A never Mo questions why Utah is the most upwardly mobile and compassionate state in the Union. His answer? Because it's full of Mormons. His article, drawing on the writings of two other authors is gobsmacking. Is there any truth to his assertions? (The grass looks greener from the other side of the street analogy?)

"Megan McArdle visits Utah to find out why the state succeeds better than any other state in achieving upward mobility. Excerpts:

Once I got there, I found that it’s hard to even get a complete picture of how Utah combats poverty, because so much of the work is done by the Mormon Church, which does not compile neat stacks of government figures for the perusal of eager reporters.

The church did, however, give me a tour of its flagship social service operation, known as Welfare Square. It’s vast and inspiring and utterly foreign to anyone familiar with social services elsewhere in the country. This starts to offer some clue as to why Utah seems to be so good at generating mobility — and why that might be hard to replicate without the Latter-Day Saints....

Many charity operations offer a food pantry or a thrift shop. Few of them can boast, in addition, their own bakery, dairy operation and canning facilities, all staffed by volunteers. The food pantry itself looks like a well-run grocery store, except that it runs not on money, but on “Bishop’s Orders” spelling out an individualized list of food items authorized by the bishop handling each case. This grows out of two features of Mormon life: the practice of storing large amounts of food against emergencies (as well as giving food away, the church sells it to people for their home storage caches), and an unrivaled system of highly organized community volunteer work.

The volunteering starts in the church wards, where bishops keep a close eye on what’s going on in the congregation, and tap members as needed to help each other. If you’re out of work, they may reach out to small business people to find out who’s hiring. If your marriage is in trouble, they’ll find a couple who went through a hard time themselves to offer advice....

Read the whole thing. It’s really good. In The Benedict Option, I talked to Terryl Givens, an LDS academic, about why Mormons are so good at building strong ties to each other within the church. Here is part of what he told me (from the book):

In his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul urged the believers there to “have the same care for one another. “If one member suffers, all suffer together,” the apostle wrote. “If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the Body of Christ, and individually members of it.”

The LDS Church lives out that principle in a unique way. The Mormon practice of “home teaching” directs two designated Mormon holders of the church’s priestly office to visit every individual or family in a ward at least once a month, to hear their concerns and offer counsel. A parallel program called Relief Society involves women ministering to women as “visiting teachers.” These have become a major source of establishing and strengthening local community bonds.

“In theory, if not always in practice, every adult man and woman is responsible for spiritually and emotionally sustaining three, four, or more other families, or women, in the visiting teaching program,” says the LDS’s Terryl Givens. He adds that Mormons frequently have social gatherings to celebrate and renew ties to community. “Mormonism takes the symbolism of the former and the randomness of the latter and transforms them into a deliberate ordering of relations that builds a warp and woof of sociality throughout the ward,” he says.

Non-Mormons can learn from the deliberate dedication that wards—at both leadership and lay levels—have to caring for each other spiritually. The church community is not merely the people one worships with on Sunday but the people one lives with, serves, and nurtures as if they were family members. What’s more, the church is the center of a Mormon’s social life.

“The consequence is that wherever Mormons travel, they find immediate kinship and remarkable intimacy with other practicing Mormons,” Givens says. “That is why Mormons seldom feel alone, even in a hostile— increasingly hostile—world.”

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/utah-full-of-mormons-benedict-option/

well that dumb ass completely bought into the MORmON'S (official) line of (PR) crap about how special that MORmONS and MORmONISM really are. ......IF he really feels that way then he is obligated to become a MORmON member.

They always seem to miss the big picture. LDS only helps it's on. and this always comes with conditions. Nothing is free. The help is not from compassion but from orders from the Bishop and other leaders and only when the one's needing help has been "approved" by the bishop / leaders first. This approval requires the needed one to meet certain criteria's first and during the help time frame.

In recent years I heard of more people being turned away by church officials in need of help, than there were those on the receiving end.

And that's talking active members getting shown the door when seeking assistance by their church leaders.

The church' official position has been one of dwindling support to its lay members, as its ranks shrink and there's less money to go around to support the men at the top (and Temple Square.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2017 09:14AM by Amyjo.

Utah doesn't do statistically much better than many other regions, including much of California:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/the-geography-of-the-american-dream/283308/

And Utah's "success" in "upward mobility" is centered around SLC -- outside of SLC it does much worse.

If you look at the chloropleths there (the colored maps), you do have to feel bad for the south, though. They're all stuck in their poverty ruts. Shame.

interesting link, it says anywhere there is lots of black people the upward mobility is bad. And they got the scientific data to apparently back that.

I lived in the Old South for a while where there isn't upward mobility (according to the article) and what I noticed is that there are lots of nice people who love their beautiful pleasant counties, and don't want to move to the city. Big cities up north and in California aren't that pleasant, they have inflated living expense ratios, are full of crazy people, and of course feminists and liberals.

The fear of survival, and the dislike of their neighbors, spurs these families into greater success. Like the Jews in Israel, surrounded by annoying people who hate them, in a terrible land, they outperform all the competition... and make the muslims look dumb.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2017 06:54AM by poopstone.

There is much good in the church as well as much good to be found in some other religions and cultures. This doesn't equate to proof the church is true. A strictly secular society could achieve the same results by adopting similar principles and practices.

The lip service the author brings to the article is a far cry from the reality IMO.

Salt Lake City is the most upwardly mobile in the country, per the pie chart hie2kolob posted.

I don't believe it's because of the Mormon influence so much as other attributes, but I could be mistaken about that. SLC is the most diverse of Utah's cities in terms of its population. It may be it's become a new "melting pot" in America of multi-culturism.

Utah is hurtin' for certin' in the opioid crisis.

"From 2000 to 2015, Utah has experienced a nearly 400% increase in deaths from the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs."

"Every month in Utah, 23 individuals die from prescription drug overdoses. Utah ranked 7th in the U.S. for drug poisoning deaths from 2013-2015, which have outpaced deaths due to firearms, falls, and motor vehicle crashes.

http://www.health.utah.gov/vipp/topics/prescription-drug-overdoses/

Of course, drug addiction is complicated and not limited to Utah, LDS, etc. Drug addicts can be compassionate, active LDS and work in Welfare Square.

Just wish the article was more comprehensive in how LDS is sharing in the suffering and 'spiritually and emotionally sustaining'(mumbo jumbo non quantifiable abstractions) others.

so tell us about the teen suicide rate in utah compared to the rest of the country.

Yeah right. Or the high opiate addiction rate and prescription drug abuse carameldreams brings to the discussion.

:/

What are Mormons full of?

This brings a wry smile to my face: "Non-Mormons can learn from the deliberate dedication that wards-at both leadership and lay levels-have to caring for each other spiritually." I just knew there had to be a reason why Utah is the # 1 state in the Union for anti-depressant use! It's because they care so much for each other!

My own mother's death can be attributed at least in part to her overuse and abuse of prescription drugs. She grew up and spent the latter half of her life in Utah.

Her addictions wore her down, contributing to her premature death @ 67.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2017 01:34PM by Amyjo.

I just read yesterday that Utah was among the five worst states for working women, right there with Mississippi and Louisiana. Utah never comes up really high on any list, so I really doubt that this whole upwardly mobile and compassionate thing is bollocks.

From the study:

"The probability that a child from the lowest quintile of parental income rises to the top quintile is 10.8% in Salt Lake City, compared with 4.4% in Charlotte. The city with the highest probability from moving from the bottom fifth to the top fifth is San Jose, where the probability (12.9%) is nearly three times that in Charlotte. The chances of rising from the bottom fifth to the top fifth for children growing up in San Jose are comparable to those in Denmark and Canada."

http://www.rajchetty.com/chettyfiles/mobility_geo.pdf

If TSCC is responsible for ending generational poverty, they must be working overtime in areas where they lack numbers. Maybe that's why they haven't had the time to offer any coherent response to the criticisms they're facing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2017 12:49PM by tokki.

but try to put a homeless shelter anywhere near them and their true colors get sent up the old flag pole

When I was in the church, I don't remember much compassion. There were a few good Bishops and a few great Relief Society Presidents, and I was very grateful for them. But but most of the time there were people that would not/did not work out in a jam. One of the very worst times was when my husband lost his job and couldn't get another one quickly because of his physical handicaps (he had to go to Voc Rehab and it always took time for training and finding an understanding employer) and we had three little children at home. I myself had an auto-immune disorder which was not yet diagnosed, but rendered me unable to do anything except care for the children. So Hubbie talked to the Bishop and he wouldn't help us because we had gotten behind in tithing (didn't matter that we had faithfully paid full tithes for years). Then he told my husband to go flip burgers for a living. Anyone can get a job flipping burgers, he said. My husband limped and his limbs shook because of his condition, but because he wasn't in a wheelchair, the Bishop determined that he wasn't handicapped. We were among the ranks of the unworthy poor.

Later this same Bishop learned that after his refusal of Deseret welfare, we had gone and got emergency food stamps. He was quite derogatory about it. How dare we expect the taxpayer to feed our little children!

Related subject: why did we have three kids with our physical problems? I did not use hormonal birth control because of a family history of cancer with hormones. After my first child turned three, I sensed that something was wrong with me and decided to have my tubes tied. But moralizing church leaders did their duty and talked me out of it! Apparently sterilization is one of the most Satanic things a person can do. Barrier methods work great--MOST of the time. Only twice did they fail me. I don't believe in abortion. Please don't fault me for having kids when it was difficult to support them. We would have ended up with more if my husband hadn't finally said HELL WITH IT!and gotten a vasectomy. This time we chose to listen to God instead of to LDS ward leaders.

I could tell you more true stories of LDS Deseret "compassion", but it would take way too much bandwidth. We always managed to keep the kids fed, often with the help of a friendly Protestant church food pantry down the road from us. They never turned us away!

This been my observations likewise, Brigid.

I struggled as a single mom. Never felt like I could ask the church for assistance, because they were anything but compassionate at the corporate level.

The church welfare system is a fraud.

That bishop you had to suffer through was a complete derelict. His behavior would've clinched it for me that the church is a fraud.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2017 10:13PM by Amyjo.

I was stupid back then. I really thought that I had to keep trying to make the church work out in our lives.

Why does the church even have canneries and bakeries? It never really made sense to me. One church near me has tons of donated bakery items that they give out for free to whoever needs them. Same with canned foods. Local farmers donate tons of produce, and cheesemakers donate cheese. No need for a welfare farm, or to set up their own cannery or bakery. Why do Mormons insist on having them? When the church members who work in them for free fall upon hard times and need some of the products of their own labor, they are made to do extra work for the church on top of that! And after years of paying tithes and fast offerings? People don't even recognize that they are being exploited.

We were just too trusting, Brigid. That was the generation we grew up in.

The morg really does take advantage, and big time. If it's not time, it's resources. It sucks the life right out of its "chosen ones."

Ah, that sweet benefit of assigned members to pound on your door at the end of the month. You must let them in and serve them koolaid. They'll hog up a chunk of your free time in your own damned house, and you'll miss some TV or reading or something.

Then there's the Bishop's storehouse, which is none of your business. It's a McGuffin like the ark of incontinence.