Here?s what we thought about this week, the 10,245th in Mississippi state history:
Headline of the Week:?Mississippian Donna Tartt wins Pulitzer Prize for fiction with ?The Goldfinch?
Greenwood native Donna Tartt graciously diverted our attention from taxes and economic policy this week with her literary victory. Lynn Lofton highlighted the author’s Mississippi roots in this Mississippi Business Journal?article:
With the announcement this week of Donna Tartt capturing the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, another star is added to Mississippi?s literary crown…Tartt was born in 1963 in Greenwood and reared in Grenada. Her literary career began at age 13 when she published a poem in the Mississippi Literary Review. She began her college career at Ole Miss where she was mentored by Willie Morris and Barry Hannah.
From our End
In the spirit of Tax Day, we took a closer look at how Mississippi benefits from?federal largesse in?“A thank you note to the taxpayers of America”:
Dear Massachusetts, Connecticut, California, et al.,
We Mississippians are taught that when someone does something nice for us, it?s only proper to thank them.
In that spirit, thank you for once again paying more than your fair share to the federal government knowing that you would get less than your fair share in return. That?s in part because Mississippi will claim $2.45 of your taxes for every $1 that we paid in.
Between 1990 and 2009, our 3 million residents?collected?$404 billion in federal spending but only contributed $165 billion in taxes ? a $239 billion tab we?ve run up at your expense. Given that our state?s annual GDP is $100 billion, it?s not likely that we?ll repay you anytime soon.
Chart of the Week
This chart from the Mississippi Economic Policy Center?sheds light on the consequences of Mississippi’s tax policies for our poorest citizens:
For more charts about Mississippi’s tax distribution, click here.
Top Tweets
The cost of diabetes treatment in Mississippi is equal to 3 percent of the state’s GDP. http://t.co/jYIoOtqtHf pic.twitter.com/gfDQnttjov
? Jake Grovum (@jgrovum) April 18, 2014
Librarians are most common in the northeast, northern plains, and Mississippi: http://t.co/42s0w6Zxt7 #nlw14 pic.twitter.com/0HHyHkChXQ
? Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias) April 16, 2014
“Damned or blessed, America is composed of 50 Mississippis which vary from each other in degrees..”-Len Holt, 1965 #Mississippi ? Jackie Mader (@jackiemader) April 17, 2014
Say what you want about Mississippi, but you have to admire our loyalty. #EliteEli pic.twitter.com/Rd3qPHHYUQ ? Rethink Mississippi (@RethinkMS) April 16, 2014
Little-Known Mississippi Fact
Mississippians account for less than 1/100th of the country’s population but 1/14th of the Pulitzer Prize winners for fiction #storytellers
? Rethink Mississippi (@RethinkMS) April 14, 2014
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