Author: Charles Hayslett
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An overdue update on Georgia’s premature death performance
My 15-year trip down this Trouble in God’s Country rabbit hole started as the result of the almost accidental discovery of a massive gap in population health between Georgia’s most and least healthy counties. I was conducting some research for a public health-related campaign my public relations firm was managing, and I was looking specifically…
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More on Georgia’s Quality of Life “F” grade from CNBC
Last Thursday I put up a short post about CNBC’s 2025 “Top States for Business” and the fact that Georgia ranked 7th overall and had scored particularly poorly in the network’s Quality of Life category. Georgia ranked 45th out of the 50 states in that category (down from 40th in 2024) and earned an F…
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CNBC puts out latest “Top States for Business” rankings, and guess what …
CNBC, the nation’s leading business network, came out this morning with its 2025 list of “America’s Top States for Business” and awarded top honors, once again, to Geor — Oh, wait. No. Not Georgia. North Carolina. Georgia, whose leaders have been crowing for about a decade now about the No. 1 state for business award…
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Rural Georgia voters apparently believed Trump wouldn’t cut Medicaid. Oops.
I was motivated by a couple of things when I started working on “Trouble in God’s Country” more than a decade ago. The first was that I was convinced by research I was conducting that the socioeconomic divide between Georgia’s haves and have-nots was bigger than generally understood and getting worse year after year after…
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Bill Shipp is still right
I’ve written a couple of pieces over the years detailing the educational attainment gaps between the various parts of the state. The main hook I used for those pieces was an old Bill Shipp quote that without Metro Atlanta, the state of Georgia would be more poorly educated than Mississippi. As a native Mississippian, I…
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Jimmy Carter’s forgotten legacy as a champion of rural causes
In the flood of tributes following Jimmy Carter’s passing, one major aspect of his legacy was largely overlooked: his unwavering commitment to rural America. As the only president in modern history to hail from a small farming community, Carter brought a unique perspective to the White House that shaped his policies and priorities in ways…
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Maybe we should apply Jack Welch’s business strategies to rural Georgia
The Georgia General Assembly convenes in Atlanta next Monday for its 157th session. Naturally, this got me to thinking about Jack Welch. Well, maybe not naturally. The logic was admittedly a little circuitous. Focused as I am on the economic, educational and population health hellscape that is now much of rural Georgia, I was wondering…
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Carter’s funeral and Trump’s inaugural: Bookends to a troubled half-century
After nearly two years in hospice care at his home in Plains, Ga., Jimmy Carter passed away Sunday afternoon at the age of 100. His family had said a few months ago that the nation’s 39th president was set on hanging on until he could cast his vote for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump. He…
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A question for Georgia’s Democratic Party leaders
I have a question for the Democratic Party of Georgia. Why should any prospective donor, large or small, contribute a single dime – nay, even a penny – to this party? I write this, by the way, as somebody who has not voted for a Republican since the late Mike Egan was my state senator…
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Decades to grow, minutes to destroy
I spent a good portion of last Saturday winding my way back and forth across at least a half-dozen southeast Georgia counties battered by Hurricane Helene. I’d be driving along, thinking, this isn’t all that bad. Then I’d top a hill or round a bend and it was like I was on another planet. Long…