re: Southern Economies at a glance

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Lets just all be positive like Duke says and live in happy denial.

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So noticing progress instead of ignoring it to just wallow in the problems is denial? Ignoring the good to highlight the bad is just as much denial, except the miserable count kind.

Education needs work. There is still a crime problem. Infrastructure needs improvement. Guess what though, every other southern state (and really most all of them) have the same problems. We need to make that better, but then you get into the best way to do it.

I think investing in the infrastructure to bring in business that can take advantage of the resources we have at our disposal (ports, access to cheap energy, water (industry uses tons of it)) and use that growth to invest in keeping that future going. You build it and they will come. We have access to the Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico, and cheap natural gas right here. It's no wonder industry is looking to expand here. Those industries pay wages and invest in communities. That's how you start working on the ills of poverty. Just throwing tax money at that problem hasn't worked because it doesn't provide the opportunities my method does.

It's far from perfect here, but the progress is to be celebrated because it means a brighter future. Just as the rest of the world is catching up to America economically, the states with the resources to are catching up to everyone else. It's the story of the 21st century and I'm glad my state has the resources to take advantage of this increasingly even playing field. It's ok though, keep being a pessimist. I'd rather less people trying to take advantage of the opportunities coming. Just means more for me.

There are a lot of opportunities in Houston, and I'm actually fond of the city, but if I was moving out of Louisiana, it wouldn't be to another place in the southeast.

By "low growth state" I'm referring to population growth, not job growth. States with high population growth like Texas and Georgia have a disadvantage with unemployment stats because they have higher labor participation rates. Up through the 2010 census and even before Katrina, Louisiana had the slowest population growth of all the Deep South states. Now that the economy is picking up there the population growth is finally speeding up.

We finally have a decent governor.

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Got to start somewhere.

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That's true...better 20 years late than never.

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And comparing Atlanta's numbers to New Orleans is absurd and you know it.

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.....just putting N.O. numbers in context. Try to keep up.

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You just mentioned the best tv ever while trying to take down la.

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That's like praising Baltimore because the wire is a great show.

The show shoes the worst sides of LA for entertainment. Great show but there's a reason they chose the bayou of LA to showcase the depressing redneck area.

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To put it bluntly, Louisiana's success will come at the expense of those "...nine other states stretching east and north of Louisiana"

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I actually disagree. Louisiana's growth story will be a big piece of the Southeastern growth story. We have warm weather, access to major waterways and proximity to the growing economies of Mexico and South America (though these are more long term). We also have a bounty of resources and a business friendly environment. Georiga, Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas are all in position to grow substantially in the next half a century. I mean frick, we're on a coast in the richest country on earth...it has only been a matter of time.

Just responding to the Georgia bashers...I'll stop because I've gotten in this argument way too many times here.

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I actually disagree.

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We'll see. The next 5-10 years, when all the new construction is finished and all the projects are in place, will tell the story.

People are forgetting that all these new projects, on a scale dwarfing those of other states in the southeast, will have enormous trickle down effects.

It's just the thin edge of the wedge.