I’ve been to Wisconsin once in my life. It was for a wedding. The day before the wedding, my wife and I had time to explore Milwaukee. As we were walking around we saw that the Milwaukee School of Engineering had an art museum and my wife insisted that we go.
I don’t really care for art and would have much rather have gone to some breweries. However, we did go to the museum and it was the best museum experience I have ever had. We stayed, at my insistence, for hours looking at the paintings. For those that don’t know, the Grohmann Museum has a massive collection of works of art dedicated to workman, craftsmen, artisans, etc. literally just a tremendous amount of paintings of people at work in various trades over the centuries.
It was fascinating. I’ve never been more captivated by works of art before or since. Even more so by the fact l had no idea that morning that I was going to experience something like that.
I’d always thought of art as being mostly portraits of royalty, religious scenes, or abstract images. None of those really appeal to me. A large collection of paintings about everyday people at work completely drew me in.
If I never end up going back to Wisconsin, I’ll always associate it with that one trip to the museum. I hope to make it back sometime and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys art and especially to those who don’t.
Yes, somewhere there is data showing Detroit as the world's richest city per capita, c. 1960. I assume that means largest city of some size. Pasadena, CA used to have very high per capita incomes too.
Forgotten today, is that there were relatively prosperous "Bronzevilles" in many Northern cities, that is Black neighborhoods, where incomes were higher than for average whites in the many parts of the nation.
Films of Detroit in the 1960s...well, sad to see today. So optimistic, so prosperous.
You surely can't talk about Wisconsin without mentioning Wm Proxmire. He was in the news alot when I was young - and the Golden Fleece Award! I remember as a kid thinking he had a lot of common sense.
Interesting post. I haven’t spent much time in Wisconsin but have spent a lot of time in Michigan and Ohio.
I believe the data you are referring to was from an article by Justin Fox in Bloomberg. I recall it being linked to on MR but I can’t recall where I saw it exactly. It’s gated for me now but I recall coming across the chart of medium income in 1949 compared to today by city for the 57 cities with populations > 250,000. What struck me was that 6 of the top 15 were in Ohio (Cleveland, Toledo, Dayton, Akron, Youngstown, and Columbus… in that order with only Detroit outranking Cleveland and Milwaukee taking 3rd).
While I cant say much about think the legacy of progressivism in WI, I can say this was true of Ohio. They were both hot beds of anti-slavery groups and progressivism. The first housing projects were in Cleveland Ohio. The AFL and
And United mine workers of America were headquartered in Columbus. The women’s Christian temperance movement was founded in Cleveland.
In short, OH and WI have similar progressive histories. The interesting thing is why rural WI has stayed pinker than OH. I think WI fairing better than Ohio across the period of deindustrialization is the big difference. But that’s almost a guess.
In any event, interesting stuff. I recall posting this on moneyillusion sometime back, but the tipping point state will be PA. PA, MI, and WI are highly correlated over the last 3 cycles. If PA is blue, MI and WI will be too.
Given the latest data, it looks to me like MI goes blue by a point or two, WI end up right on the line (like GA in 2020) and PA goes trump by a point or two….
The dems went coastal woke and the progressivism of the Midwest is dying out… literally.
That election forecast sounds reasonable. I also expect a narrow win for Trump.
I still think Wisconsin's progressive history is a bit stronger than that of Ohio, which has a somewhat different ethnic mix. Wisconsin doesn't border any states like West Virginia or Kentucky.
You would like Simon Callow's biography of Welles. He was in many ways the son of the Wisconsin you describe; his mother a crusading progressive concert pianist, his father an alcoholic manufacturer of carbide bicycle lamps. "The Magnificent Ambersons" was just as personal as "Chimes at Midnight" and the progressive spirit in "Citizen Kane" owes more to Robert La Follette than any of the east coast intelligentsia who battled Tammany Hall and Rockefeller. Reading about the gadgetry and spirit of invention that went into the Mercury Theatre and Kane reminded me of Tom Wolfe's profile of Robert Noyce, another great midwestern tinkerer. Callow is too encyclopedic in some ways but his backround allows him to see that Welles was above all a man of the theatre and show that the vitality in his filmaking came from that world, more than any other first-rank director (except perhaps Charles Laughton, maybe Bergman?)
The map “Percentage of Population With Excessive Drinking by US County” has such striking differences crossing state lines, I suspect it is a data collection problem, or differences in how Excessive Drinking is defined. Even the Wisconsin-Michigan border is unreasonably distinct. This problem is greater between states that are relatively evenly shaded. States that show realistic within-state variation are more likely to blend with their neighbors.
This map is practically useless unless you want to humorously contrast the state that denies it has a drinking problem with the state that is basically proud of its drinking.
I noticed that too, and I agree that they must have used some system that estimated counties based on state level data. But Wisconsin really is a very heavy drinking state, I believe the highest in the country
I have a couple of observations as an Australian who's never been to Wisconsin. One, I grew up watching 'Happy Days', and would never have guessed that Milwaukee was the third-richest city in the world in the era in which the show was set. That's the speed of progress from the mid-1950s to the early 1980s, I suppose. It was so fast that the third-richest city in the world looks quaint to a child of a country with a 20% lower GDP per capita than the US 27-28 years later.
Second, I find that 'heavy drinking' stat triggering. Five drinks a night is my usual Friday and Saturday nights, and I probably around 15-20 standard drinks per week, and I weigh less than 140 pounds. I can't help feeling like that metric is one developed by the same doctors who warn that there is no safe level of sun exposure. Anyway, I'm gratified that many European countries have relatively high rates of 'heavy episodic drinking' and have higher life expectancy than the US. Perhaps more concerning about that chart is that many states that I was surprised to see had lower drinking levels than Wisconsin probably have a different and much worse drug problem.
You said "Perhaps more concerning about that chart is that many states that I was surprised to see had lower drinking levels than Wisconsin probably have a different and much worse drug problem"
I’ve been to Wisconsin once in my life. It was for a wedding. The day before the wedding, my wife and I had time to explore Milwaukee. As we were walking around we saw that the Milwaukee School of Engineering had an art museum and my wife insisted that we go.
I don’t really care for art and would have much rather have gone to some breweries. However, we did go to the museum and it was the best museum experience I have ever had. We stayed, at my insistence, for hours looking at the paintings. For those that don’t know, the Grohmann Museum has a massive collection of works of art dedicated to workman, craftsmen, artisans, etc. literally just a tremendous amount of paintings of people at work in various trades over the centuries.
It was fascinating. I’ve never been more captivated by works of art before or since. Even more so by the fact l had no idea that morning that I was going to experience something like that.
I’d always thought of art as being mostly portraits of royalty, religious scenes, or abstract images. None of those really appeal to me. A large collection of paintings about everyday people at work completely drew me in.
If I never end up going back to Wisconsin, I’ll always associate it with that one trip to the museum. I hope to make it back sometime and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys art and especially to those who don’t.
Thanks, I need to check out that museum.
I liked this post.
Yes, somewhere there is data showing Detroit as the world's richest city per capita, c. 1960. I assume that means largest city of some size. Pasadena, CA used to have very high per capita incomes too.
Forgotten today, is that there were relatively prosperous "Bronzevilles" in many Northern cities, that is Black neighborhoods, where incomes were higher than for average whites in the many parts of the nation.
Films of Detroit in the 1960s...well, sad to see today. So optimistic, so prosperous.
You surely can't talk about Wisconsin without mentioning Wm Proxmire. He was in the news alot when I was young - and the Golden Fleece Award! I remember as a kid thinking he had a lot of common sense.
Yes, I recall he was very popular with both Democrats and Republicans. Those were different times.
Interesting post. I haven’t spent much time in Wisconsin but have spent a lot of time in Michigan and Ohio.
I believe the data you are referring to was from an article by Justin Fox in Bloomberg. I recall it being linked to on MR but I can’t recall where I saw it exactly. It’s gated for me now but I recall coming across the chart of medium income in 1949 compared to today by city for the 57 cities with populations > 250,000. What struck me was that 6 of the top 15 were in Ohio (Cleveland, Toledo, Dayton, Akron, Youngstown, and Columbus… in that order with only Detroit outranking Cleveland and Milwaukee taking 3rd).
Here is a link: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-08-09/income-ladder-is-difficult-to-climb-for-us-metro-areas
Here is an ungated link to the same charts from some guys blog:
https://brandondonnelly.com/2023/07/21/americas-most-affluent-cities/
While I cant say much about think the legacy of progressivism in WI, I can say this was true of Ohio. They were both hot beds of anti-slavery groups and progressivism. The first housing projects were in Cleveland Ohio. The AFL and
And United mine workers of America were headquartered in Columbus. The women’s Christian temperance movement was founded in Cleveland.
In short, OH and WI have similar progressive histories. The interesting thing is why rural WI has stayed pinker than OH. I think WI fairing better than Ohio across the period of deindustrialization is the big difference. But that’s almost a guess.
In any event, interesting stuff. I recall posting this on moneyillusion sometime back, but the tipping point state will be PA. PA, MI, and WI are highly correlated over the last 3 cycles. If PA is blue, MI and WI will be too.
Given the latest data, it looks to me like MI goes blue by a point or two, WI end up right on the line (like GA in 2020) and PA goes trump by a point or two….
The dems went coastal woke and the progressivism of the Midwest is dying out… literally.
That election forecast sounds reasonable. I also expect a narrow win for Trump.
I still think Wisconsin's progressive history is a bit stronger than that of Ohio, which has a somewhat different ethnic mix. Wisconsin doesn't border any states like West Virginia or Kentucky.
You would like Simon Callow's biography of Welles. He was in many ways the son of the Wisconsin you describe; his mother a crusading progressive concert pianist, his father an alcoholic manufacturer of carbide bicycle lamps. "The Magnificent Ambersons" was just as personal as "Chimes at Midnight" and the progressive spirit in "Citizen Kane" owes more to Robert La Follette than any of the east coast intelligentsia who battled Tammany Hall and Rockefeller. Reading about the gadgetry and spirit of invention that went into the Mercury Theatre and Kane reminded me of Tom Wolfe's profile of Robert Noyce, another great midwestern tinkerer. Callow is too encyclopedic in some ways but his backround allows him to see that Welles was above all a man of the theatre and show that the vitality in his filmaking came from that world, more than any other first-rank director (except perhaps Charles Laughton, maybe Bergman?)
Thanks, I've been planning to eventually read that biography.
The map “Percentage of Population With Excessive Drinking by US County” has such striking differences crossing state lines, I suspect it is a data collection problem, or differences in how Excessive Drinking is defined. Even the Wisconsin-Michigan border is unreasonably distinct. This problem is greater between states that are relatively evenly shaded. States that show realistic within-state variation are more likely to blend with their neighbors.
This map is practically useless unless you want to humorously contrast the state that denies it has a drinking problem with the state that is basically proud of its drinking.
I noticed that too, and I agree that they must have used some system that estimated counties based on state level data. But Wisconsin really is a very heavy drinking state, I believe the highest in the country
Might be boring, but the cheese produced in Wisconsin is mostly outstanding!
I have a couple of observations as an Australian who's never been to Wisconsin. One, I grew up watching 'Happy Days', and would never have guessed that Milwaukee was the third-richest city in the world in the era in which the show was set. That's the speed of progress from the mid-1950s to the early 1980s, I suppose. It was so fast that the third-richest city in the world looks quaint to a child of a country with a 20% lower GDP per capita than the US 27-28 years later.
Second, I find that 'heavy drinking' stat triggering. Five drinks a night is my usual Friday and Saturday nights, and I probably around 15-20 standard drinks per week, and I weigh less than 140 pounds. I can't help feeling like that metric is one developed by the same doctors who warn that there is no safe level of sun exposure. Anyway, I'm gratified that many European countries have relatively high rates of 'heavy episodic drinking' and have higher life expectancy than the US. Perhaps more concerning about that chart is that many states that I was surprised to see had lower drinking levels than Wisconsin probably have a different and much worse drug problem.
You said "Perhaps more concerning about that chart is that many states that I was surprised to see had lower drinking levels than Wisconsin probably have a different and much worse drug problem"
West Virginia really stands out in that regard.
you miss the forest for the trees. nothing changed. dukakis in 88 tells you its the drift of the commie blue party, and not the state.
Paul Westerberg, Bob Mould, and who?
Dylan, Prince, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, in that order.
Kevin McHale, from Dylan’s hometown, doesn’t count? 😢
Paul Westerberg before Prince?
Bob Dylan