NM cultural issues and policy woes interrelated

It is one thing to criticize policies. It is another to criticize culture, but just today it is being reported that one in ten New Mexico children have a parent in jail.

Certainly, there are a number of policy ideas that can help alleviate that problem, and we at the Rio Grande Foundation spend most of our time focusing on the former, there is no doubt that New Mexico has some unique issues relating to culture. In some ways, culture is New Mexico’s greatest strength. Its unique history of Native, Hispanic, and Anglo mingling (not to mention other ethnic groups) is what makes this state so unique, but “culture” is means many things and as a new report by the Family Prosperity Initiative points out (see map below), New Mexico faces some unique “culture-related” problems.

The chart ranks all 50 states on Violent Crime‬, Property Crime‬, Unwed Births, Religion‬, and Education‬. One may quibble with the inclusion of Religion, but I think think the rest are self-explanatory as beneficial or harmful. Economic success can occur even in places with weak cultural indicators (Florida and Georgia to name two), but it would be great if New Mexico’s culture could shift in a way that supplemented the much-needed move towards freer markets.

 

// // // //

// // // // // \u003Cdiv class=\”_4-i0\” data-jsid=\”title\”>\u003Cdiv class=\”clearfix\”>\u003Cdiv class=\”lfloat _ohe\”>\u003Ch3 class=\”_52c9\”>\u003C\/h3>\u003C\/div>\u003Cdiv class=\”_51-u rfloat _ohf\”>\u003Ca class=\”_42ft _5upp _50zy layerCancel _51-t _50-0 _50z-\” role=\”button\” href=\”#\” title=\”Close\” data-testid=\”dialog_title_close_button\”>Close\u003C\/a>\u003C\/div>\u003C\/div>\u003C\/div>\u003Cdiv class=\”_4-i2 _57_a _50f4\” data-jsid=\”body\”>\u003C\/div>\u003Cdiv class=\”_5lnf uiOverlayFooter _5a8u\”>\u003Ca class=\”_42ft _4jy0 layerCancel uiOverlayButton _4jy3 _517h _51sy\” role=\”button\” href=\”#\”>Cancel\u003C\/a>\u003Cbutton value=\”1\” class=\”_42ft _4jy0 layerConfirm uiOverlayButton _4jy3 _4jy1 selected _51sy\” data-jsid=\”delete\” data-testid=\”ufi_hide_dialog_delete_button\” type=\”submit\”>Delete\u003C\/button>\u003C\/div>\u003C\/div>”},1]],”require”:[[“UFIController”,”preload”,[],[],[]]]});}, “ServerJS define”, {“root”:true})();
// ]]>

// // // // // \u003Cdiv class=\”_4-i0\” data-jsid=\”title\”>\u003Cdiv class=\”clearfix\”>\u003Cdiv class=\”lfloat _ohe\”>\u003Ch3 class=\”_52c9\”>\u003C\/h3>\u003C\/div>\u003Cdiv class=\”_51-u rfloat _ohf\”>\u003Ca class=\”_42ft _5upp _50zy layerCancel _51-t _50-0 _50z-\” role=\”button\” href=\”#\” title=\”Close\” data-testid=\”dialog_title_close_button\”>Close\u003C\/a>\u003C\/div>\u003C\/div>\u003C\/div>\u003Cdiv class=\”_4-i2 _57_a _50f4\” data-jsid=\”body\”>\u003C\/div>\u003Cdiv class=\”_5lnf uiOverlayFooter _5a8u\”>\u003Ca class=\”_42ft _4jy0 layerCancel uiOverlayButton _4jy3 _517h _51sy\” role=\”button\” href=\”#\”>Cancel\u003C\/a>\u003Cbutton value=\”1\” class=\”_42ft _4jy0 layerConfirm uiOverlayButton _4jy3 _4jy1 selected _51sy\” data-jsid=\”delete\” data-testid=\”ufi_hide_dialog_delete_button\” type=\”submit\”>Delete\u003C\/button>\u003C\/div>\u003C\/div>”},1]],”require”:[[“UFIController”,”preload”,[],[],[]]]});}, “ServerJS define”, {“root”:true})();
// ]]>

// // // // // \u003Cdiv class=\”_4-i0\” data-jsid=\”title\”>\u003Cdiv class=\”clearfix\”>\u003Cdiv class=\”lfloat _ohe\”>\u003Ch3 class=\”_52c9\”>\u003C\/h3>\u003C\/div>\u003Cdiv class=\”_51-u rfloat _ohf\”>\u003Ca class=\”_42ft _5upp _50zy layerCancel _51-t _50-0 _50z-\” role=\”button\” href=\”#\” title=\”Close\” data-testid=\”dialog_title_close_button\”>Close\u003C\/a>\u003C\/div>\u003C\/div>\u003C\/div>\u003Cdiv class=\”_4-i2 _57_a _50f4\” data-jsid=\”body\”>\u003C\/div>\u003Cdiv class=\”_5lnf uiOverlayFooter _5a8u\”>\u003Ca class=\”_42ft _4jy0 layerCancel uiOverlayButton _4jy3 _517h _51sy\” role=\”button\” href=\”#\”>Cancel\u003C\/a>\u003Cbutton value=\”1\” class=\”_42ft _4jy0 layerConfirm uiOverlayButton _4jy3 _4jy1 selected _51sy\” data-jsid=\”delete\” data-testid=\”ufi_hide_dialog_delete_button\” type=\”submit\”>Delete\u003C\/button>\u003C\/div>\u003C\/div>”},1]],”require”:[[“UFIController”,”preload”,[],[],[]]]});}, “ServerJS define”, {“root”:true})();
// ]]>