Why Does Iowa Have A Brain Drain? Let Me Count Thee Ways

From the Des Moines Register's Editorial Board:

Iowa has struggled for decades to slow its brain drain, but has to work even harder.

The reason is global competition. Iowa must keep and attract more people with college and advanced degrees to thrive in the world marketplace. They are not the only key to building an economy for the 21st century, but their creativity and innovation are essential.

Iowa has made a little headway: In 2000, the state ranked 39th in the country in its share of residents with a bachelor's degree or higher - 21.2 percent, according to the U.S. Census. In 2006, Iowa inched up to 37th, with 24 percent.

Is that how you're going to quantify it? By how many people have Bachelor's Degrees? That's a stupid way of doing it.

For the past decade, the state generally has pursued a two-pronged approach to economic development: Encourage creation of more high-wage jobs and expansion of amenities to enhance quality of life.

Yes, and it's a failed approach. Give rich companies like Google and Microsoft zillions in tax breaks for a handful of server babysitting jobs while raising taxes on everybody else for some politician's pet project.

In 2000, the Legislature established the Vision Iowa Program, which helped finance cultural and recreational amenities, from libraries to museums to ballparks.

Specifically, the ballpark for the team that former Vision Iowa head Michael Gartner owns. Can you say "Conflict Of Interest"? I can.

And aren't libraries supposed to be built by communities? Not so in Coralville.

And the Robert D. Ray Asian Gardens got Vision Iowa money only because they went wildly over budget.

Yet, at one time, Iowa couldn't scrape up $500,000 a year for a criminal DNA database. You've gotta have your priorities.

Well, at least the Muslim Youth Camp didn't get their $250,000 and the Earthpork Rainforest didn't get their $20 million.

Finally, 11 paragraphs into the story, comes the real reason why so many people leave Iowa:

Businesses must be willing to pay more competitive salaries, too. A January report from the Generation Iowa Commission blamed lagging wages as a key reason young professionals leave. Even adjusted for cost of living, Iowa salaries often compare poorly, such as management occupations paying last in the region, the commission reported.

I doubt if things have changed lately (I doubt it), but back in 2002 nurses in Iowa were paid dead last in the United States.

While Tom Vilsack was governor, teacher pay plunged.

Things are so bad that I'm even agreeing with Rekha Basu about the issues! I'm sure her solutions suck, though.

Then you have idiots like Senator Joe Biden roaming around Iowa, wondering how the average family can make it on a couple of $10 an hour Wal-Mart jobs. Nevermind that two adults earning a little over $10 an hour each is basically the median family income for Iowa. And in many towns like Ottumwa, Waterloo, and Sioux City, you can still get a decent house for well under $100,000, unlike everybody living Joe Biden's Delaware where the average home price is $200,000 to $250,000.

I'm sure you're asking, "What do you do to solve this problem?"

Read my post "The Gap", a portion of which is reprinted below. It's a start:

Here are some suggestions I made in April 2007. They remain ignored by the Generation Iowa commission:

• End taxpayer-financed corporate welfare. Quit subsidizing politically-connected companies and people at the expense of competition that's already here in Iowa. The State has a bad track record at doing this.
  
  
• Fix the goddamn tax code so that it's not so insane. Have any of you legislators in the statehouse ever tried to fill out the State of Iowa's income tax form if you have a business, kids, a mortgage, or you've spent part of a year working in another state? It's impossible. Two words to think about: flat tax.
  
  
• Government is way too big in Iowa. It needs to have an arm or a leg chopped off. Do we need 99 counties and all the fifedoms that go with it? No way. Maybe 125 years ago we needed a county seat that was a day's journey by horseback, but not anymore. You see, we have these things called cars now...
  
  
• Colleges and universities need to cut back on the number of kids enrolled in worthless degrees. There's enough political science, art history, English, African-American history, Feminasty, and communication types running around to last us about 30 or 40 years. Meanwhile such professions like health care, elder care, animal care, computer programming, bio-sciences, and the trade skills are desperate for qualified professionals.
  
  
• Lower the damn taxes. Somehow, Iowa was able to survive up until the early 1980s with a 3% sales tax rate. With the proliferation of gambling, almost 7% sales tax rates in some places, and property taxes going through the roof, you'd think state coffers would have enough dough to do the job.