Growing economic trends bode ill for rural America.
"We are witnessing a growing economic and political divide between urban and rural America," wrote Axios last week, pointing to some significant data. "Roughly half of all U.S. zip codes still have lower total employment than they did in 2007….Rural Americans have far fewer hospitals, workout facilities, and health specialists….Big employers and better technology makes cities magnets for better teachers, schools, and specialized training…. Democrats own the fast-growing cities and Republicans rule rural."
The Economic Innovation Group reported, "Today's jobs are going almost exclusively to people with education beyond high school, and those jobs are going to thriving communities…. Most of today's distressed communities have seen zero net gains in employment and business establishment since 2000."
Uh, Mississippi is pretty much all rural and full of distressed communities, are these trends going to whack us even more?
Here's a hint.
Last week at a Focus on Jackson gathering hosted by the Wise Carter law firm, three Jackson hospital executives and the head of the state hospital association highlighted the massive economic impact hospitals have on the Jackson economy, e.g. nearly 30% of salaries and 23% of jobs are hospital-related. The gist was that Jacksonians should take pride in their hospitals and the economic and health care benefits they provide, while at the same time understand that sustaining them is crucial to the city's economy and advanced medical care for state residents.
While regulatory, political, and demographic trends were said to pose financial challenges for Jackson's hospitals, the outlook presented suggested a more dismal future for Mississippi's rural hospitals. From financially struggling regional hospitals to cash-strapped small hospitals, the prognosis was for additional hospital closures. As this happens, the need for Jackson hospitals to pick up the slack will only grow.
No solutions emerged during the presentations.
No solutions are likely to emerge from state politicians currently in power either. Their focus is on tax cuts, reducing state spending, and upcoming elections, not on sustaining health care economic engines in rural areas or addressing other trends impacting rural communities. Indeed, there is no state plan to help small towns survive, much less thrive.
The budget recommendations presented by Gov. Phil Bryant and legislative leaders were keep-things-going-like-they-are proposals. Indications were that no controversial or challenging issues will be confronted during next year's legislative session in order to keep things calm just before statewide elections. Maybe there will be a token pay raise to make teachers happy. Likely there will be some additional goodies given out for favored businesses and communities.
In light of all this you might want to keep the following in the back of your mind through next November. It comes from a just released Pew Trust report on the growth of personal income since the Great Recession.
"The second-longest U.S. economic expansion has played out unevenly across the states," the report begins. It shows top states, most west of the Mississippi, had average annual income growth of 2.5% to 3.3% since 2007 (the U.S. averaged 1.9%). Bottom states averaged less than 1%. There were three, Connecticut at .8% followed by Illinois and, of course, Mississippi at .9%.
Since you'll wonder, neighboring states came in like this, Tennessee 2.1%, Arkansas 1.6%, Alabama 1.2%, and Louisiana 1.0%.
Crawford is a syndicate columnist from Meridian.
Kingfish note: Mr. Crawford brings up a subject that should be discussed. There is a problem virtually ignored by the state leadership. It is true rural hospitals are in trouble. However, the big hospitals are in trouble as well. MBMC was losing millions and forced to merge with the Baptist medical system in Memphis. St. Dominic wasn't taken over by Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge because it's balance sheet was in great shape. UMMC's financial problems are well-known. The hospital industry in Mississippi is a leading employer yet no one is really discussing how many hospitals - large and small - are losing money.
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Bill Crawford: Forum Hints at Rural Gloom
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23 comments:
For as much as we lament the future of Jackson (virtually HOPELESS) we MUST keep in mind that the Great and Soverign state of Mississippi (with just a FEW community exceptions) is not far behind!! DONT ASSUME Jackson is an island!! Jackson may make the rest of the state look “good” but that’s like being damned w faint praise!😳😩
Interesting article about rural America dilemma in recent N.Y. Times article:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/14/opinion/rural-america-trump-decline.html
When I graduated from college, I chose to stay in Mississippi. Since college, I had hoped things would be better for Mississippi. Instead, I'm now telling my grandchildren not to make the mistake that I did. This is not a Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, black, white, rural, or urban issue. And, there are no simple answers to our problems.
The best teachers DO NOT focus on big cities, in fact they stay away. What BS.
Excellent post.
Hospitals cannot lose money and stay in business forever.
"...three Jackson hospital executives and the head of the state hospital association highlighted the massive economic impact hospitals have on the Jackson economy..."
Did they lament the fact that almost every rural hospital has either been closed down or provided a (temporary) lifeboat by a larger city hospital?
Meanwhile, according to the news up that way, the hospital in Clarksdale is again on life support. The group that was supposed to take it over filed bankruptcy and it's temporarily being kept alive by money infused by a large hospital. It will soon die'. The I.V. Drip Bag is bubbling low.
People who are inclined to work will find work, as always, even in Mississippi. Our unemployment rate is lower than ever. However, it's become quite popular to hook up with welfare and disability. The wave of people on disability in this state is alarming. I'd venture a guess that at least a third of them are fraudulently sucking that system with the help of local physicians. And of course following this post we'll hear from the melon-heads who tell us only minimum wage jobs are available and nobody is trained.
And it's people like 10:49 who will always forecast doom and gloom while telling us all we are wallowing in helplessness. Yes, Jackson is indeed 'an island', but, it's just the largest among a string of little islands in this state where sucking the government tit and wallowing in a sense of victim-hood wash over the shores of those islands night and day. There are lifeboats available, but nobody wants to leave the island.
Gilligan never really wanted to leave the island. The longer he stayed there, the more attractive he found it.
I thought that Capitalist Commercial Healthcare was the simply the finest and the answer to all the healthcare problems.
So you are saying for-profit hospitals who cant turn a profit are closing and leaving everyone without easy access to healthcare?
Oh my, well it is a good thing healthcare is a privilege and not a right. I guess hospitals should only exist where they can turn a nice tidy and pay enormous staff salaries!
It is a privilege, after all!
...Healthcare is a privilege, not a right
...The VA is a good example of bad socialized medicine
...I shouldn't have to pay for other peoples' bad decisions
Cognitive Dissonance is the mental discomfort (psychological stress) experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values. This discomfort is triggered by a situation in which a person’s belief clashes with new evidence perceived by that person. When confronted with facts that contradict personal beliefs, ideals, and values, people will find a way to resolve the contradiction in order to reduce their discomfort
He compares Ms’s growth to neighboring states like we are behind, and we are, but they ain’t growing in rural areas. Tennessee is booming because of Nashville, Alabama because of Birmingham and Huntsville, Arkansas because of Little Rock and NW Arkansas. It’s not rural areas in those states, and would probably find similar situations in those rural communities as we do in MS. However, those states have areas that companies and individuals are making investments, growing the number of jobs, and are attractive places for young college graduates to move. That’s why those states are seeing success, and until MIssissippi has an area that is attractive for People to move, we will continue to lag behind. And that area won’t be Philadelphia or Booneville, no offense to those places.
Crawford and his type has good intentions but they think this is 1950 and every spot in road needs a schools district, a hospital that is full service, and everyone lives behind a picked fence. While it would be great, that’s just not how the world is due to technology and other factors.
It only gets worse, Louisiana is about to get a $17 billion LNG plant. We get a Tire plant.
Very few companies want to tarnish their reputation by coming to Mississippi.
The NYT story is a must read. The rural areas are gone forever.
Correction 4:51- we "bought" a tire plant.
Actually, teachers and most other people do gravitate to cities after graduation.....problem is in your small little Jackson vs Madison mind, the rest of the world says you moved to a city if you graduate and buy a house in a metropolitan area, even if you live in a suburb. The rest of the world looks at a map and says that person lives in "Jackson" no matter how many times you say "Madison the City". You certainly are not in a rural area, you are in the Jackson MSA.
Health care wasn't always only for the privileged.
In my lifetime, I remember when the Hippocratic Oath was enough to insure healthcare.
When you were sick, you could see a doctor that day. Sometimes doctors even made house calls.
Those who were sick but poor bartered eggs or sewing/weaving or fish and meat they caught and hunted or their labor and skills to " pay" the doctor.
Medicine was a profession and other professionals like lawyers, bartered their services as well.
One of my grandfathers paid for the sharecroppers and their families on his farm to be seen by our family doctor and my other grandfather paid for his small business employees. They created systems of barter/cash with the doctors and lawyers in the community that worked well.
The cities in our state had charity hospitals.
Professionals understood that they were essential to a functioning society. They understood they were a part of a community.
They knew that without healthy people to work and defend , and without justice societies large and small fail.
Men were admired for their honor and honesty and knew they were not the center of any universe and that money wasn't the key to a happy life.
11:32 sez...."This is not a Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, black, white, rural, or urban issue."
Ok, genius...so, what's left? You obviously do not understand the concept of common denominators.
When you drill down deeper than you have so far, you will find at least two of them, maybe more.
You folks better start listening to Come before all is lost.
8:21 AM It is all about money now. Money and nothing else.
As bad as things are here, at least we are smarter than the people in the Bronx that elected Ocasio-Cortez. She has the distinction of being the least intelligent person to serve in this or any Congress.
Enoch Sanders makes more sense than Ocasio-Cortez.
What time is the Flynn Sentencing? You really want to talk about someone's itellengece...and you voted for who?
9:58am
I'm not 11:32 but the " common denominator" is " American citizen".
It's the Russians who have convinced you that all issues are partisan.
We are in this sinking boat together and instead of arguing about how best to bail the water or blaming the boat builder for making a crappy boat or finding fault with the other occupants in the boat, we best work together to get the damn water out of the boat! Once we've done that, we can make sure more sea worthy boats are built!
And, if there's someone in the boat who has expertise is keeping boats afloat, maybe, just maybe, you should listen to the expert instead of your " gut"!
@ December 16, 2018 at 10:49 AM - well stated. Damn shame more Mississippians do not understand that. They rather laugh and point at the condition of Jackson. A strong Jackson bodes for a strong Mississippi.
@ December 16, 2018 at 4:51 PM - while Louisiana may "gain" that plant, they are no different than Mississippi, with the corporate welfare they provide to the corporations in that state.
Here's a link to a video on YouTube produced by a group called "Together Louisiana" - it will give you a different perspective on how companies are getting over on the state.
https://youtu.be/RWTic9btP38
Could you imagine if a group of Mississippians got together and conducted this kind of research on the Mississippi legislature and point out why nothing ever gets done?
The plant jobs in La. start @80k, it took my brother 15 years to get to 50k at Nissan.
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