3 ms·

The thing is, Utah has never had a truly poor population. They aren't raising people out of poverty, but it's growing fast and most of the people who move there

The thing is, Utah has never had a truly poor population. They aren't raising people out of poverty, but it's growing fast and most of the people who move there are relatively rich compared to the general population. But also, Utah has the fifth richest bottom quartile of any state, about 40% higher than North Carolina's. So yes, it's much much easier to move from that to the top quartile than in most states.

ythn 10y ago
> The thing is, Utah has never had a truly poor population. What about when the first destitute pioneers arrived and found a desert?
- tmorton 10y ago
  At the time (1847), they were not the poorest people in North America.
- duskwuff 10y ago
  It's not really meaningful to describe people as "rich" or "poor" in the absence of an economy.
  - tp3z4u 10y ago
    Where people are involved there is no such thing as an absence of economy.
- sedachv 10y ago
  The Mormon refugees did not find a desert, they found Native Americans living in the Utah Great Basin and proceeded to steal their land and natural resources: http://www.onlinenevada.org/articles/mormons-and-native-americans-historical-overview http://www.onlinenevada.org/articles/mormons-and-native-amer...
therpe1 10y ago
I think you're right... I did some research on this and it looks like Utah was never really that poor to begin with. This article[1] is much better than McArdle's nonsense and it hints at the real advantage: inter-generational poverty in Salt Lake is relatively rare. By all means Utahns are on the ball nipping this in the bud, it's a problem that once started can be devastating. (See Los Angeles!) But on some level what's happening in NYC and Boston is much more impressive; they are boosting poor minorities into the middle class and many of these poor minorities are the generational poor and the reason may indeed be the "bloated investment" in education[2]. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/04/why-low-income-kids-thrive-in-salt-lake-city/425214/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/04/why-low...

ythn 10y ago

> The thing is, Utah has never had a truly poor population. What about when the first destitute pioneers arrived and found a desert?

tmorton 10y ago
At the time (1847), they were not the poorest people in North America.
duskwuff 10y ago
It's not really meaningful to describe people as "rich" or "poor" in the absence of an economy.
- tp3z4u 10y ago
  Where people are involved there is no such thing as an absence of economy.
sedachv 10y ago
The Mormon refugees did not find a desert, they found Native Americans living in the Utah Great Basin and proceeded to steal their land and natural resources: http://www.onlinenevada.org/articles/mormons-and-native-americans-historical-overview http://www.onlinenevada.org/articles/mormons-and-native-amer...

therpe1 10y ago

I think you're right... I did some research on this and it looks like Utah was never really that poor to begin with. This article[1] is much better than McArdle's nonsense and it hints at the real advantage: inter-generational poverty in Salt Lake is relatively rare. By all means Utahns are on the ball nipping this in the bud, it's a problem that once started can be devastating. (See Los Angeles!) But on some level what's happening in NYC and Boston is much more impressive; they are boosting poor minorities into the middle class and many of these poor minorities are the generational poor and the reason may indeed be the "bloated investment" in education[2]. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/04/why-low-income-kids-thrive-in-salt-lake-city/425214/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/04/why-low...