re: MS baws, tell me about Delta State University

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What’s causing the decline of the delta?

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In a word: farming.

Prior to the 80s/90s, you needed a decent amount of people to run a good-sized farm (we farmed about 1k acres and generally had 5-6 permanent farm hand positions). These were low to no-skill positions which paid minimum wage, but allowed for learning manual labor skills (engine repair, carpentry, etc).

For the Delta (and a lot of the South), cotton was the primary commodity. While increased automation throughout the 80s meant farmers needed fewer employees, the economics of the 80s killed thousands of farms.

Many farms run from short-term-loan to short-term-loan. They take out a loan at the beginning of the planting season then pay it back once they sell their harvest (at least, that's how it was when I was a kid in the 70s-80s). When inflation began to run rampant at the end of the 70s, Paul Volcker drove interest rates up to just over 20% at one point in order to try to bring inflation back down. While it worked, it caused many farmers to go under as they couldn't pay their notes.

This not only caused many farms to fail, but the many small towns and communities which were basically run on farming dollars went under as well. From towns like Ferriday to communities like Fort Necessity, the domino effect of farming's collapse rippled though these areas as pharmacies, dry cleaners, etc. no longer had enough customers to continue to operate. As those who owned those businesses shut them down then moved off, other businesses eventually followed as well.

The former farm workers, not having much in the way of marketable skills and now absolutely no place to work, either moved away to find other jobs or stayed and increased the amount of government assistance they qualified for. Those who stayed (which were many) ended up having kids who also had no way to learn skills nor places to use any they could develop.



Where this has been very prominent has been the Delta area as it was so deeply dependent on farming (but really you can see it anywhere farming is a foundation for the local economy).

So you now have fewer farm owners who make decent to good livings, and a lot of poor people with few (if any) opportunities but just enough welfare funding to not have enough incentive to move away to try for something better.