A bigger slice of humble pie.

• Position: North Carolina economic conditions

The way UNC-Charlotte economics professor John Connaughton sees it, North Carolina's pie is not only getting bigger, individuals are getting bigger pieces of that pie.

Although the state ranked fourth among Southeastern states in the growth of total personal income from 1983 to 1989, it was first in per capita income growth, according to preliminary figures released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

"Our total pie may not have grown as much as some states, but our slices - what every individual gets out of it - have grown more than any other Southeastern state," he says.

And that, says Connaughton, is something to brag about. "Per capita is a measure of the increase in real earning power of the people." That increase, he thinks, is a direct result of the state's longstanding policy of opting for slow, quality economic development.

Per capita income went from an average of $9,989 in 1983 to $15,221 in 1989 - a 52.4 percent increase. Virginians' per capita income rose 52.1 percent, with Georgians' and Tennesseans' growing 51.7 percent and 51.4 percent, respectively. Alabama ranked fifth with 46.1 percent growth, just ahead of South Carolina's 46.0 percent increase.

Connaughton thinks North Carolina's growth was helped by the state limiting the extent to which counties and...