:: blame the extended gestation.... ::

:: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 ::

TAPPED: September 2004 Archives:

"ALABAMAS EVERYWHERE! I've long wondered why anyone would take seriously the notion that the country as a whole ought to adopt the low-tax, low-wage, no-union, no-regulation formula that's brought such a lack of economic success to the Deep South, but if I were to say that I'd be castigated as some kind of northeastern elitist, so I'll just quote son-of-the-south Ed Kilgore instead:
If you had to identify one simple reason for [the South's] grinding poverty, it was the perpetual delusion of southern political and business leaders that the region had to stay poor and dumb in order to attract the capital necessary to eventually climb out of the ditch. Like some of today's third world countries, the South, right up to the 1970s, was paralyzed by the idea that decent wages, unionization, protection of natural resources, business regulation, progressive taxes, and quality education were all impossible because they would 'price' the region out of opportunities for economic development. All of the South's social and economic weaknesses were perceived as essential to maintaining a 'good business climate.' And that benighted belief also helped perpetuate Jim Crow, since the ability to keep roughly a third of the region's population in semi-serfdom gave the South a cost advantage no other part of the country could ever meet.

Gradually, by the 1970s and 1980s, southern political leaders, and even many business leaders, woke up to the fact that deliberately maintaining a low standard of living wasn't worth the paltry payoff in low-wage textile jobs. And slowly but surely, a consensus developed that decent education and adequate public services were positive, not negative, factors in long-term economic development. The states that pursued this 'high road' strategy--especial"

:: Jim Nichols 9/07/2004 09:33:00 PM [+] ::
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