2010 Census: State Population Numbers Released

[Ocklawaha]

Actually Aaronious, Its only been 140 years since the Civil War.  Thats not quite two lifetimes.  There are plenty of us with grandparents who remembered the War and who passed down the stories.  There were plenty more who remembered the extreme poverty that descended on the south afterwards.

It is a mistake, I have found, to generalize the subject of slavery, labor, plantations and economies in the way that you have, as it doesnt leave much room for accuracy.

Had Johnson's programs for the South been implemented it would have been a different country post war.  A very different and I think better world as a result.

Oh God I smell a thread split coming...

Neo-Confederates? WTF? I believe some of us here are down right UNRECONSTRUCTED CONFEDERATES, and not a racist bone in our bodies. FORGET HELL!

See what I mean Stephen? "Textbook history," without the benefit of independent study will create a truly ignorant nation. Next thing you know some yahoo is going to tell me that the war on the south was legally just a war on "combinations of persons too powerful to put down by ordinary means..." Thus LEGAL secession itself never happened per honest Abe.

Those same textbooks that have General Lee surrendering all of the armies of the South, IE: CERTAIN COMBINATION'S..." Don't do a very good job at reporting what went on for another 20 years in my family's neck of the woods, Arkansas-Missouri-Kansas-Indian Territory-Oklahoma Territory etc...

Slavery? Hell the plantations around here tell a different story... as they do in Louisiana, South Carolina, etc...
BTW Y'ALL, the second largest plantation in Louisiana was owned by who? How about locally?

The SCV and UDC are idiots? Tell it to the Veterans Administration who turn over all remains dug up in new developments to these "idiots."  They were also asked by the military and the State of South Carolina to provide the color guards for the return of the CSS Hunley.

Here's a recent article, FYI for those that didn't know the function of the two veterans groups... The northern group known as GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC has dwindled, leaving only the southrons to bury the dead, or care for their last resting areas.

"This soldier represents all of the soldiers, the thousands that were lost and are still buried across the South," said Robin Hood, chairman of the Franklin Battlefield Task Force that organized the event.

It's unknown which side the soldier fought on when he was among the nearly 2,000 killed in the 1864 Battle of Franklin. Construction workers happened upon the anonymous soldier's shallow grave in May.

Military buttons found with the remains were from the Civil War, but they don't prove whether the soldier was a Union man or a Confederate, Hood said.

"Some of them were Union and some of them were Southern," he said. "And that late in the war a lot of the Southern buttons were Union buttons, because the Confederate buttons didn't hold up as well."

The coffin draped in Confederate and Union flags was transported from St. Paul's Episcopal Church, which served as a barracks and hospital during the conflict, to Rest Haven Cemetery in a horse-drawn carriage accompanied by Civil War re-enactors.

A new memorial at the cemetery features a limestone column that was once part of the state Capitol, which served as Union stronghold during the war.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/10/unknown_civil_war_soldier_rebu.html

Aren't you glad there are not any real southerners left? Keep reading...

On 17 April 2004 the remains of the crew of the H. L. Hunley were interred in Charleston's Magnolia Cemetery with full military honors. A crowd estimated at between 35,000 and 50,000, including 10,000 period military and civilian reenactors, were present for what some called the 'Last Confederate Funeral.'
http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/H._L._Hunley_%28submarine%29

OCKLAWAHA

[spuwho]

Did anyone notice that 3 of the top 5 states on the list are near bankruptcy?

[stjr]

Aaroniuslives, I agree it's about quality, not quantity. My observation is the best quality of life is most predictably found in proximity to where the better or best educational systems and institutions exist.  Show me a community anchored by a higher tier university that doesn't have a more stable economy, higher incomes, and great quality of life.  Regardless, of the tax burden.  Tax statistics don't tell us anymore about quality of life than population growth numbers.  

What is important is that we should support quality education as a priority and tax ourselves at least adequately enough to deliver on that support.  Otherwise, expect lower paying jobs, higher unemployment, more social ills, less culture, etc.

By the way, there are plenty of cold winter weather countries in Europe and I note many of the worst economies there seem to be in the warmer climates:  Greece, Portugal, Italy, Spain.  Scandinavia doesn't seem to be the worse for it.  If one looks at nations closer to the equator, I see many economies of little consequence.  So, not so sure weather is a sure fire asset for sustaining growth either.

Bottom line:  Population numbers are a measurement, not an explanation.  One must dig deeper to find the real story.

[Singejoufflue]

An interesting perspective on the Census numbers in the NYT.  As is always the case, the story is much bigger than the statistics show.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/us/23nevada.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig

[AaroniusLives]

Ocklawaha, the main point is thus...why in the hell are we STILL talking about the Civil War? STILL? If in fact we had "the last confederate funeral," why in the hell did this happen 6 years ago, instead of 145? I'll concede that it wasn't all about race, slavery or the rest, but to continue to honor and revere a bunch of people who committed treason and lost? Move on. You lost...or to be fair, relatives you couldn't possibly know lost a battle that never really impacted you or your life in the first place. The South ain't rising again. Thank goodness for very large favors. (Man, this entire conversation reminds me of eating at a Waffle House in suburban Atlanta and overhearing snippets of "fun" from the other tables.)

Sadly, I'm sure we won't move on, and on my deathbed, sometime in the latter part of this century, some schmuck is going to bring up "The War of Northern Aggression" as if it remotely matters in 2074, or did in 2034, or did in 2010 on this effin' board!

Got to be careful looking at "Rates of Growth" or "Percentages" of growth without having access to the actual numbers.  New York could have added more people than Florida, but because it is more populous in the first place the rate of growth would be lower when expressed as a percentage.

Wyoming has 600,000 people.  If 600,000 people moved there in a decade it would have 100% growth rate.  If another 600,000 people moved there in the next decade the growth rate would be (takes off shoes)  would "fall" to 50%.  "Oh horrors, our growth is slowing!"

"The US is having it's slowest rate of growth in 70 years!"   Well, duh.  70 years ago we had 130 million people.  Now we have 300 million.

And lest we forget, having negative growth is generally bad, as you have infrastructure that's far too out sized for the current population, and a lower tax base to keep up said out sized infrastructure. Having a skyrocketing growth rate is also generally bad, and you can see the effects of such all across Florida (sprawl, lack of planning, traffic, ugly-assed cheap-assed buildings in a sea of parking lots, look-a-like developments...etc.)

But having a decent, if slowing, growth rate, is the best of both worlds: you're growing the economy, the population, the metropolis. And you're not growing so out of control fast that you're left with a mess that needs to be "fixed." Cool beans. beans that are cool.