Why Mississippi is a poor state? I got a theory (Jackson: how much, home)

[Patriot474]

I have only lived up here near Hattiesburg since 2005 when Katrina came through Louisiana which is where I lived all my life.

Since being up here those few years, I can say I been miserable with no way out since.

In looking for work with applying to many stores, businesses, anything I can find, it seems to me the hiring practices of these places is why Mississippi is in the shape its in.

But how one may ask? Well I find many employers lying to me, most wont even call me or they say they not hiring, only to find a good many new people working at these places. I think that is one problem to why its in the shape its in, but the Major problem? No.

What is the major problem? Too many people in the same household getting employed by the same business, in some cases close friends or other relatives.

This is why so many families in Mississippi require aid in food and housing. They are not working because their is no room for them over the household/family that is being hired for these jobs.

Their is 2 places I have worked since Katrina, not even totaling a years worth of work, both was temp jobs, and both was like this, 75% of the employees working on this job lived in the same house. The other 25% was the other people not related to that majority. I think it was just.........ridiculous to say the least.

Since I havent found a permanent job, I just got no faith in anyone or any businesses here. I find more times than not most people being hired is more incapable of doing the job than the next guy. Thats one of the biggest problems I see.

One story I got is their is this 1 guy who use to be a truck driver, hes gone through several jobs already and quit on them, for whatever reason, I dont know why, but he seems to be one of those guys who can quit and bounce to ANY job anywhere he wants, including jobs at places I apply for...makes sense?

Not at all.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by Patriot474

I have only lived up here near Hattiesburg since 2005 when Katrina came through Louisiana which is where I lived all my life.

Since being up here those few years, I can say I been miserable with no way out since.

In looking for work with applying to many stores, businesses, anything I can find, it seems to me the hiring practices of these places is why Mississippi is in the shape its in.

But how one may ask? Well I find many employers lying to me, most wont even call me or they say they not hiring, only to find a good many new people working at these places. I think that is one problem to why its in the shape its in, but the Major problem? No.

What is the major problem? Too many people in the same household getting employed by the same business, in some cases close friends or other relatives.


This is why so many families in Mississippi require aid in food and housing. They are not working because their is no room for them over the household/family that is being hired for these jobs.

Their is 2 places I have worked since Katrina, not even totaling a years worth of work, both was temp jobs, and both was like this, 75% of the employees working on this job lived in the same house. The other 25% was the other people not related to that majority. I think it was just.........ridiculous to say the least.

Since I havent found a permanent job, I just got no faith in anyone or any businesses here. I find more times than not most people being hired is more incapable of doing the job than the next guy. Thats one of the biggest problems I see.

One story I got is their is this 1 guy who use to be a truck driver, hes gone through several jobs already and quit on them, for whatever reason, I dont know why, but he seems to be one of those guys who can quit and bounce to ANY job anywhere he wants, including jobs at places I apply for...makes sense?

Not at all.

That really happens? I don't live there so I don't know for sure, but if that really happens, then there are some really illegal things going on.

[DiogenesofJackson]

Mississippi was not always a poor state. For a time, from roughly 1817 to 1861, Mississippi was one of the wealthiest states in the Union, thanks of course to slave labor. I've heard that some of the first cotton Planters to set up shop in the Miss. Delta in the early 1800s cleared as much as $150 million (in 1800s dollars) on their cotton crops--that is insanely rich.

Some of this old cotton money, believe it or not, is still around. There's folks in Miss. who come from "old money" and they're concentrated in the Delta and Jackson area. There are certainly wealthy people in the state because when I lived in Jackson, I commuted to downtown from the Ridgeland area. Every week day I saw folks driving to work in their fancy cars--young people driving BMWs and Lexi (Lexuses?). How can they afford these fancy cars? Not everyone in Miss. is poor and even the poor folks will tell you that they're middle class.

There's been books written about Mississippi's status as a poor state. One theory is that after the civil war, cotton prices took a shot from international competition and the state's farmers took years to diversify. Further, political cronyism and graft have plagued Mississippi like it has other southern states for centuries now.

One thing that I hate about Mississippi is its gambling, which doesn't really do a whole lot for the state's citizens. Supposedly gaming was designed to give a shot in the arm to Mississippi's lackluster public education system--or those were the arguments in the early 1990s. Yet as many of the best commentators have noted, Mississippi's education system still ranks near dead last among the 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Now as I've typed this, I'll bet some folks out there will read this and claim that revamping education is more than just throwing money at it. Yes, I agree. That is true, but a good education system needs to be funded and needs to be considered a priority by the people who hold the purse strings.

There are some bright spots when discussing Mississippi's public education system. The schools are never in a bind over athletic programs--which are oftentimes better funded than the academic programs because the majority of Mississippians are sports obsessed. Athletics is most parents' emphasis for their kids' schooling because success in athletics might render a college scholarship, which will then be a ticket out of the state for the talented.

To answer the thread question, I'd say one reason that Mississippi continues to be a poor state is that the people with the best ideas usually leave the state for greener pastures while those who remain say "good riddance!" to those who choose to leave.

[green_mariner]

I have another theory. I am not in disagreement with the theory. That being said, I have another take on this.

Alot of poverty in Mississippi has historical roots. Mississippi has had an economic rooted in the plantation system. For much of its history, cotton was king. Most people were too poor to own slaves, but the people who did own slaves owned the lion's share of the land and the so-called "property"(I put property in quotes because human beings, specifically African-Americans were classified as property because they were slaves). Most of the state was controlled by a tiny bit of the population. Mississippi might have had more "wealth" than other states, but it was controlled by such a small portion of the population and it wasn't doing anyone any good. More people were enslaved than free in Mississippi. For all of Natchez's opulence in the antebellum days, it was built for and by the wealthy, which in actually numbers, wasn't alot of people. When the Civil War came, Mississippi was sacked and afterward, went into an economic depression for a long time. It was still rooted in agriculture, of the feudalistic version. Sharecropping replaced slavery and cotton was still the main crop.

One feature was that education was basically private. There was no public education until after the Civil War. My theory is that the economy allowed for this. With much of the population forbidden from reading and writing, and another large segment of the population being dirt poor, the wealthy had an aristocratic approach to education. Only their children could get an education and if you weren't wealthy, the likelihood of an education was low.

Inland Mississippi was basically agricultural, with cotton as the biggest crop. On the coast, Biloxi was a vacation destination with some seafood factories coming in towards the early 20th century. It took WWII to bring Biloxi into some prominence as Kessler AFB was built. Gambling came too.

My theory is that Mississippi's poverty is rooted in history.

[An Einnseanair]

Nepotism is a practice long rooted in history, and really has nothing to do with Mississippi. People have employed children, siblings, cousins, and friends-of-the-family for centuries. You get jobs through connections, and your first connections are usually family.

I currently live in Tennessee. Our receptionist was fired some time ago, and the girl who replaced her was the sister of our VP's admin assistant. Why? We needed a new receptionist, the sister needed a job, and the admin assistant gave a good recommendation. It's all about connections.

Re: green_mariner: I cannot agree more. I grew up in a lower middle class family (probably closer to "poor" during the recession of the early 80's) and I attended public school. For the life of me I couldn't figure out the problem with funding public schools. It's the education of the future of the country... give the kids the best you can! Until it dawned on me that the elected leaders who made the decisions on school funding were typically rich. Their children, and their friends' and campaign contributors' children all went to private school. Because they purchased private educations, they saw public funding of education for "poor people" as a form of welfare.

[Patriot474]

Its all about connections, I think thats a problem and has become too common and it affects the economy.

In Mississippi you either rich ( got a job) or you are poor, their is nothing in the middle.

The Public Education system up here is a joke, I never did attend school in Mississippi though, that was in Louisiana. But someone I knew who was attending school I would look over some of the work bought home and question what the hell are they doing in that school? I just never saw learning or education being done and this school is supposed to be a high mark school, but its my opinion they going to pass you no matter what.

[cwaggy]

Yah don't move to 'Sippi unless you already got coin or have a job already lined up. Plus the skiing sucks.

[Listener2307]

I think Green Mariner has the inside track on historical fact, but I also think successful education is a function of parental interest more than a function of how much money is spent. Washington DC will serve as my case in point.

You will not educate children whose parents are not interested.

[3a's]

You can educate children even if their parents do not have an interest. It is the staff/role models that provide a guidance even if the child does not have guidance at home. Most children spend more time at school then at home when they are school age. It is up to the hard work, school money and the staff's dedication to those bright young minds. It just takes that one moment for a child to turn his/her life around.

[JN1]

Mississippi is so poor because it has too many people like yourself who are obviously lacking any education, albeit, your sentence structure and use of words. One needs to look no further than your posting for an answer.