How the Southern economic model denies prosperity to all

Summary: The Southern economic development model has failed to create shared prosperity in the region. In fact, this model was deliberately designed to do the opposite—to extract the labor of Black and brown Southerners as cheaply as possible. This report examines the racist roots of the model and provides the necessary context to challenge the enduring racial hierarchy in the South. 

Many states across the Southern United States utilize an economic development model that prioritizes business interests and the wealthy over ordinary citizens. This model—which we refer to as the “Southern economic development model”—is defined by low wages, low taxes, few regulations on businesses, few labor protections, a weak safety net, and fierce opposition to unions. This model is marketed as the way to attract businesses into the region, with the implicit promise that this will generate an abundance of jobs and shared economic prosperity for all Southerners.

In reality, this economic development model is fundamentally flawed as a strategy for improving living conditions for most Southerners. In fact, the Southern economic development strategy was never designed to help the vast majority of working Southerners; rather, it reflects efforts to ensure continued access to the cheap labor of Black people following emancipation, and that of Black and brown people more generally today. 

In this report, we describe the Southern economic development model in detail and document the historical evolution of various components of the model. We show how politicians and the wealthy across the South have used racism and drawn on notions of white supremacy to divide the population along racial, ethnic, nativist, and economic lines. This has prevented Southerners from coming together in solidarity to demand policies that would uplift everyone in the...Read more...

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