it so bad stop taking our money. Seriously, one of these days we're going to wake up and just give you what you want so badly. You're talking this way because you see everything in terms of government. Just because the governments in rural southern states are a net drain on the federal treasury, it doesn't mean that the underlying economy isn't productive. Actually, one of the reasons Mississippi's economy is so bad is because it is always near the bottom of the Economic Freedom of North America indices. The only one worse is West Virginia, and unlike WV Mississippi doesn't have coal to bring in outside money. I'd rather try to go work in Chile or Botswana than Mississippi. The state government, and at least many of its people, have decided to be leeches rather than producers. One reason I agree with Eric that the collapse of the welfare state is likely is that a very large minority, if not an actual majority, of people, in America and Europe, have become addicted to it. And eventually "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" will indeed return. Unfortunately, they seem able to kick the can down the road pretty effectively, so I think things will get much worse, probably for another decade or more first. But the stresses don't just go away, part of the current economic mess has been building up since the seventies, and the government didn't let things adjust, so they are still building up. "Freedom is not