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MO is not ranked highly as Minnesota or New Hampshire. According to StateMaster.com, MO is ranked as 22nd Best State to Live so that's still good.
MO is near the national average in most categories except for Health statistics-MO still has one of the highest smoking rates in the country ranking 13th. Obesity is still an issue like most of the country along with high number of residents with loss of natural teeth.
I find it hard to believe about the loss of natural teeth. I've traveled all over MO and I haven't seen anyone missing a tooth. Speaking of the loss of natural teeth, states such as Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Mississippi have it worse.
I still think MO would benefit from higher taxes on both cigarettes and alcohol because the current laws are too laissez-faire in my opinion.
The City of St. Louis and St. Louis County also should be merged back together.
I find it hard to believe about the loss of natural teeth. I've traveled all over MO and I haven't seen anyone missing a tooth. Speaking of the loss of natural teeth, states such as Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Mississippi have it worse
If you were to look at me you'd never know I was missing any teeth either, but I'm shy a couple of molars in the back.
I blame my dental issues on the crappy chlorinated water here in FL. I never had issues with my teeth in MA. There's no fluoride in our water down here either which I'm sure is a factor.
Also, I honestly didn't notice many obese individuals during my trek to MO. At least not in the central area I was in. Here in FL you can't go 20 feet in a crowd without meeting someone who could literally "tip the scales".
Just be glad Missouri isn't like Mississippi. I think it has been consistently ranked the worst state health-wise for the past 3 years at least.
It's better to be somewhere in the middle than in the bottom third.
How good is the education system and especially the universities? Are bright and talented younger people content to stay or are they leaving for brighter pastures? Does the state have any bold or vibrant aspects that is attracting both people and industries from other states?
I understand St. Louis has an excellent medical infrastructure ... one hospital there consistently in the top ten along with Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic and Memorial Sloan Kettering.
The answer people come up with for why some places grow and others don't is a litmus test as to what their core beliefs are. Texas is growing because it is a small-government, social-conservative haven. California is growing (yes, it's growing again, sorry haters) because it offers a terrific mix of lifestyle and attractiveness to talent.
But it's not hard to see why most of the midwest isn't growing.
1. StL/MSP is right in one respect, but probably not for the reasons he thinks- the work ethic isn't as strong here because it isn't a place that celebrates and rewards the 100-hour, wild ambition ethic you'll find in Silicon Valley, New York, London, and Hong Kong. Unless they already live in, say, the Chicago environs, the best and brightest of the midwest pack up and leave when they're done with their education-- or, if they got into an Ivy or Stanford or the like, in which case they take off after high school. You can find them all over NYC, LA, and Silicon Valley, but they ain't coming back except for Christmas and funerals. I work with the entrepreneurship incubator here in Columbia, and there's a lot of that bright, ambitious work ethic there, which is great...but all of us older people know that 9 out of 10 are going to leave as soon as the time's right. It's that 10th one that makes the project worthwhile, that and the fact that it's just the right thing to do, i.e., encourage entrepreneurship, especially techie stuff.
2. Reason number 2 has a lot to do with reason number 1, and why Columbia has a fairly thriving entrepreneurship community, at least for Missouri-- education, especially the sort associated with Tier 1 research universities, pays off. Columbia's tech community isn't bad but it lags behind Madison, Boulder, Iowa City, mostly because, for lots of reasons, MU is firmly locked into mediocrity compared with those other schools. The setup for higher education in this state is unfortunate to begin with, with lots of smaller, directional schools that siphon support away. There's also a lingering suspicion of MU and Columbia that often rears its head here-- it's a collective of commie atheism. Yeah, compared to Sedalia, it is, but only because it's a diverse place where commies and atheists (and gays, and geeks) don't have to hide or move away to be themselves. That's kind of what happens in a smallish town with a major university-- it doesn't have a mold everyone has to fit in. And that sort of diversity, that mix and collision of ideas, is where energy and creativity come from. Missouri, and the midwest generally, isn't a place that encourages that sort of thing...so the creatives, the ones who think differently, leave. They also tend to be the ones obsessed with changing the world and staying juiced on Red Bull so they don't have to sleep so much.
3. Here's what WON'T attract growth to Missouri-- lower taxes. The "low tax" (and its kissing cousin, the tax incentive) thing is a canard. You don't see entrepreneurship communities pressing for lower taxes, and you don't see them fleeing Silicon Valley for it either. What you do see is established multinational corporations (that include IBM and Google, to be sure, but here they're playing their huge multinational card) playing communities and states off each other to get the best tax breaks. Money you don't have to pay in taxes is easier money than money spent building a new factory. My day job exposes me to the tremendous ROI multinationals and other large entities get simply by lowering state and local taxes by various means, including winning tax breaks they shouldn't win. The people running those corporations aren't stupid, and except for building auto plants in the south so as to avoid union costs, they're not flocking to God's country to invest, because they know that low taxes also means low services. Look, government is wasteful everywhere, but starving the beast won't help--in fact, I'm afraid nothing will help, because the real reasons government doesn't work as well as it could is because the most powerful players in it don't want it to change. That goes for the tax system too.
4. Here's what else won't attract growth to Missouri-- social conservatism. The social conservatives tend to be quite happy where they are. Why move? I don't say this to malign social conservatives-- most of my family are god-fearing, fundamentalist Christians, who also have a terrific work ethic, are professional and highly intelligent. There's just no reason for them to move from College Station, Texas to anywhere here.
5. Smoking/not smoking? Not an issue. True, smoking is a socioeconomic class and status marker (and not a positive one), but it's not a reason people move or don't move here. North Carolina has a higher percentage of smokers (and is growing faster than Missouri), as well as a socially conservative legislature, so why is the growth still higher there? The Research Triangle...although, if things get conservative enough, that might make it uncomfortable to be a single-minded research nerd at Duke or UNC who's on the verge of discovering something great.
6. Yes, "the south" can be said to be growing faster than the midwest, but that's primarily due to two factors- a few cities in the deep south (like those in North Carolina, Florida, and of course Atlanta) are engines for growth. But if you think the heart of the south, where southern culture reigns supreme, is an economic engine, you're kidding yourself. The other factor is the biggest reason for growth in non-tech areas in Texas-- thousands of illegal aliens. They're a cheap labor force, including skilled labor. And there's that diversity thing again-- throw cultures and ideas together, and things get created. A significant part of New Orleans' post-Katrina renaissance is credited to the illegals who moved there to take jobs rebuilding the city.
7. Ultimately, most of the US isn't growing because the economic forces shaping the world economy aren't favorable, and our overall policies are poorly informed and guided by venal political interests. Manufacturing jobs are, mostly, gone forever-- for the moment, replaced by cheap and ever-cheaper labor (watch what happens in China when their industrial revolution dries up because Bangladesh and Myanmar are willing to provide even cheaper industrial labor) in the short run and robots after that. There simply won't be enough jobs for people. Do we all subsist by providing services for each other? Where's the wealth creation in that? Do 99% of us become serfs to the 1% who either put in the 20-hour days or, more likely, won the genetic lottery? Do we all design websites, and if so, for whom? I've worked hard at placing my children in professions where their skills are both high-end and portable, but we know that tides beyond their control could muck everything up.
So, most of the things done at every level of government, when they actually try to improve the economic situation of their jurisdiction, is as helpful as moving deck chairs on the Titanic. Much of it is actively unhelpful, especially tax breaks of every sort, especially the ones that most people never hear about. Missouri's not growing because it's not like the few places in the US that are growing, and most of my fellow Missourians don't want that to change, and because there's precious little growth to fight over. Sorry.
good points. I always wonder what measure people use to determine what 'freedom' is. Colorado has lax marijuana laws which I'm all for but very bad divorce laws that really can rape a male undeservingly. Some states have great gun laws but draconian laws regarding drug use with unnecessarily harsh prison sentences. No state is perfect. And drug laws are still way too 'old fashioned' and harsh in nature. I'd say a lot of these bible thumpers got fooled by big pharma which was also in favor of criminalizing drugs and continues to be in favor of restricting access to supplements as well, so only their approved, overpriced name brand items can garner the sales and net them more profits. Natural stuff that can't be patented will always be a target.
I look to states growing because of investing in education, having a good climate, or having well established cities with progressive city councils. Minneapolis thrives despite having an (in my opinion) poor climate. The dinky little town I live in is growing due to a progressive city council along with having a college, and the state itself has no state income tax and seems to give tax incentives for businesses to move in, but it should be said that doesn't mean the businesses provide high paying livable wages.. many of them might pay 10-13 bucks an hour. Guns are great an all, but to be honest no large city or state that is conservative in nature is going to grow as fast as one that is progressive and willing to change. Willingness to change and not be stuck in the past are big motivators for growth.
Our strong dollar policy and easy credit is the cause of most business being outsourced, not 'unions' and 'liberals' .. there's really no one party to blame since they were all sucking off the easy credit teet for the last 30 years.
It's better to be somewhere in the middle than in the bottom third.
How good is the education system and especially the universities? Are bright and talented younger people content to stay or are they leaving for brighter pastures? Does the state have any bold or vibrant aspects that is attracting both people and industries from other states?
I understand St. Louis has an excellent medical infrastructure ... one hospital there consistently in the top ten along with Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic and Memorial Sloan Kettering.
University of Missouri-Columbia (Mizzou) and Washington University in St. Louis are among the best universities in the state. Although MO is close to the national average in high school to college educated population, about half of them still leave MO for cities much bigger than both St. Louis and Kansas City. The ranking could have been better if we keep most of the students.
St. Louis has many excellent medical facilities including Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
I think MO is struggling to attract new residents from other states. I don't know about industries but I heard many industries in Kansas City, MO are relocating to Johnson County, Kansas. What is KS doing that MO needs to do? Just curious.
I think MO is struggling to attract new residents from other states. I don't know about industries but I heard many industries in Kansas City, MO are relocating to Johnson County, Kansas. What is KS doing that MO needs to do? Just curious.
Oh, boy.
Well, over the last 5 years or so, there have been several threads, some non-related but eventually hijacked, to argue these issues over in the Kansas City forum. Quite lively stuff.
Haven't waded through all the comments but think IO have the gist of them.
MO seems to have a wonderfully calm attitude overall of, "Go ahead, but not too far and not too fast." After spending decades on the frenetic, dog-eat-dog, conspicuous consumption rules, left coast I can't begin to tell you how beautifully restful we find our MO retirement home.
Don't change a thing. Rapid growth and expanding diversity ain't all their cracked-up to be. Don't ruin the character and culture of the "Show Me" state.
Haven't waded through all the comments but think IO have the gist of them.
MO seems to have a wonderfully calm attitude overall of, "Go ahead, but not too far and not too fast." After spending decades on the frenetic, dog-eat-dog, conspicuous consumption rules, left coast I can't begin to tell you how beautifully restful we find our MO retirement home.
Don't change a thing. Rapid growth and expanding diversity ain't all their cracked-up to be. Don't ruin the character and culture of the "Show Me" state.
Fabulous post. I have a strong feeling my sentiments will be the same when I finally move there.
Why do I notice so many fat hoosiers in MO for? I mean there is a lot of them. Usually MO ranks up there with MS, AR and other states for the amount of obesity.
I'm very picky when it comes to hot women and their weight level. I have high standards.
I'm not sure where you are looking, but cruising Walmart's is not the best place to start.
Too young, ok, then go to a Cardinals game and hit the bars near the stadium before and after the game. Go to a Blues game or a Rams game and soak in the atmosphere. Go to Parties in the Park in Clayton. Hit the plaza in KC. Those are just a few suggestions.
Why do I notice so many fat hoosiers in MO for? I mean there is a lot of them. Usually MO ranks up there with MS, AR and other states for the amount of obesity.
I'm very picky when it comes to hot women and their weight level. I have high standards.
Ummm, no it doesn't. Missouri is not one of the fattest states in the U.S. It's right in the middle. Stop trying to group Missouri in with Southern states, especially in this context.
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