As far as I can tell the best fix is higher education (exposure to diverse viewpoints & critical thinking predicts partisan shifting). But I'm sure there are other options.
These people here love to shoot themselves in the foot.
I always say that Sherman should have never stopped. He should have burnt everything to the ground.
that will be news to a lot of people in the south.
I'm going to guess that it also has more college graduates per capita than any country except the US as a whole.
Also, US states and US regions have almost no control over how diverse they are: the Federal government decides who to let into the country, then those people are free to chose which state to live in regardless of how much the residents of a state dislike immigrants.
Also, the Southern US can't be doing that badly at guarding civil rights if a non-white immigrant can write,
>As a brown guy I'd prefer my odds in the reddest county in Mississippi than anywhere in Asia (other than my own ethnostate).
China is safer only for people who are compliant, apolitical, unorganized, and unremarkable. For a disadvantaged person, the main risk is not random crime. In China there is no independent court, no reliable legal recourse, no protected media scrutiny, and no guaranteed exit. When something goes wrong, it cannot be challenged.
Mississippi has real and serious problems, but the state is constrained by federal courts, national law, public reporting, and internal mobility. Those constraints materially change the risk profile when abuse occurs.
Low street crime under an unconstrained government is not “safety.” It is conditional calm. Treating that as “safer” than a place with enforceable limits on state power misunderstands what actually puts disadvantaged people at risk.
In China however, living standards are quickly catching up to the US. Average life expectancy has already caught up. See here https://data.worldhappiness.report/chart Fit 2 lines on that data and you can extrapolate by ~2030 China will be a better place to live. That's really not that far off. I suspect most of the tier 1 Chinese cities are already on par.
I get what you're saying and actually I don't entirely disagree. But in a lot of very practical ways the US already doesn't have democracy or rule of law.
In Mississippi, if a local official, police department, or state agency harms you, that action can be challenged outside the state that committed it. Federal courts can overrule Mississippi. National media can report it. NGOs can litigate it. You can leave the state. The same authority that harmed you does not get to decide whether it acted lawfully.
In China, when the state harms you, there is no external forum. Courts answer to the same party that ordered the action. Media cannot investigate it. Lawyers can be punished for challenging it. The authority that harms you also decides whether the harm was lawful, and that decision is final.
“China will be better on average by 2030” is not the same as “safer for minorities.” Tier-1 city averages describe the majority. Minorities face an unconstrained state with no external recourse. That distinction doesn’t show up in a line fit.
That difference is what “constraints” mean in practice. Worsening outcomes in Mississippi don’t erase it. Rising averages in China don’t replace it. It’s why calling China “safer” by pointing to low street crime misses the real source of risk for disadvantaged people.
Averages tell enough of the story. Look at the US: In that WHR report we rank in the top 10 for Boomers but way down near 60th for Gen Z. That's what is dragging down the US curve. You can't hit Finland-level numbers without bringing everyone along. China still has a massive hill to climb, but they are determined, let’s see where they are in ten years.
Most Americans are very procedural, which is where I disagree. Personally at the end of the day all I care about is outcomes. I agree with Deng Xiaoping: It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.
I have an expanding blacklist of states I won't live in because of their broken policies. If you don't support freedom and liberty, you're not a welcome place for civic-minded Americans who can think past their nose. The states very much can control their appeal to outsiders but the demagogues that get elected don't care. There is a collective mind disease that has infected governance since the Gingrich era.
This leads to a self-sorting effect where people who have the means to leave go elsewhere. I grew up in Arkansas and not speaking as an ignorant outsider. I have no interest in living there because of the broad cultural problems and lack of work opportunity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tertiary_...
US is 9th, so the south alone would rank even lower.
The disparity between the big indicators and the lives of the people is in fact a source of political contention. In 2024, people were angry in a "growing" economy that seemed to have gotten inflation and unemployment under control.