Kerala: the "money order economy"

Right from my graduate school days, Kerala, Sri Lanka, and Costa Rica, were classic examples of how social indicators of "development" can be attained even without high levels of per capita incomes.

Sri Lanka then got messier and messier with its civil war.  Costa Rica continues to maintain that shine.

While social indicators in Kerala might make even a few developed countries blush, over the years its economy has started to lag ... a lot. 

It appears that many of the socio-political transformations that made the Kerala miracle possible are pretty much some of the reasons why the state lags behind in economic terms.

The BBC reports:

Many believe that the skewed nature of the economy - it has been called the "money order economy" - is to blame.
Kerala lives off remittances and it lacks a manufacturing base. Economists draw parallels with the Philippines and Sri Lanka, which face similar problems.

The urban-rural gap is the lowest in Kerala

And Kerala has not benefited directly from the rise of its biggest service industry, tourism. Service tax is a federal tax which first goes to Delhi, and is then distributed among different states.
Kerala's biggest advantage - high literacy - has become a strange liability: the vast majority of educated unemployed have to go elsewhere for work.
Economists like KK George, who have spent a lifetime studying the "Kerala conundrum", say the state is facing a "second generation problem" of growth.
"Having fulfilled all millennium development goals, the state has no money left for higher investments. The central government is busy tackling poverty and illiteracy in most states, so doesn't have time or money for Kerala. And successive governments in Kerala have not been able to take it forward," says Dr George.

Yes, they migrate.  The joke, even from my India days, was that when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, he was surprised to see a Kerala tea stall there :) 

More from the BBC:

Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen says Kerala has to "learn from the world". Its famed model of development, which is still touted as the most inclusive one, appears to have hit the buffers.
"The Kerala model is grinding to a halt because the social and political groups having fulfilled their original agenda now have no new agendas. Society has lost its capacity to set collective goals. There are no more big dreams," says Dr George.
"The old change agents like the Christian church and their missionary organisations, social reform movements in various caste groups, trade unions and political parties are acting merely as pressure groups either to defend the status quo or to extract the maximum possible share of a cake that is not increasing in size."
Clearly, Kerala needs a new contract between the state and its people to move ahead and build upon its enviable gains.

Here, Oregon is kind of similar in one respect: up until the 1980s, Oregon seemed to be way ahead of the curve on many critical socioeconomic issues.  And since then, well, as a colleague described the situation yesterday at lunch, "we have it all ass backward now" :(

I now routinely tell my students: "you are screwed."  My hope is that they would wake up to the reality that there are lots of problems in Oregon, particularly for the young and the restless ....

I wonder if somewhere along the road, people and politicians in both these states kind of became a tad too  smug and started believing that the world revolves around them, only to later find out that it now revolves around China. And elsewhere ....

Anyway, if Kerala is the "money order economy," then what might be a catchy phrase to describe Oregon's economy? :)  What says you, ye faithful readers (editor: don't count imaginary chickens!)