The recent Wall Street Journal article about Mississippi that caused a stir wasn’t all that earth-shattering.
The main question it posed — Why is Mississippi being left behind as most of the rest of the South booms? — has been asked for a decade, if not longer, by people inside and outside of the government in this state.
Perhaps the Journal’s article got heightened attention because the newspaper is more highly regarded in Republican circles than are other national newspapers, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.
If conservative publications are wondering what’s going on in Mississippi, and not just the so-called “liberal media,” maybe there is something about which to worry.
The Journal’s reporting lays out several economic, social and health indicators that suggest Mississippi is being left behind while other nearby states are thriving.
- Mississippi’s population from 2022 to 2023 increased by a paltry 750 while the rest of the South added about 1.4 million people.
- Mississippi’s civilian labor force has shrunk 1.4% from a decade earlier while Tennessee’s has increased by almost 11%.
- Mississippi’s labor force participation rate is the lowest in the nation at 53.9%, compared to a U.S. average of 62.7%.
- About 12.6% of the state’s population under the age of 65 has a disability, compared to a U.S. average of 8.9%.
- About 24% of Mississippi residents 25 years or older hold a college degree, more than 10 percentage points below the national average.
- Only about half of the graduates from Mississippi’s public universities work in the state three years after graduation.
What’s going on? Why is the state having such a hard time attracting new residents and holding on to its younger, college-educated class? And why aren’t more people working, or at least looking for a job?
Gov. Tate Reeves has his theories. He told the Journal that only about half of the state’s working-age adults are employed because the state’s generous retirement system allows public employees to retire at a relatively young age. He also said the state’s low cost of living allows couples to survive on one income.
Reeves also said that because young adults, including recent college graduates, are gravitating toward large cities, Mississippi is at a disadvantage since its only real metropolitan area, Jackson, is not only comparatively small but troubled by high crime and a dysfunctional city government.
There is some truth in what Reeves says, but it’s not the full story.
All of these states that are growing faster than Mississippi are doing so because they have major cities that are young-people magnets.
Tennessee has Nashville. Alabama has Birmingham and Huntsville. Georgia has Atlanta.
All of these fast-growing cities are also either heavily Democratic or moving in that direction. Call these cities’ politics “liberal” or call them “progressive,” but they are not the politics that dominate in heavily rural Mississippi.
As much as the troubles in Jackson have been a turnoff to new residents, so have been some of the policies pushed by Reeves and others within the state’s GOP leadership.
The governor operates as if Mississippi is one of the wealthiest states in the country rather than one of the poorest.
He has fought against Medicaid expansion for more than a decade, and he just won reelection without budging from that opposition. He doesn’t seem to grasp that his refusal to expand Medicaid has created a disincentive to work because, without expansion, it’s easier to obtain health-care coverage if you are unemployed than if you are in a low-wage job.
This past week, it was reported that Reeves’ administration has decided not to participate in a federal program that would give poor families an extra $120 in “food stamps” during the summer for every eligible child they have. Two state agencies say that’s because they don’t have the resources to adequately implement the program, although a representative from the governor’s office also threw in that Reeves wasn’t for anything that would “expand the welfare state.”
For Mississippi to be a social safety net outlier — one of only 10 states to reject Medicaid expansion, one of only 15 to reject additional food stamps — might go over well in conservative circles, but it comes across to those of a Democratic persuasion as hard-hearted and reactionary, and not a place where they will find many kindred spirits.
If Mississippi wants more people to move here and more of those already here to stay, it’s going to have to modify its politics. That means Reeves and others in the GOP monolith have to accept the risk of losing some power. That’s not something they are going to want to do, no matter what The Wall Street Journal reports.
- Contact Tim Kalich at 662-581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
