Go away, go away, go away, Dixieland

I came across this piece by Allen Barra in which he asks if the South is dragging down the rest of the nation (short answer--and I could have told this without reading the piece--yes, yes it is).  Mr. Barra (and this companion piece by Sara Robinson which shows how we in the blue states subsidize the South with our taxes) rightly points out how nine of the ten poorest states in America are in the South, how the South receives much more in our taxes than they pay in, that illiteracy rates, poverty rates, and divorce rates are higher in the South, how their right to work laws have undermined Labor Unions and have brought wages and benefits down for the rest of America.

Mr. Barra notes a book by Chuck Thompson, Better Off Without 'Em:  A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession, that he had read skeptically the first time and with some more enthusiasm the second.  Thanks to the numbnuts Governor of Texas, the idea of Southern Secession is being floated--but kind of interestingly, it's being floated by both the right and the Left.  For the Left, there are those who believe in the e pluribus unum promise of America and aren't really interested, and on the other end, there are those like Mr. Thompson who wholeheartedly support the idea of Southern Secession, and those are are warming to the idea from the sheer frustration of watching our country being dragged down by people who wouldn't pour shit out of their shoes merely because a Democrat suggested it.

I can make it easy on everyone:  Southern Secession will never happen.

Because there is no way that America corporations based in the South are going to give up sucking on the teat that is the U.S. Government, most of it supported with taxes from those socialist blue states.

Being profitable because of handouts from the U.S. Government is one whole hell of a lot easier than actually running a profitable business on its own merits.

Peace,
emaycee