Why didn't Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana boom along with the Sunbelt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mississippi is a different beast than Alabama or even Louisiana.

True.

Mississippi and Arkansas don’t seem to have areas that can attract employers and businesses.

But wouldn’t it be great if someone strategically invested there?

I would argue that Arkansas has more, they have Walmart headquarters and I believe there are some trucking companies based out there.

Corporate headquarters for Tyson foods is in Arkansas. They are a big employer.

[Anonymous]

Mississippi has a brain drain problem. Their best and brightest take their low cost taxpayer subsidized Ole Miss degrees and go and work in Atlanta, Houston, and Nashville. Seriously, if you are an engineer what are you going to do in Mississippi?

[Anonymous]

Part of it was infrastructure. I75 was built before 55 or 65. And I am pretty sure that Atlanta benefited greatly as a result. As did Miami given the port there and the easy access to 75.

Louisiana had New Orleans and the Gulf and NO never developed into much more than that . . . a kind of useless port and seafood industry.

[Anonymous]

Atlanta has grown for two reasons: Atlanta is a Delta Airlines hub (after B'ham, Alabama refused) and Ted Turner's superstation TBS made possible by the Atlanta HQ of CISCO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Atlanta has grown for two reasons: Atlanta is a Delta Airlines hub (after B'ham, Alabama refused) and Ted Turner's superstation TBS made possible by the Atlanta HQ of CISCO.

And Coke!

[Anonymous]

This is a decent troll thread. Be interesting to see if anyone says what's what.

[Anonymous]

New Orleans is effectively the "HQ" of that region. It, along with Mobile, AL and Gulfport, MS do a large business in trade/shipping. The South Louisana ports (New Orleans + Baton Rouge) do more tonnage of cargo than any other US port in the country. Gulfport moves lots of seafood and fruits (especially bananas), and Mobile is huge for coal, steel, and forest products. You just don't hear about this much if you're not in that industry.

Alabama is home to massive auto assembly plants for Mercedes, Hyundai, and Honda. If you drive a Mercedes GLE SUV, or Honda Odyssey, it was probably built in Alabama. Mississippi is big for Nissan and Toyota, for example the Toyota Corolla is built near Tupelo. Again, if you're not in the auto industry, you wouldn't know about this.

As others have mentioned, the major issue is no "megacity" in the region. Even New Orleans metro area (including Metairie) is only 1mln people, about the same as Fairfax county. It's difficult to reach "scale" as a big player without that. MSY (New Orleans) airport is the the largest in the region and still ranks only 47th in North America in passenger traffic.

Don't count these areas out. I think we'll see big growth there in the next 20 years, due to business-friendly policies and lower cost of living. Compare that for example to Maryland, where as of July 1 people have to pay a 3% "digital services tax" on Netflix and any other online service.. with the only justification being that the state needed more money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:States who didn't care about their uneducated population and didn't invest in infrastructure.

Georgia has its problems, but actually supported education and infrastructure much more than nearby states AL, MS or LA.

Same with North Carolina. Known as the "good roads state" for awhile, and really invested in higher education.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The correct answer to this is that post ww2 there was massive defense spending in certain sunbelt states (CA and AZ specifically) also TX. The massive infusion of government spending led to defense contractors growth and spinoffs into aerospace startups. I’m an urban planner so I have read a lot about why certain places do/did better than others.

What about ports?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:States who didn't care about their uneducated population and didn't invest in infrastructure.

Georgia has its problems, but actually supported education and infrastructure much more than nearby states AL, MS or LA.

Same with North Carolina. Known as the "good roads state" for awhile, and really invested in higher education.

+1

NC benefited from tobbaco money. Georgia benefited from Atlanta and Gov. Zell Miller's vision for education and teacher salaries. (His mom was a teacher in North Georgia.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mississippi has a brain drain problem. Their best and brightest take their low cost taxpayer subsidized Ole Miss degrees and go and work in Atlanta, Houston, and Nashville. Seriously, if you are an engineer what are you going to do in Mississippi?

I was reading not long ago about Mississippi's history. It had some of the wealthiest counties in the country before the civil war. Hence all those beautiful old homes, built on slave labor and proximity to the Mississippi River. Of all the states in the South, it just never recovered.

[Anonymous]

They never pivoted post civil war and post desegregation economically or socially. I have a home in Montgomery al which was wealthy from slave sales and cotton. Downtown there is a massive fountain where slave auctions were held. They couldn’t find their footing after the civil war so they never grew. There was also significant white flight post desegregation in the 60s and homes were literally abandoned as to not have to send their kids to schools with black children. Everyone here mostly either works for the state government, Air Force base or a handful of small universities and a Hyundai plant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The correct answer to this is that post ww2 there was massive defense spending in certain sunbelt states (CA and AZ specifically) also TX. The massive infusion of government spending led to defense contractors growth and spinoffs into aerospace startups. I’m an urban planner so I have read a lot about why certain places do/did better than others.

What about ports?

Those are more historical but certainly a factor in the economic development of FL and CA. My analysis is more about why certain areas of the sunbelt got very rich in the 20th century and grew these incredible research institutions and startups stemming from aerospace and defense but ultimately leading to the modern tech industry vs why others languished and the answer to that is post ww2 government investment.

[Anonymous]

Racism and misogyny

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because those states are horrible. Have you ever visited one of them? I have *shudders* Never again.

You are a good example of why people in the South distrust and dislike DC.

Are you just opposed to being around poor people or being reminded of the legacy of a slave economy? Can you recognize anything good in the region that gave America some of its finest writers and musicians? Whose black pastors led America's civil rights movement? Can you recognize that black Southerners were never given the compensation promised and that this fact stalled economic growth? That, in the false promises and manipulation by the ruling class of these states, poor white Southerners were given black Southerners as someone to blame for their misfortune?

I'm a white Southern liberal who frequently finds herself in the middle of conversations like this. Until we solve this problem of rural white Americans communicating with urban elites, we'll see increasing polarization and a populism that leads to an authoritarian state. How will that serve those of us who live in the urban mid-Atlantic or Northeast?

I'd counsel DCUM posters to read Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Cooperhead to get a little insight. If it doesn't move you, there's something wrong with you. Find a way to talk to the people of Alabama and Mississippi that doesn't make them hate you. This population has seen rapid change and globalization that has cost them their livelihoods. Understand it, or just sit back and endure the unfolding catastrophe.