While as South Dakota has generally remained resourceless. However in this past quarter, South Dakota lead the nation in growth. By a large margin too, adjusted for inflation it grew at a rate of 9.2% while the national average was about 1.9%. The majority of this growth came from the agriculture sector, which was about 6.9 points. This was a national trend, with growth in Iowa and Nebraska as well. This is a huge step in the right direction for South Dakota's economy, especially considering past methods of economic stimulation.
In 2011, NPR ran a story about social services claiming Native American children as wards of the state. This would be perfectly acceptable if these were children in danger, however, most of the evidence were either fabricated or circumstantial. This meant that children were put into foster care which gave South Dakota an opportunity to take money granted by the US Federal Government for every child in social services. In addition, the welfare workers were paid for the amount of children they "saved." So a state with a struggling economy was incentivizing the removal of children from their homes without evidence.
Needless to say, agricultural growth is a preferable stimulant to the economy. Despite evidence that the growth is only temporary, it is good to have. Agriculture was not the only growth they saw, which indicates that there is more to come from this state. Despite a lack of oil, there are plenty of methods for growth within this economy, it will be interesting to see where they go.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/03/02/the-other-dakota-leads-the-nation-in-economic-growth/
http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/11/news/economy/north-dakota-economy/index.html
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/25/141672992/native-foster-care-lost-children-shattered-families
I think part the reason the "Other" Dakota is growing exponentially suddenly is because its potential has largely remained unused so the Marginal productivity of resources has not started decreasing yet. Theoretically, returns are higher, thus making South Dakota a desirable investment spot.
ReplyDeleteThat is great to hear that South Dakota is experiencing high economic growth. Agriculture is an important part of the U.S. economy and even more important to states such as South Dakota. It would be interesting to look into the causes behind increased growth in the agriculture sector.
ReplyDeleteSeeing as the growth is only temporary, it will be interesting to see what happens when it slows down and how it will affect the economy. Agricultural growth is important but it is important that they find other methods before agricultural growth comes to a stand still.
ReplyDeleteWhile my first thought is "those poor children" it is that thought that leads me to question the expected continuation of growth the state itself believes in, as they had to fabricate considerable evidence, thus incentivizing the removal of children from homes. However, oil is going to be great for their growth, as it has been but in some regard, the agriculture growth may be even more important. Not to say that it will surpass the growth of oil but more so because the agricultural industry has simply been devastated in the last couple decades
ReplyDeleteI would like to see a breakdown of their whole economy. I am also very disturbed by the portion of your post regarding children being taken from their parents. In addition, I agree that agriculture will not be sustainable for economic growth as the United States produces two or three times as much food than we actually need.
ReplyDeleteWhile South Dakota is leading the nation in growth, it is nice to see North Dakota getting some attention with the size increase, One would think that with such great growth in size, the ND economy would growth with it, but according to the article, economic growth leveled out. Too see strong growth of agriculture in SD is a refreshing relief because agriculture itself was, and still is, a essential building block of the country. I agree with Areena, the marginal productivity of ND has not yet decreased or reach a steady-state.
ReplyDeleteIt is encouraging to hear about growth in such manufacturing-heavy states like North and South Dakota given that manufacturing is one of the last sectors that has continued to lag since 2008. A growth in manufacturing could lead to further stimulation of the US Economy and could cause more profound growth from the entire nation.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I am singular on this issue, but I think there is a couple things that were overlooked thus far. First, the Wall street Journal mentions this is for South Dakotas third quarter, which is contingent with the Bureau of Economic Analysis. From my understanding and quick research, this seems to be the period of agricultural yield for South Dakota. So states that are more or less reliant on crops are will have a far greater growth in the third quarter compared to that of the second quarter. Not to mention when a state has extremely poor growth for an extended period of time it is likely that when the state experiences growth again that it seems more drastic. Furthermore, one season of greater yield compared to past seasons of irregular yield foster a more extreme possibility for growth. Second, the article actually states that North Dakota has busted! That it actually regressed 3.4 percent. That is to say that North Dakota has not leveled off. I also am a bit curious how the “Ward” of the state portion has any pertinence to the growth rates? It’s actually an issue that has been going on for a while (1978), however, from my understanding it has a small impact on overall growth of the state economy?
ReplyDeleteThis is quite encouraging especially with the slow and troublesome start to the new year, potential in the agricultural sector will surely get the economy to start moving in a positive direction, and the encouragement of investment is another healthy sign the economy is slowly getting better.
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