Want to know why MS is last in all the good stuff and first in all the bad? Click here (Jackson: sex offenders, crime)

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

Originally Posted by Mouldy Old Schmo

What would you rather live with - Mississippi’s problems or California’s problems? Because I have read comments on the Internet from people claiming California is facing catastrophe.

Anymore, it seems like California has devastating fires and earthquakes nearly every year. I use to think I would want to live in California, but as it turned out, I'm glad I never made that move.

[quagmier]

Mississippi has the potential to be FIRST in all of the good areas. If the people I've met there are any indication, it will happen. I am moving there and I want to make a difference through community involvement and investing myself in the community. I hope others will join me.

[sammyreynolds1977]

Originally Posted by quagmier

Mississippi has the potential to be FIRST in all of the good areas. If the people I've met there are any indication, it will happen. I am moving there and I want to make a difference through community involvement and investing myself in the community. I hope others will join me.

You're living in a dream world.

[jsherman9901]

Originally Posted by quagmier

Mississippi has the potential to be FIRST in all of the good areas. If the people I've met there are any indication, it will happen. I am moving there and I want to make a difference through community involvement and investing myself in the community. I hope others will join me.

More power to you. I tried the same thing myself many years ago. Got discouraged after 20 years and left.

[viverlibre]

Originally Posted by quagmier

Mississippi has the potential to be FIRST in all of the good areas. If the people I've met there are any indication, it will happen. I am moving there and I want to make a difference through community involvement and investing myself in the community. I hope others will join me.

MS has too many non-contributors of both races. I recently read that nearly 1/2 of all disposable income of Mississippians comes from the government (rather it be salary, social security or other public assistance). Unfortunately, underachieving is the norm for too many here. Too many of our best leave, but the others stay and reproduce.

On the upside, the talent pool is very shallow, it's easy for a motivated person who is in the right field to rise to the top. On the flip side, there is not much opportunity for high paying jobs and you are surrounded by an inordinate amount of multi-generational poor people.

If you want to know the underlying cause of all this, read my initial post in this thread.

[eddie gein]

Originally Posted by viverlibre

MS has too many non-contributors of both races. I recently read that nearly 1/2 of all disposable income of Mississippians comes from the government (rather it be salary, social security or other public assistance). Unfortunately, underachieving is the norm for too many here. Too many of our best leave, but the others stay and reproduce.

On the upside, the talent pool is very shallow, it's easy for a motivated person who is in the right field to rise to the top. On the flip side, there is not much opportunity for high paying jobs and you are surrounded by an inordinate amount of multi-generational poor people.

If you want to know the underlying cause of all this, read my initial post in this thread.

As an outsider who has a fascination with the state I have often wondered how much of the issues with Mississippi are due to it's reliance on it's agrarian past, the state laws and policies themselves vs it's resistance to the civil rights movement or simply because Jackson was the smallest of the big three towns in the old "deep" South (Atlanta, Birmingham, Jackson). Jackson, nor anyplace else in the state had the resources to compete well with it's larger counterparts when the cooperate culture started to emerge after WWII. Probably a mixture of all of that and other thing I suppose.

Here in Oklahoma City we have experienced something similar with DFW and Houston. Can't compete with them. In fact, in the oil industry we grow a company, they get big enough, they transfer/get bought out by somebody and end up in DFW or Houston. We are now on our third or fourth generation of home grown energy companies. We will see what happens this time.

I'm curious if this happens to Mississippi companies or if this is more an energy company phenomenon.

[jhadorn]

Originally Posted by eddie gein

...we grow a company, they get big enough, they transfer/get bought out by somebody and end up in DFW or Houston.

I'm curious if this happens to Mississippi companies or if this is more an energy company phenomenon.

It does happen in Mississippi too often. Some of the companies that come to mind are Back Yard Burgers, Bryan, FNC, Jitney Jungle, McRaes, Newks Eatery, and McAlisters Deli. I'm sure there are many more.

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

Originally Posted by eddie gein

As an outsider who has a fascination with the state I have often wondered how much of the issues with Mississippi are due to it's reliance on it's agrarian past, the state laws and policies themselves vs it's resistance to the civil rights movement or simply because Jackson was the smallest of the big three towns in the old "deep" South (Atlanta, Birmingham, Jackson). Jackson, nor anyplace else in the state had the resources to compete well with it's larger counterparts when the cooperate culture started to emerge after WWII. Probably a mixture of all of that and other thing I suppose.

Here in Oklahoma City we have experienced something similar with DFW and Houston. Can't compete with them. In fact, in the oil industry we grow a company, they get big enough, they transfer/get bought out by somebody and end up in DFW or Houston. We are now on our third or fourth generation of home grown energy companies. We will see what happens this time.

I'm curious if this happens to Mississippi companies or if this is more an energy company phenomenon.

Mississippi was slow to industrialize. For too long, it depended on cotton as its economic lifeblood, but few people got wealthy from it. You don’t see any examples of the housing the vast majority of Mississippians lived in before the Civil War. The state also has little oil, although those parts of the state with oil have experienced booms in the past. A man who grew up in Natchez her told me that town once had an oil boom.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by eddie gein

As an outsider who has a fascination with the state I have often wondered how much of the issues with Mississippi are due to it's reliance on it's agrarian past, the state laws and policies themselves vs it's resistance to the civil rights movement or simply because Jackson was the smallest of the big three towns in the old "deep" South (Atlanta, Birmingham, Jackson). Jackson, nor anyplace else in the state had the resources to compete well with it's larger counterparts when the cooperate culture started to emerge after WWII. Probably a mixture of all of that and other thing I suppose.

Here in Oklahoma City we have experienced something similar with DFW and Houston. Can't compete with them. In fact, in the oil industry we grow a company, they get big enough, they transfer/get bought out by somebody and end up in DFW or Houston. We are now on our third or fourth generation of home grown energy companies. We will see what happens this time.

I'm curious if this happens to Mississippi companies or if this is more an energy company phenomenon.

I don't really know which time period you include, but does Birmingham fall in that list? It wasn't established until 1871. It's totally post-Civil War. They certainly have some civil rights history though, as do Jackson and Little Rock.

[Mississippi Alabama Line]

Originally Posted by jhadorn

It does happen in Mississippi too often. Some of the companies that come to mind are Back Yard Burgers, Bryan, FNC, Jitney Jungle, McRaes, Newks Eatery, and McAlisters Deli. I'm sure there are many more.

Add Steinmart and Viking to the list.

At some point someone will have to dig in and stay here to advance the state.