Together Louisiana
6 HN recommenders · recommended in 5 months, 2018–2024
15:25 · 1.7M views · Nov 13, 2018
Together Louisiana asks why Louisiana stays poor despite its natural resources and industry, focusing on industrial tax exemptions and corporate welfare.
Linked in threads on corporate tax incentives and subsidies as a detailed example of how they can trap a state.
6 comments from Hacker News
I found this insightful: Why Louisiana Stays Poor this video Definitely sounds very similar to CPG's "Rules for Ruler" video where he provides a description of rulers ruling in resource rich countries.
Mississippi was the most confederate of the Confederate states. Jefferson Davis was their Senator and then President of the Confederacy. After the civil war and the end of reconstruction, it was a hotbed of reactionary violence. There maybe a robust tax base, but you have to ignore the entire history of the state (which is majority white) and city (which is majority black and the descendants of slaves). I'm not as familiar with MS, but there is a great video on how this works in Lousiana - this video Historically (back to reconstruction), the Federal government is the guarantor of Black rights in the South and they provide significant funds to the majority black/liberal cities to make up for the fact that the state governments do not provide. Generally the state government is funneling money out of these areas.
Why Louisiana Stays Poor: this video This video is about fossil fuel subsidies in just one zip code which makes it the richest and poorest zip code at the same time. $2857 per capita subsidies via Industrial Tax Exemption Program. National average is $291 per capita, Texas $89 per capita. Skip to 5:22 for the explanation.
I'm really curious if there has been a comprehensive study on incentive corporate tax breaks like these. It has become my understanding that these are rarely worth it. Reminds me on this very interesting video on the subject focusing on Louisiana ( this video )
There is another great video that goes into detail on his Louisiana is trapped in a tax incentive hell because of how they award these credits: this video