What's the Matter with Kansas?

[RC]

Today the Kansas Department of Agriculture sent out a statement which indicates that Kansas has gained less than two thousand people in the past year. There are about two hundred and twenty-five thousand families in the state, and there were about ten thousand babies born in Kansas, and yet so many people have left the state that the natural increase is cut down to less than two thousand net.

This has been going on for eight years.

If there had been a high brick wall around the state eight years ago, and not a soul had been admitted or permitted to leave, Kansas would be a half million souls better off than she is today. And yet the nation has increased in population. In five years ten million people have been added to the national population, yet instead of gaining a share of this -- say, half a million -- Kansas has apparently been a plague spot and, in the very garden of the world, has lost population by ten-thousands every year.

http://www.journalism.ku.edu/school/waw/writings/waw/newspaper/editorials/whatsthematter.html

Eight years this has been going on. You'd think the people might have a clue by now. Ahhh, I got it! Those that have been paying attention, left!
But the last two governors were Democrats? Or did they just have (D)'s by their names or what?
I left Kansas over well over 50 years ago and didn't start paying attention to it until about a year and half ago.

Oh, and don't forget this:

The Governor Of Kansas Likes Picking On Teenage Girls
http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/the-governor-of-kansas-likes-picking-on-teenage-gi

[dems_rightnow]

1. That was written in 1896, FYI

Please provide your thoughts on why Kansans were leaving in the 19th century.

[MineralMan]

2. Well, it's a good thing you didn't post that in LBN.

It' s somewhat out of date, being written in 1896 and all.

The buzzfeed thing, though, was interesting, if unrelated to your 100+ year old quote.

[RC]

3. Kansas is still losing population today.

The only reason their job numbers look good is because people are leaving the state and there are not enough people to fill the available jobs.

[MineralMan]

5. I think they're all being blown away by tornadoes.

You're wrong, you know. The population of Kansas is up since 2000. The census doesn't lie. But some Kansans take little trips, frequently to OZ, I believe.

[dems_rightnow]

6. It's not losing population.

You're making shit up.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/20000.html

[MineralMan]

7. Nice link. Looks like Kansas is up 6.1%

in ten years. It seems to me we're not in 1896 any more.

[hfojvt]

4. "half a million souls better off"

So more people is better than less people? In a few decades when world population is 9 or 10 billion the world will automatically be "better off".

Kansas population was 2.8 million, according to my 2011 atlas. So I guess Kansas would be "better off" with 5,000,000 and then be even better off with 28 million people and be even better off with 280 million people and then be even way better off with 2.8 billion people.

Seems to me though that people sorta follow jobs. People with $40,000 a year jobs will often move on to $50,000 a year jobs and leave a state doing so. But people with $40,000 a year jobs or even $30,000 a year jobs don't generally sit around and go "this state sucks with this Republican legislature, I am gonna quit my job, sell my house and move to Missouri and look for a job."

Of course, I did that in Iowa. I quit my $17,000 a year temp job because I got a job in Missouri. This at a time when the Democratic Governor of Iowa, Mr. Thomas Vilsack, was all concerned about a "future labor shortage" in Iowa. Then it turned out I could not afford to buy a house in Missouri with said job, so I ended up living in Kansas. Then I got fired from said job and ended up working part-time for $12,000 a year. So I kinda lost money to leave Iowa, and further, I lost about $25,000 on real estate when I left Iowa.

But your post sorta makes Brownback's point. Even though Kansas has a lower unemployment rate than Texas, the Kansas economy has not been creating enough jobs. But I would create jobs by investing in Kansas, making a 4 lane highway and a new four year university in the West, for example, whereas his plan is to create jobs by throwing money at rich people.