[niteowl77]

Iowa, like Wisconsin, has been a socialist incubator for ages, beginning with some of the farmer's movements of the 1870's, then proceeding through the Southern Iowa coal mines (John L. Lewis of AFL-CIO "fame" started here) and on through the railroad unions to the big one in Iowa today, the NEA. The masses eat up class envy and always have, but in the old days, it was kept in check by enough smallholders who had a stubborn independent streak. Iowa started going to hell at a more rapid pace in the 1960's, coinciding with a Democrat governor named Harold Hughes, who abolished the death penalty and helped pave the way for centralized control of the schools (helped by Republicans, naturally).

Iowa is no longer anything like the Iowa it was (and that outsiders think it still is). The "family farm" is now an agribusiness that is heavily subsidized by FedGov-- families may own them, but aside from a few remaining small farms (often dairy operations in the more rolling areas near waterways), they are fewer, larger and are definitely big business. The small towns that depended on having a lot of relatively close small family farms (each with many more children/hands in the old days) continue to die and become either bedroom communities, a collection of meth lab/Section 8 housed going to seed or semi-ghost towns with maybe an agriculture-related business or two, but that is about all... and those related businesses naturally depend on the farmers, so they are indirectly dependent on the government.

Except for the ag-related industries (the various Deere works and their vendors, etc), there isn't much left here for big employers other than insurance outfits in Des Moines and the local/county/state/federal government. Nowadays, many smaller communities offer only public sector jobs, jobs working for contractors who build/maintain government infrastructure (roads, schools, buildings, etc) or at the branch of a local bank. IOW, most jobs here actually revolve in some way around the government teat, and that makes it like a perpetual motion machine, in that it really doesn't - more factually, CAN'T - actually work without power from the outside.

I'm a lifelong, fourth-generation Iowan, and the Iowa I grew up in has been dead for around 30-odd years, but it took me a while to see that it was gone. Western Iowa sucks less than Eastern Iowa as a general thing, if only because Western Iowans are less likely to aspire towards being Chicago or Madison.

Mr. niteowl77

[US Navy Vet]

That is the BEST desciprion of Iowa that I have heard. You may want to throw in the in the 1940s ALL Big Cities and ALL small towns School Disticts conspired with the Iowa Legislature to KILL the One-Room Country School System.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Good overview. I’ve been away from my home state since ‘86. When ever I’m back for a visit, I have a hard time believing the changes...