1/4/22

As white people gush into South Dakota Albuquerque and Rapid City nearly tied for job growth

It's not always easy to find similarities with New Mexico and my home state of South Dakota but one correlation stands out: the growth in the Latino population is surging. In the Midwest the Latino community has grown 28 percent in the last decade and in the Southwest it's grown nearly 20 percent.

But, white Republicans are leaving states hit hardest by the Trump Virus for states like Vermont and South Dakota to be closer to their families according to United Van Lines, a company that's part of Republican campaign donor Unigroup. Apartheid in South Dakota hides American Indians in concentration camps out of sight and out of mind. Another Republican secretary of state is purging voter rolls and the resident electorate is withering under overwhelming disgust and hopelessness. 

WalletHub sez jobs are still hard to find in Albuquerque and Rapid City but less difficult in Sioux Falls even as New Mexico and my home state see negative growth in gross domestic product. Albuquerque and Las Cruces are among the nation's neediest cities but South Dakota is among the most dangerous states during the pandemic while New Mexico is far safer. 

My college buddy, Kim said on the phone Sunday that he's seeing more vehicles with South Dakota license plates this winter in Pinal and Pima Counties in Arizona. He builds and maintains the bike trail system for the Town of Marana. Despite Arizona's water crisis Scottsdale, Tempe and Chandler are booming and among the best cities in the US to find jobs.

This is at least as much about the flight of young people and Democrats from South Dakota than anything else. White retirees from Minnesota, Colorado and California, even Arizona parachute into South Dakota hoping to isolate themselves from fair taxation and cultural diversity then tap into the state's culture of federal dependence. 

It's obvious this phenomenon is no accident: it has been manufactured to make the state a corporatist tax haven for an exclusive set of Republicans while some $4 TRILLION languishes in South Dakota banks and trusts.

Learn more at WalletHub.

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