re: Why Louisiana Stays Poor

The larger argument here is that the state tax code isn’t friendly to companies so they’ve developed a strategy with ITEP that strips local municipalities of resources and the state keeps their money. It’s not a problem for the state so they won’t fix it.

This isn't about corruption in government, tax policies, etc. Those are just symptoms of the real cause: a shitty education system.

While we are still teaching the ABCs and 123s (barely, in some cases), the greater push (like schools everywhere) is that your feelings are more important than personal responsibility. It's not yet as bad as some places on the West Coast (where they debate no longer even assigning grades or testing students on what they've learned because... inequality or some shite), but the lack of needed life skills (like balancing a budget), the dearth of apprenticeship programs, etc missing from our educational system is killing the state.

Why?

Because that foundation of personal responsibility is what the rest of a well-functioning society is built on. We've a more rural/agrarian state (which requires a certain level of responsibility to work in), but as technology has replaced the need for more workers those workers have turned more and more to depending on the government tete for their continued (and generational) existence. So as time and technology has progressed, so have we seen an increase in the waning of personal responsibility (trash on the sides of our roads is a solid example of this).

Irresponsible adults don't magically begin teaching responsibility to their offspring, thus it sadly falls upon schools to begin teaching this. Also, it's not an overnight fix but rather one spanning generations (this problem has been occurring and increasing for generations so there will never be the overnight fix many want/expect). This means any progress we could ever see would be in degrees over decades and would need to be kept from being changed by the federal Dept of Education's failing educational philosophers. In other words, I don't see it ever changing because we will never have enough people in the positions to make that difference with enough balls to not only do so, but to stay the course despite pressure from naysayers and status quo types.