re: Will Louisiana ever improve?

U is dumb

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You haven't traveled the country extensively if you think Louisiana is the worst place. Go spend a week in Vineland, NJ or Ripley, WV and get back to me

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Collectively, on average, LA is the bottom of the barrel in nearly all statistical measurements.

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Collectively, on average, LA is the bottom of the barrel in nearly all statistical measurements.

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And it's mostly because we are dragged down by the bottom 30-40% of our residents. I'm not arguing there aren't better places to live but there are worse. My wife is from Birmingham and she thinks BR is a much better place to live than her hometown. I suppose that's subjective though.

I got out of Louisiana when I joined the military. Got to see a lot of the world and train all over the United States. Went to college up north and worked up there for the first couple years out of college. It was awesome. Fenway park, Yankee stadium, Cape Cod, Maine, Mountains of Vermont and NH... all of it was great.

I guess I had been away so long that I forgot how bad Louisiana was, so I got nostalgic and moved back. Of all the places I’ve been, Louisiana is by far the most backward and fricked up. The state refuses to move forward in a number of categories. I thought by moving back here we could have a positive impact and help change the culture of our area but we have both given up. We came back here with the best of intentions. Bought a house, started a family, both college-educated, wife has a masters, homeowners, middle-class incomes. Nobody around us has any drive. No fitness culture, no desire for better schools. Just throw your kid in the nearest Catholic school and call it good mentality. It’s just hopeless I feel.

And it truly sucks because I want my son to grow up close to his family but the state offers us nothing. Both of our occupations are paid significantly higher in other states (even when accounting for COL).

We’ll probably end up somewhere in New England or out west in the next few years. Louisiana just can’t get out of its own way.

No

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An intelligent person in Louisiana with a college degree and a good work ethic is like an NBA player in the European league. In other states you're just average. But in Louisiana you're an all-star who sets scoring records and can command a higher salary than the rest of the team.

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There’s a lack of these all-star positions in Louisiana though. Louisiana is great if you don’t need a job.

Yea, his argument doesn’t really make sense. I see what he’s trying to say but like you said, there’s a lack of these positions available.

It’s kind of like Lebron James going to play basketball in Brazil. Lebron being the highly educated all-star and Brazil being Louisiana. Sure, Lebron James would be just as talented and great but Brazilian culture doesn’t give a shite about basketball. They’d offer him to play goalie or something he hasn’t done before.

Louisiana doesn’t give two shits about education. A PhD in Psychology won’t get you entry-level work on an offshore rig but they’ll hire an ex-con with roustabout experience.

Same issue that is happening in Los Angeles.

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Everyone is so wrapped up in the history and culture (which are important) that they have forgotten how to move forward.

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it's impossible to move forward with our underclass

how can you allocate enough resources to advance when so much of your public spending goes towards supporting regressive populations and keeping them afloat? every year that share of the pie grows and sucks more out of the public coffers

our budget problem isn't about tax cuts. it's Medicaid spending. something like 1/3 of our population is on Medicaid. if you want a symbolic stat about LA (and other states in the same boat), look no further. that share grows every year. it's not sustainable