By far the worst state in America (Jackson, Fayette: property taxes, move to)

[annie_himself]

Originally Posted by Back In Orange

I don't lie. Ok to say that I'm wrong but I don't lie. As an example, I would never tell people over and over that they could keep their doctor and plan if they liked their doctor and plan despite knowning many of them would lose their doctor and plan. I wouldn't tell them most families would see their deductibles go down if that wasn't going to happen.

But you're not worried about the extra hundreds of thousands of Americans who now have adequate healthcare options. How sweet.

[Rogarven]

Originally Posted by Back In Orange

Physicians should be talking about obesity to the peoplw who are obese, in private. Not politicians, and you aren't a physiciann and nobody cares what you think about obesity. You have no credibility in lecturing people about it and telling me what an epidemic is or isn't. I live in this country and I rarely see somebody that I would call obese and majority of kids I see are not obese. Weight is rarely a problem with kids given their fast metobolism. I'm sure you can cherrypick some conservative groups out there that talked about obesity. That doesn't mean most conservatives think obesity is the driving factor behind healthcare costs. Most health conditions are not tied to obesity. Cancer has nothing to do with obesity and a leading cause of death and expensive to treat with chemo and therapy. I have done my own research, otherwise I would have believe Democrats like you who argue most affluent people vote Democrat. I've proved that isnt true in MS and SC. I love it when non-engineers lecture me about what I am supposed to know and not know. How can you know what I'm supposed to know as an engineer if you are not an engineer? You need to save your pretentious lectures. I'm not your captive audience. I wanted your advice, I will ask you for it. I don't see how a Democrat can lecture people about making the country better , given the last 6 years under Democrat control. Time for some humility, probably.

If you claim obesity is an epidemic, that means that I should see tons of obese people everywhere I go. If I don't, then it is obivously not an epidemic. Epidemic means a lot of people have it and obviously obesity isn't something obese people can conceal.

But as I pointed out in my original post, I don't think Democrats talking about obesity in south is even coming from a good place. They don't like conservatives so they want to associate something negative like obesity, or low educational attainment, or low income, with them. It is a school yard taunt thing for them, even though there is no hard evdience people are in the south are more obese than other states, or that most of the obese people are conservative voters.

So far not one person has explained how the government knows what percentage of people in a state are obese? Do our physicians fax in our weight info to the government for these stats? Isn't that violation of HIPA laws?

[Mr.2089]

Originally Posted by Back In Orange

You should head over, b/c your post was political.

Here was the apex of your negative politics, a baseless smear about Christians: 6. Backwards racist christian

That is cool if you want to ape Bill Maher but you should probalby do that on politics forum. Your entire post was basically you asserting that you are smarter than everyone in MS.

You don't come across as a real happy person. Don't think you can blame state of MS for that.

Im not unhappy I just dislike MS and its my right to express that dislike. Something tells me you're a MS native and my truthful post upset you. You know what they say.....the truth hurts. Furthermore, my post was factual not political.

[annie_himself]

Originally Posted by Mr.2089

Im not unhappy I just dislike MS and its my right to express that dislike. Something tells me you're a MS native and my truthful post upset you. You know what they say.....the truth hurts. Furthermore, my post was factual not political.

You know people with different ideas don't get to use the 1st Amendment..

[Old Prospector]

Originally Posted by Back In Orange

That is not what I said. I said it does not correlate to most health problems, and you can get heart disease , Sleep apnea, diabetes without being obese.

You keep flogging those strawmen though. That is what your party does.

My party? You know nothing about how I vote.

[ipkl07]

What's being done to change this if anything? What are the plans if any to change this? Education is the key. Might want to start there!

[Listener2307]

Originally Posted by ipkl07

What's being done to change this if anything? What are the plans if any to change this? Education is the key. Might want to start there!

Congratulations! You are the 1,000,000,001st person to suggest this!

We never thought of that ourselves, of course, so we count on people who have never been here to guide us through the process. What do you think our first step should be? Can you come and show us?

[brickpatio]

The key is mainly economic growth. During economic booms, people of all educational levels tend to get pulled upwards through the work force and they learn new skills as opportunities come along. Obviously there is a small sub-group who simply can't work, etc. But for the average person, companies will train them with new skills as they are desperate to find bodies to help them grow the company.

Mississippi's economy has been growing about the same or slightly faster than the nation as a whole, in terms of gross domestic product. Nationally when the population grows by 1.5% a year and the economy is growing by just 1.5 or 2% a year as is the case presently, that means that people are stuck and not moving up. However, when the population is growing by 1.5% a year and the economy is growing by 4% a year, then the average household income will double about every 30 years. My understanding is that the average American is less educated today than they were 100 years ago, however they are much wealthier today because of the huge economy that offers so many opportunities for high-paying jobs for those who work their way up in the work force steadily over 20, 30, and 40 years.

[Mr.2089]

Originally Posted by brickpatio

The key is mainly economic growth. During economic booms, people of all educational levels tend to get pulled upwards through the work force and they learn new skills as opportunities come along. Obviously there is a small sub-group who simply can't work, etc. But for the average person, companies will train them with new skills as they are desperate to find bodies to help them grow the company.

Mississippi's economy has been growing about the same or slightly faster than the nation as a whole, in terms of gross domestic product. Nationally when the population grows by 1.5% a year and the economy is growing by just 1.5 or 2% a year as is the case presently, that means that people are stuck and not moving up. However, when the population is growing by 1.5% a year and the economy is growing by 4% a year, then the average household income will double about every 30 years. My understanding is that the average American is less educated today than they were 100 years ago, however they are much wealthier today because of the huge economy that offers so many opportunities for high-paying jobs for those who work their way up in the work force steadily over 20, 30, and 40 years.

So the current average household income (52k) will be 100k+ in 30 years?

[brickpatio]

Yes, that's correct, per capita incomes will double within about 35 years if the economic growth rates return to their historic averages over the past 60 years or so (which, on a separate note, will require big reductions in the tax rates on business investors and reform of federal regulations on businesses which impose equally onerous costs). I'm basing my info from historical per capita income data by state, going back to the 1960s and earlier. Also, in Mississippi the rate of growth in per capita income by racial group was essentially equal over those periods.

Mississippi's economic growth rate as of late has been exceeding (slightly) the national average. For per capita income as a percentage of the national average, Mississippi used to be much lower (i.e. closer to 60% of the national average) but in recent years has reached about 77% of the national average. When you consider that Mississippi's cost of living is roughly 10% below the national average, that indicates that Mississippi's income levels as a percentage of the national average are about 87% of the national average (i.e. darn close).

Mississippi's gross domestic product (per capita), (i.e. total economic output per person), passed France this year.

As long as the U.S. growth rates exceed that of countries such as Japan and Germany by at least 1% a year, Mississippi's gdp (per capita) should pass those countries within a decade. I.e. Mississippi will be richer than Germany and is already richer than France. Mississippi similarly could pass the United Kingdom except that their economic growth rates have been about the same as the U.S. as of late, and Mississippi's growth rate runs pretty closely to the U.S. averages.

All this comports with the US Census data on poverty rates by state (known as the "supplemental poverty measure"), which account for cost of living in each state and most recently it places Mississippi's poverty rate lower than the national average. I.e. Mississippi has less poverty than the nation, on the average. The most impoverished states are California and New York, where cost of living is almost double that of Mississippi in many places.

How does all this seem possible? As a point of comparison, consider that Mississippi has 2 relatively new major auto plants (Nissan and Toyota), plus another major plant building engines for 18-wheelers in Columbus (so let's say 3 new auto plants altogether). Since France's population is 20 times larger than Mississippi, they would need 60 new major auto plants to match Mississippi's growth in recent years. And we all know that no such thing has occurred in France, which is a terrible place to invest these days.

One thing I'm eager to see is what new actions the governor and legislature take in January to expand Mississippi's business climate advantages. Mississippi competes with neighboring states such as FL, TX, and TN that pose no personal income tax on business investors, vs. Mississippi's 5% tax rates.

While a large chunk is this 5% is balanced out in other states by their higher property taxes, federal tax deductions on state income tax, sales tax and land costs in those other states...still Mississippi's higher tax rate is a deterrent. The politicians can't complain about Mississippi's position relative to other states economically as long as they tie Mississippi's hands around its back with that whopping 5% tax rate compared to our robust neighbors Texas, Florida and Tennessee. Maybe this is where Lt Gov Tate Reeves will make a name for himself, pushing through reductions on tax rates.