Sunday, July 17, 2022

Bill Crawford: Mississippi Continues to Struggle in National Rankings

Mississippi does not fare well on most national rankings. That trend continued as WalletHub.com published a series of rankings on multiple categories that compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Mississippi ranked at or near the bottom on most.

Innovative states – Mississippi ranked at the bottom. Among factors considered the state ranked at the bottom on share of venture capital spending per capita, STEM professionals, and science and engineering graduates and among the bottom three on share of technology companies, eighth grade math and science performance, and innovation environment.

Impact from immigration – Mississippi ranked at the bottom. The state was among the bottom three on brain gain, immigrant work force, and international students.

At-risk youth – Louisiana edged out Mississippi for the state with the most at-risk youth. Mississippi ranked at the bottom on youth labor force participation rate, third from the bottom on youth poverty, and fifth from the bottom on obesity.

Wallet Hub factoid: “At least 70% of young adults today are ineligible to join the U.S. military because they fail academic, moral or health qualifications.”

Safest states – Mississippi ranked next to last. Notably the state ranked 23rd on personal and residential safety but 49th on financial safety, 50th on road safety, and 47th on workplace safety.

Best places to retire – Mississippi ranked next to last. Notably the state ranked 1st on adjusted cost of living and 2nd on lowest annual cost of in-home services, but 50th on quality of life, 49th on health care, and 50th on life expectancy.

Health care systems – Mississippi ranked 48th, barely ahead of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Alabama. The state ranked last on infant mortality rates and within the bottom five on percentage of insured adults age 19 to 64, physicians per capita, and heart disease rates.

Gambling addictions – Mississippi ranked fourth worst, behind Nevada, South Dakota, and Montana.  The state was in the bottom five on gambling friendliness and gambling problems and treatment.

Best state to find a job – Mississippi ranked 45th. The state ranked in the bottom 10 on job availability, economic environment, and average starting salary.

Quality of public schools – Mississippi ranked 45th, ahead of Oklahoma, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Louisiana, and New Mexico.

Early education systems – Mississippi ranked 35th. Notably, Arkansas ranked number one. 

Most sinful states – Mississippi ranked 27th. The state ranked among the most for laziness and greed, but among the least for vanity and lust.

Among other rankings, Mississippi ranked 28th among most patriotic states and 40th among states with most racial equality.

Hmmm.

Interesting that Arkansas ranked number one on early education systems, an investment that research shows will benefit other rankings significantly over time.
Hello Mississippi.  

PS: Out of 150 major cities, Hub Wallet ranked Jackson next to worst as a “best run” city, just ahead of Detroit. Among the factors considered Jackson ranked 146th on financial stability, 98th on education, 120th on health, 141st on safety, 122nd on economy, and 149th on infrastructure and pollution. 

“Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it” – Proverbs 13:11.

Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson

 

45 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now rank Mississippi among third world, agrarian states next, Bill!

Let’s see how we fair against Zimbabwe, Haiti, and Ukraine!

Anonymous said...

The company I work for can’t keep programmers. We have a proprietary software to run our system, and we need a minimum of 6 programmers but probably 10 to run efficiently. Currently, have only 3.

Anonymous said...

The largest population centers in MS are run by the dems. 'nuf said.

Anonymous said...

Hard to argue with most of that. I’ve witnessed it all my life. But the health category is over weighted (ha). It’s not as if you will become unhealthy if you move here. It’s just that so many choose to live unhealthy.

Anonymously Delightful Resident said...

As always, common denominators are NEVER mentioned. Convenient omission or political correctness? You decide.

But, as to immigrants, looks as if those conducting the analysis failed to visit Scott County and the City of Canton. Or maybe they were tallying LEGAL immigrants.

Mr. Crawford's hometown of Meridian contributed heavily to all the negatives.

I, for one, appreciate these surveys that might keep visitors from California, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Vermont the hell outa here!

Anonymous said...

As for columnists, at the bottom as well.

Anonymous said...

Nothing new here, BUT:

Has Mississippi ever had a single elected leader who looked at these numbers and took 1 iota of responsibility?

Anonymous said...

The one constant?

Tate and R rule for the last 30 years plus.

Anonymous said...

Mississippi's leadership, both political and financial, even when they make efforts to move forward insist on doing so on their own terms or not at all. This means that the status quo must always be preserved. Those schools who are first remain first, those neighborhoods that are the elite remain the elite, those groups who are peons will remain peons, etc. everything has it's order and remains in that order now and forever. That is the nature of plantation culture and the nature of Mississippi. If things get better, they will get better within that context. More than likely they might get a little better for some, but not better than those other states who have no pecking order to preserve.

Anonymous said...

Tate and R rule for the last 30 years plus.

Revisionist history.

Anonymous said...

Every employee of a MS governmental body should have performance goals and objectives tied to income at risk and bonuses.

Anonymous said...

We know Mississippi or any state can't leave the Union. That's been settled for a while now.

But if Mississippi is such an awful place, can't the Union kick the state out of its once bright and shiny union? It would burnish the tarnished numbers of the former Number One, the USA, in terms of quality of life measures among Western countries.

I don't fathom what makes the Union want to hold on to Mississippi if it's so backward.

Anonymous said...

At least one person has gained tremendous wealth by being a Representative and that is Bennie Thompson who is Chairman of the J6 Committee and has a net worth of $5 million plus. It pays to feed at the trough and to keep your people poor. I really hope the “trolls” who circle this site like a bunch of buzzards get to read this and know they are part of the problem. They keep enabling him and he does nothing for them or the State. But he sure likes enriching himself doesn’t he?

Anonymous said...

"Mississippi's leadership, both political and financial, even when they (appear to) make efforts to move forward insist on doing so on their own terms or not at all. This means that the status quo must always be preserved...." - Circa 1950

Well said.

Anonymous said...

Wallethub.com isn’t exactly a peer reviewed scholarly publication….

Anonymous said...

Good ole Bill Crawford, if he can't say something bad about Mississippi, he doesn't say anything at all.

It must be hard on Bill, a perfect specimen living in an imperfect state.

Anonymous said...

Living here does not lead to bad health. We have a lot of people who make bad health decisions but that is on our crappy educational system. Some people choose to be healthy here, but many do not. Just another piece of evidence of our stupidity. Heart attacks know no race or creed. You eat shit and sit on the couch…..

Anonymous said...

This is trash. Umm, hello? Back-to-back National Champions for Mississippi State and Ole Miss in college baseball!

More championships in other sports are on the horizon too.

Forget any other factors. College sports is where it’s at down here in the South. SEC Network, ESPNU, Finebaum, 247Sports.com, and 105.9 all day baby! LFG!!!

Anonymous said...


10:04, well I can remember growing up and hearing the sad same story about
these numbers. Every time a list came out, Mississippi was always on the bottom.

BUT, I've never had a problem with healthcare or getting treatment. Education worked fine, but then we had to dumb it down for the woke crowd to feel good.
I never wanted for a job, because there was plenty of work to be had if you weren't lazy. It was the same for my peers.

AND YOU KNOW WHAT, THE WHOLE STATE WAS DIM-O-KRAT during that era!!!!

Today's whiney liberal crowd like to try blame Republicans, but it seems that the "Red" sections of the state are getting along just fine.... My question is, "Why do the "blue" sections continue the same problems across the state and can't do anything to fix the problems.

So according to you and the other limp noodle liberal/Dim-O-Krats it should be the other way around. What's the problem?

Anonymous said...

Well it’s Mississippi, sooooo…… Your choices are Republican bible thumping hypocrites or getting robbed/shot at by Democrats. Anything else is “you ain’t from around here is ya?”

Anonymous said...

11:42 he isn’t even worth a Million just google it and you can see for yourself. As for as him doing his job, what’s he to do, the facts speak for themselves . You don’t have to listen.

Anonymous said...

12:49 In case you haven't noticed red and blue aren't the colors that determine much in the history of the state of Mississippi. The status of other colors means much more. Always has.

Anonymous said...

Also, CNBC last week came out with its list of best states for business in the US and we came in 50th.

Anonymous said...

Motto for the Democratic Party:

1. Spend other people's money
2. Blame others for their problems
3. Talk about what you want to do "but your hands are tied"
4. Put on a show for constituents & come out smelling like a rose....uhhhh mo money

Same Song .... Same Ol'Dance

Anonymous said...

The opine of a guy who has never worked a day in this life

Anonymous said...

If only our red and blue leaders could work together, we may can succeed. It seems like our state needs marriage counseling to learn to stop pointing the finger. Imagine what we could accomplish if both parties compromised and worked with common goals.

Anonymous said...

The Republican party has controlled the house, senate, and governorship of Mississippi for the last 11 years straight.

https://ballotpedia.org/Party_control_of_Mississippi_state_government

How do we rank in adherence to the GOP party line?

Anonymous said...

Commenters on this blog keep saying “get out of Jackson fast”. It seems to me that if you are going to uproot and move you might as well get completely out of Mississippi.

Anonymous said...

Welfare is the problem. Mississippi paid over $94 million in welfare benefits to just over a dozen people - Phil Bryant, Deborah Bryant, Brett Favre, Nanny New, and others. We are still the poorest state in the nation.

Anonymous said...

Mississippi is awful, specifically the dysfunctional and archaic culture. I lived in NE JXN for 26 years, was able to get out thank the lord. I am a proud Southcentral Texan now, fantastic quality of life, economy and opportunities galore! I encourage all my millennial friends in MS to leave as well.

With regard to the rankings and data presented in this blog- you know what they say, "Thank god for Mississippi!"

Google that phrase! They have a whole Wikipedia page on it! How embarrassing!

Anonymous said...

4:35 hit it on the head. If you have a brain and ability, get out while you still can.

Mississippi and it's leadership has been aware of the poor performance for years now, yet it still underfunds education. It still passes stupid laws that make it look like a backwater (it is).

This abortion stuff is a great example. Do you think that it makes innovators want to move to mississippi?

Some of you idiots will say "fine, go to California, we don't need you"

But the truth is you do, the above polls demonstrate that.

Anonymous said...

I'm with 11:51. Read their methodology on education. One of the variable is total amount spent education without regards to the state population. Kind of a dumb variable.

Anonymous said...

Does Tate still deny the fact that the "brain drain" in Mississippi is real?

Anonymous said...

Looks like changing the flag didn’t fix anything.

Never listen to a Leftist who appeals to corporatism.

Anonymous said...

7:48, I grew up in south central Texas and lived there on and off over the years. I live in Mississippi by choice. I'm glad you found your bliss. Please don't piss on mine.

Anonymous said...

FYI, here's another list of the 10 worst states to live, and Mississippi didn't even make the worst 10 (published 7.14.22):

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/07/14/these-10-states-are-americas-worst-places-to-live-in-2022.html

10.Nevada
9. Tennessee
8. Indiana
7. New Mexico
6. Louisiana
5. Missouri
4. South Carolina
3. Oklahoma
2. Texas
1. Arizona

Note: This comment is directed more at the comments above than at the points Crawford made in the post.

Anonymous said...

About a year and a half ago there was a survey published that said Jackson was top rated as a place to do business. Remember that?

Anonymous said...

1:45 speaks the truth, you-all. It's not a matter of red or blue. If all Democrats defected to the Republican Party and all Republicans defected to the Democratic Party simultaneously, would it make a difference in Jackson, in anywhere? Answer: No.

Black administrations have their ways of conducting the people's business; whites have their ways of conducting the people's business. Those ways will be the same, it matters not what political appellation you want to paint it, red or blue.

To put too fine a point on it for a blog comment, everything in Mississippi -- indeed, in the USA, actually -- everything will eventually concern race at some point, black and white, not red and blue

Anonymous said...

12:53 Changing the flag removed an impediment, an eyesore, a backwards and harmful image which was an additional weight around the neck of an already drowning state. That's all, don't expect more.

Anonymous said...

In related news, water is wet.

Anonymous said...

5:01 a.m.: No, I do not remember that. Please post a link.

Anonymous said...

Talk to me about consolidating districts and removing idiotic, over-paid, redundant administration and school superintendents before you ever approach me to spend more tax dollars on students.

Because every jack wagon who trumpets that mantra wants to fund "Education" which seems to mean, another idiot in a bowtie with a PhD that likes to use woke feel good buzz words and provide no actual return on investment for the students.

Anonymous said...

12:32 Here is the link you requested. Jackson, MS ranks 11th for most affordable cities to live in. Every place has pros and cons. Here’s a “pro” for Jackson:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/clark.com/personal-finance-credit/investing-retirement/affordable-places-to-retire/amp/

Anonymous said...

4:22, Thanks for the link. It lists Jackson at the 11th most affordable place for retirees. That's a win for Jackson, no doubt.

But, 5:01 a.m. still hasn't backed up the claim that "a year and a half ago there was a survey published that said Jackson was top rated as a place to do business."

Anonymous said...

At 11:31, yeah an “impediment” that fixing didn’t change anything, even remotely for the better. Like all the leftists in Oxford and RINOs in Jackson screamed.

I repeat, DID NOT FIX ANYTHING. And all of that was inferred from a jerryrigged poll made by the MEC who had a prior vested interest in changing the flag.

Appeals to corporatism is why we are at where we are now.


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