Triangle of Poverty

Via an Associated Press article on November 30, 2005 I read about recently released US Census data depicting "Median Household Income by State." This report showed that the State of Connecticut has the nation's highest median household income of $56,409.

Given the nearly 40 year old "war on poverty" which began with President Lyndon Johnson's failed, misguided, wasteful "Great Society" programs which provided some of the fuel for the meltdown of our historic nuclear family model we need to "cut and run" in this war by trying new solutions such as eliminating all personal income taxes, corporate income taxes, and inheritance taxes in the nation's poorest states to help encourage the relocation of entrepreneurs to our poorest regions.

While Connecticut was ranked #1 for highest median household income let's focus on today's Bottom Five states in terms of household income:

West Virginia
Arkansas
Louisiana
Montana
Mississippi -- at $32,397 they have the lowest median household income

Of these five (5) states three (3) of these states are located in America's Deep South where they border each other to form what I call the "Triangle of Poverty" --

1.) Arkansas
2.) Mississippi
3.) Louisiana

Of these states I am most optimistic about Mississippi because Haley Barbour is the current governor -- http://www.governorbarbour.com/StateoftheState.htm -- who has focused on tort reform to help create jobs in the state and education reform to produce a higher quality workforce. This is an ideal "one-two punch" of public policies to boost wages in Mississippi versus the condescending legislation politicians love to highlight in their press releases where they voted to increase the minimum hourly wage by $.20 in their quest for public praise.

Stay the course Governor Barbour -- Mississippi will surely climb this median household income ranking due to these reforms -- but continue your push for an even freer, competitive economy to produce needed economic growth.

Wealth is health,

Todd