Marketing the South

If you've ever wondered how a flag that sympolizes slavery, racism, terror, and treason came to be a piece of Americana treasured by those who think themselves conservative patriots, you may be interested in this press release summarizing an article on the marketing of the South from the February Journal of Consumer Research. Authors Craig Thompson and Kelly Tian report on a

broad coalition of Southern mythmakers [who] sought to defend the honor of their Confederate ancestors, rebuke the cultural stigmas that had been ascribed to white Southern identities and perhaps most of all, attract infusions of Northern capital needed to build a more prosperous New South.

The key white identity myths are the Lost Cause (Confederate soldiers as "gallant Christian Knights"), Moonlight and Magnolias (white Southern womanhood as "a vulnerable vessel of virtue"), and Celtic Rednecks (poor whites as hillbillies).

And, I gather, the less said about those human beings owned by the first two categories of people, the better.

Health care: stay north to stay well

In the layoff season, a middle-aged person's fancy lightly turns to issues of health care. A good place to catch up on what looks to me like reality-based information is the Commonwealth Fund's ten top story list. Two caught my eye:

"4. ...A Commonwealth Fund survey of primary care physicians and patients in five other nations—Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom—finds that the U.S. health care system ranks last or next-to-last on five dimensions of a high performance health system: quality, access, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives. ...While no one country provided a perfect model of care, there are many lessons to be learned from the strategies at work abroad."

Even more interesting, unless you're already headed for Canada or South Korea:

"7. A state scorecard finds wide variations in health care exist across states.The Commonwealth Fund's first state scorecard found that health care quality, cost, and access vary widely across states, suggesting that where you live can make a big difference to your health."

In this ranking, Iowa was #2, Wisconsin #9, Michigan #16. (There are lots of details.) Moving down a tier, Missouri #37, Illinois #36, Indiana #38. Moving down one more tier: Arkansas #48, Kentucky #45. As far as this part of the Midwest goes, you're likely to get better health care the farther away you can get from areas settled by people from the South. Taking the "hospital" out of "hospitality," I guess.