That is what pisses me off. Here we have a great deep deep red state and it is worse off then extremely liberal Seattle. Something is not right. Red states are supposed to be the cream of the top. How can we sell our message if red states are full of poverty. No wonder why we are losing elections right and left. We need to fix our red states ASAP!
Here in NC, where the state-level problems are many and series...
we turned over EVERY state office to the Republicans...
their first two priorities were paying off large campaign contributors with public money (all very legally)...
and spending weeks arguing whether we should allow sharia law here (to appease the religious kooks).
meanwhile our 62 new taxes haven’t fixed the educational system, crumbling roads, soaring state debt, etc. etc.
People wonder why I’m not voting any more
Well, to be fair, Seattle’s liberalism is born of success without God. The more successful you are, the more you have to lose. Also, you are so busy that you need others doing stuff for you - stuff like raising your kids. Success kind of breeds liberalism. It’s actually all covered in Fred Reed’s excellent article, “The Suicide of Marlboro Man”.
Poor areas are often poor because people really don’t need all that much to be happy. Heck, where I live there are people actually making a living selling stuff on Ebay, and with a bunch of booths at antique malls or peddler’s mall. I know one guy that has six booths at a single peddler’s mall. That’s $720 a month. And he makes a living with these.
People just don’t need as much out here. I’m an example. I lived it up in Seattle but I’ve “been there, done that” and besides, Louisville has most of it and is a lot friendlier and much more parking/traffic friendly.
But now on our property, we need never leave the place to get all the enjoyment out of life that we need. The only extravagance is $80 a month for satellite internet. We can live off this land. And just walking it, trimming it, growing stuff on it, and enjoying each other’s company makes it our own personal “Garden of Eden, but with extra chiggers and ticks.”
And we could live here on $2000 a month. The house payment for the last house we lived in in Seattle was ~$3,200. But the same federal tax categories exist for both places. What is middle class in Seattle is “rich” where I live, but the Fed. tax is paultry. It’s wonderful.
But I ramble. Cities have prosperity because they are centers of commerce - and there are a LOT of poor people there that support the infrastructure. And the cost of living is so high that you HAVE to make good money just to keep up.
Fred’s article:
http://www.fredoneverything.net/Liddy.shtml