An interesting article by Jason Gray about Leflore County, Mississippi is available on the DailyYonder Website. Some highlights and tidbits:
The two businesses are the Viking Range Company, a high-end kitchen equipment manufacturer, and Staplcotn, the world’s largest and oldest cotton cooperative. These two firms are the new and old South cheek by jowl — a stark contrast between entrepreneurship and an agricultural subsidy system that underwrites white privilege in a region that is predominantly poor and black. It is also a contrast between a business that creates good jobs and a prosperous economy and one that does not.
The Census Bureau’s Consolidated Federal Funds Reports tells us that USDA nutrition programs (food stamps, school lunch) pumped $46 million into the county from 2005 to 2007…
But for the town of Greenwood and Leflore County, a new South is rising. Inside the small downtown of Greenwood you can see restored old buildings, foot traffic on the sidewalks, and energy. The reason? In large part it’s because of the Viking Range Corporation, a locally-owned business that now has three plants in the area employing more than 1,000 people. A renovated hotel, The Aluvian, is perhaps the finest in Mississippi, and hosts travelers from all over the world who come to take cooking classes at Viking.
More locally, from 2005 to 2007, the USDA subsidized commodity crop producers in Leflore County to the tune of $48.8 million, according to the Environmental Working Group’s most detailed compilation of publicly available data. These payments dwarf the $1.2 million spent by the USDA Rural Development program in Leflore County over the same three years. Other federal small business and community development grants added another $1 million. These totals probably miss some workforce training investments in the county. Still, the margin between the amount spent on commodity subsidies in Leflore County and the amount spent on rural development is enormous.
For all the money spent on agricultural subsidies, they create little regional economic vitality. Agriculture employs few people, is largely seasonal, and pays lower wages than manufacturing.
Click here to read the entire article.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Why do regions fail?
January 16, 2013
In Mississippi, public policymakers, elected officials at all levels (local, state and federal) and community leaders of every stripe continually discuss ways to improve the Mississippi Delta. There has been no shortage of studies, initiatives and funding programs for just about everything imaginable. Although there are some bright spots, one wonders why there has not been more improvement in the region as a whole.
With that backdrop, I was especially interested in an article at the Daily Yonder website entitled Speak Your Piece: Why regions Fail, written by Jason Bailey. The first sentence reads, “What’s kept Eastern Kentucky from prosperity?” The author first discusses a critique of the region by outside observers, and then posits that one of the problems with such “diagnoses” is that it is too narrow. We should look at the greater historical and economic context about why the families in the region live the way that they do, he says. Reference is then made to Why Nations Fail, by economist Daron Acemoglu and political scientist James Robinson. Here’s a clip from that part of the article:
They conclude that economic success is not the result of culture, geography or other standard explanations. Rather, prosperity is caused by a country’s human-made institutions.
They characterize nations’ economic and political institutions as either inclusive or extractive. Inclusive institutions create a fair environment for competition, provide education and encourage innovation, distribute political power widely and encourage public participation, and have an accountable and responsive government. Extractive institutions are designed to benefit the few at the expense of the many. They discourage democratic participation, fail to enforce the rule of law or promote new economic activity, and are characterized by corruption and cronyism.
So, could this observation be applied to Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta? Or is it already being applied, and not getting the desired results?
The questions and observations about the solutions to poverty go on. I recommend the above article as a good read to start/continue the discussion.
Share this:
Like this:
Leave a comment
Posted in General Comments
Tagged Appalachia, Daily Yonder, Daron Acemoglu, Jason Bailey, mississippi delta, political scientist James Robinson, Speak your piece why regions fail, Why Regions Fail