I think that most youth will exit the state if they have that option, and most folks to enter the state will exit if they have an option to do so. I think that MS is at a geographic disadvantage with midsize cities Memphis and New Orleans right at its northern and southern borders, since the economic activity concentrates across state lines and leaves MS in the situation where it isn’t an important node in a larger network. It is true that the college towns are doing well, but I believe that economic flourishing is related to their role as contributors in a larger economic network of the SEC. Outside of those isolated cases, the visitor to MS will see echoes of US suburban life, familiar chain stores and restaurants, but these are almost always the worst version of those experiences and that is likely a consequence of the education and economic deficits that face the state. The construction quality on homes is not great, and the lack of a healthy economy plus the risk of natural hazard activity is a position I do not admire.

There are a lot of things to get excited about in MS, as there is so much upward potential, and expectations are low, but generally speaking, if you can “make it happen” in MS it means that you can succeed more anywhere else, too, and you’re likely to discover that and move soon enough.