re: The Culture of Incompetence in South Louisiana

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We're fighting to win battles, and that can probably keep you here another 10-15 years but we've already lost the war.

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I think the beginning of the end was when government set asides were introduced, circa late 70s, early 80s, killed a lot of small businesses drove a lot of talented workers from the state, La has never come close to recovering

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I bet Houston is better. Good riddance.

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louisiana does suck but as pointed out, the specific problem he mentioned are a problem in 95% + of the country.

are there areas where it isnt? absolutely but you can find that here if you go to a whole foods. even rouses and some of the really nice krogers dont have the issues.

but in general you have those exact issues across the country and unless you live in a suburb of houston, have the same problem there.

Bye

You must accept the coonass way of life. They’re like Yankees. They know everything. Except everything around them sucks.

OP, I've lived in 7 major metros in my life (+ one small town) and spent months of time on long term projects in dozens of other locations across this country. I don't know everything but I'm going to share my thoughts on this based on my perspectives.

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I'm not talking about government. They are incompetent everywhere.

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This is not true.

Our suburb of Memphis (Collierville) had a very well run government when we were there. Like all governments, it gets bloated - but they got things done. The police were excellent, the public school system was the best in the region, and public works with the exception of MLGW were VERY responsive. We moved away about 8 years ago and I hope they haven't declined.

Memphis city government was an absolute joke, and possibly the worst I've seen. Huge contrast between Memphis and Germantown/Collierville governments.

Local government where we lived in Pittsburgh was more bloated and taxes were a little higher. They were sort of managing a decline but were still mostly responsive.

Chicago was a fricking disaster on most fronts, but local government improved greatly when we moved from Chicago to Kane County. Taxes were insanely high and government was far too bloated in both cases. State government in Illinois was the worst I've experienced.

My thesis here is that you don't have to accept shitty government. It's not universal across the country. It's not even universal across Louisiana. There's often a huge variance between neighboring towns are parishes.

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I'm talking about the inability for private businesses and their employees to do anything correctly or with any sort of speed.

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I don't agree with this one. There are a lot of private local businesses in Louisiana that are highly efficient and deliver a good product. Suggest you patronize them over their less competitive counterparts.

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We can go to chain pharmacy that has one employee working and half of their shelves empty, or we can go to the local pharmacy that's only open bankers hours and charges 3x as much.

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Chain pharmacies are notorious for treating their employees like shite. We've had major problems with their lack efficiency (often caused by staffing issues) in Houston, Memphis, Atlanta, Tampa, Pittsburgh, Baton Rouge, and Chicago.

By contrast, my local pharmacy in the small town where I live now is actually extremely efficient. But you are correct that their hours are less convenient than the big chains. I've made that same observation in every city where I've lived - it's not specific to Louisiana.

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We can go to the chain grocery store with all self-checkout lanes, or we can go to the local grocery store with one cashier who is on her phone the entire time.

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Your grocery store sucks. And you are making an unfair generalization about all independent grocers in Louisiana.

Louisiana's indie grocery store game is damn strong, but they vary in quality just like the chain stores. I can't speak to much for this one because I there just wasn't a big indie grocery store presence in any place I've lived outside of Louisiana or Chicago - but in both of those cases, they were typically very well run.

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My wife's doc retired and I called my doctor practice to see if she could start over there. Three weeks for a new patient to be seen.

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There is a shortage of physicians in many parts of the country. That's not specific to Louisiana, but it is particularly acute in Louisiana. This is also flu season and holiday season. My wife is a physician and everyone in her practice has been extremely busy - and this is the time of year when staff is trying to take personal time off.

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No one knows how to drive.

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Oh you'd hate Memphis, Chicago, the entire east coast, and most of Texas....the difference is that all of those places have better highway infrastructure. That's a huge help.

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No one knows how to use a trash can.

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Is this about litter? Because Louisiana does have a big problem here. I suspect it's because people tend to toss crap into the bed of their pickup truck that eventually catches the wind and flies away.

But I can't explain the cause with certainty. I agree 100% with your observation if I'm interpreting it correctly.

The midwest in particular seems to respect their surroundings a little more. But they might also just put more effort and funding towards cleaning up public spaces.

What surprises me about Louisiana and SE Texas is the element of the population that seems totally fine with litter and not returning their shopping carts to the stalls after they are done. It's a huge portion of the population in both areas.

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We can go to the chain grocery store with all self-checkout lanes, or we can go to the local grocery store with one cashier who is on her phone the entire time.

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Publix is the gold standard.

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This is why Louisiana is ultimately unsustainable and the only viable option longterm is to leave. The future is not bright for this shithole. We let it get too fricked up and now there's no way to correct it.

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Yep. You see it in small towns throughout LA. They were the canary in a coal mine. People raised kids there then the kid didn't come back home. So the towns died. We actively try and kill any jobs that will come there in the name of climate change and ship them overseas to pollute worse there.

Now the big cities are dying just like the small towns. Jobs and employees are going elsewhere. People raising kids that will never return after college.

The people remaining are the grifters, con-artists, politicians and leeches.

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Our suburb of Memphis (Collierville) had a very well run government when we were there. Like all governments, it gets bloated - but they got things done. The police were excellent, the public school system was the best in the region, and public works with the exception of MLGW were VERY responsive. We moved away about 8 years ago and I hope they haven't declined.

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The People's Republic of Collierville.

A high tax base with virtually no crime will make any government look good.

Just don't go more than 3 miles over the speed limit or put up colored Christmas lights.

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If I leave this place... and it's looking more likely every day.

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Take your crybaby arse on then.

There are several parts to the why to this.

Most businesses are not gonna pay their employees a wage that would get quality people in those spots who are loyal and happy to be there.

If businesses started doing that, you would have awesome service and great employees working