notorious eugenicist and was for a time convinced that sterilization was the only alternative left.  Well, he ultimately back away from that and had a positive impact as a professor at UK for several years.

Of course, sterilization is a horrendous idea, but teen birth rate and poverty go hand in hand and should continue to be aggressively reduced.  As for Mississippi, much of it is crossed by major interstate corridors, suburban sprawl from metro Memphis, Mobile and New Orleans has crept into the state probably playing a role in whatever improvement has occurred.  The Delta and some other rural areas are a harder nut, but in general I'd be more optimistic about Mississippi improving than say Eastern Kentucky and WV and SW VA.  In places like that, they should just get out.

[Mr. Illini]

Keep voting Republican

[VPH]

Here's what my plan would look like:
-Funding education and bringing in qualified teachers
-Scaling back incarceration of low level offenders
-Expanding Medicaid
-Investing in infrastructure, thereby creating jobs

[Rockefeller GOP]

Keep voting Republican

It's not like voting Democrat had helped it much pre-1980s, either.  The state's got deeper problems than who it sends to Washington.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Successful destination branding is usually the answer to questions like this

Seriously, they can take all the federal aid they want, but until they find industries appropriate for the state and have a workforce of educated, skilled labor (unskilled laborers have stopped leaving en masse like they did from 1930 to 1980 because they are unable to afford housing elsewhere - lots of downward pressure on wages for all workers as a result), the state won't be getting anywhere. Like anyplace else, they need to have competent local government with ideas to attract businesses or other sources of money. Something tells me that their local politicians are likely afraid of borrowing money (the old Southwest has always been the source of absurd banking fears) even though I don't have the data to back that up rn. Their US representatives like Thad Cochran are forced to just bring home the bacon in the form of welfare since most other funding for legitimate projects is getting torn apart by the TEA Party. Beyond labor movement, New Deal programs were one of the biggest reason for their huge catch-up, but that stalled for a number of reasons, and I believe regional bank lending dropped off at the same time. Those three factors plus the lack of education are the reasons they are unsuccessful at the moment though I can't offer immediate particular fixes.

A big problem is knowing where to start redeveloping. You have to bring in capital from somewhere since most people there don't have much to spend it on. Without knowing much about the state, Biloxi is probably the obvious place to start. Alabama is attempting to push their beaches. Conveniently located between there and New Orleans. They have an airport and casino, which is a decent start, but I'm not sure how successful it is at getting out-of-staters for trips, and having the poor locals gambling probably isn't helping matters. Even there though, it's hard to think of where to branch out beyond that since everything is so spread out. Oxford, Starkville, and Hattiesburg are all so far apart, and the schools don't bring all that many out-of-staters, so it's tough to work on developing those areas like many other states do to their college towns. And who is even thinking about visiting or operating in Jackson? Maybe Vicksburg's location can attract some sort of business if the city works with potential suitors. But maybe two cities are not going to turn the whole state around, and the rural places are beyond hope. If I was in the state government, I'd consider directing resources to those two places, and literally just hope rural folk are receptive to moving there.

I'd like to think a wealthier Memphis would be a good start, but I just don't see why those people would visit MS when everything's across the state.

Maybe pilot programs with businesses to operate in the college towns that lessen the cost of attendance. That's a legitimate project to test out.

[Ebsy]

The recent KY election made me pick back up a book by Harry Caudill, a KY state representative, called  "Night Comes to the Cumberlands" which was written in 1962 and was about poverty and coal in Appalachia.  It became the hot book on the topic among the best and brightest and was a genuine catalyst for the "War on Poverty".  Well, Harry became disillusioned with the progress of the "war" in the early seventies.  He was convinced that the more capable had fled the impoverished region and all that was left were the dregs of humanity, people incapable of being lifted up.  He actually fell in with a notorious eugenicist and was for a time convinced that sterilization was the only alternative left.  Well, he ultimately back away from that and had a positive impact as a professor at UK for several years.

Of course, sterilization is a horrendous idea, but teen birth rate and poverty go hand in hand and should continue to be aggressively reduced.  As for Mississippi, much of it is crossed by major interstate corridors, suburban sprawl from metro Memphis, Mobile and New Orleans has crept into the state probably playing a role in whatever improvement has occurred.  The Delta and some other rural areas are a harder nut, but in general I'd be more optimistic about Mississippi improving than say Eastern Kentucky and WV and SW VA.  In places like that, they should just get out.

You know way too much about Appalachia.

[sparkey]

Everybody is talking about Mississippi like it is a third world hellhole, but it has a per capita GDP of 29k or so. That's higher than South Korea.

Laissez-faire. The way population and industry have moved south and helped nearby states like Georgia and Alabama, Mississippi is in a good position to climb up the state rankings.

[Taco Truck 🚚]

Everybody is talking about Mississippi like it is a third world hellhole, but it has a per capita GDP of 29k or so. That's higher than South Korea.

And like all third world hell holes per capita GDP says nothing about how the wealth is spread around.

Birth control, abortion, and atheism.

Not sure about the atheism but the first two for sure.  Maybe a lot more secularism and less blind religion.

[TNF]

abolish capitalism

[NeverAgain]

Long-term - Increase in Education Funding, An Infrastructure program that supports failing roads and improves dated ordinances and codes. (It also will give a HUGE amount of jobs, albeit temporary, jobs nonetheless)

Short-term -Expansion on Free (healthy) school lunches, a housing program similar to Salt Lake City's model, and to bring and expand upon ACA.

For the Dems who are saying f**k Mississippi, they only vote Republican anyways. MS will be in our control and our problem in the next couple of years.

[VPH]

Long-term - Increase in Education Funding, An Infrastructure program that supports failing roads and improves dated ordinances and codes. (It also will give a HUGE amount of jobs, albeit temporary, jobs nonetheless)

Short-term -Expansion on Free (healthy) school lunches, a housing program similar to Salt Lake City's model, and to bring and expand upon ACA.

For the Dems who are saying f**k Mississippi, they only vote Republican anyways. MS will be in our control and our problem in the next couple of years.

That's what makes me mad about politics sometimes. The whole 'they won't vote for us so we shouldn't help them' mentality is so flawed. Instead of looking at people as numbers, as voters, we need policies and leaders who approach people as people. Bring humanity back to politics. Struggling families ought to be helped, no matter who they're going to vote for.