[Dave_n_Tenn]

Originally Posted by Marc Paolella

It’s the same damned puzzle. Everywhere. Self-destruction with bad decisions followed by trying to make it everyone else’s problem. Since the issue is now thoroughly discussed, it is time to exit this thread for new challenges. I’ve only been to Alabama once, but found it pleasant and appealing. Maybe once I retire, I’ll really make some Alabamans really unhappy and show up in person.

That is a damn ignorant thing to post. Your frustration is showing.

[skeddy]

Originally Posted by Marc Paolella

And by the way, corporations don’t pay taxes. WE PAY THEM THROUGH HIGHER PRICES. The corporate tax rate should be ZERO POINT ZERO percent.

so true, currently in Congress they are discussing a program 5x more costly than Obamacare that politicians want to pay for by raising corporate taxes. There are millions and millions of our citizen too dumb to realize corporate taxes are just passed along to consumers. They complain on one hand that everything has gotten so expensive, yet on the other hand they want to raise corporate taxes which just increases the cost of everything they buy. They have no idea how this works. Let's print 3.5 trillion more and raise corporate taxes to pay for it and see who suffers from the inflation it generates. It's sure as hell won't be me!

[Surge0001]

Originally Posted by skeddy

so true, currently in Congress they are discussing a program 5x more costly than Obamacare that politicians want to pay for by raising corporate taxes. There are millions and millions of our citizen too dumb to realize corporate taxes are just passed along to consumers. They complain on one hand that everything has gotten so expensive, yet on the other hand they want to raise corporate taxes which just increases the cost of everything they buy. They have no idea how this works. Let's print 3.5 trillion more and raise corporate taxes to pay for it and see who suffers from the inflation it generates. It's sure as hell won't be me!

Dude, take it to politics forum, not here. This is not what we are discussing here

[mojo101]

we are judging the rural poor with our big city standards,life is not the same for them,they have relatives and cousins nearby,they fish in the river and they dont have drycleaning,central A/C Netflix streaming,vaping,Starbuck coffee,or order a pizza because they dont feel like cooking.
They could be eating better than some of us-homecook meals with fresh veggies and freshly slaughtered meat and go to bed early.
They dont have multi media room,trade in their car each year and drink bottled water,go on vacation .
radio and Tv is all they have,thats enough entertainment for a family.
Even if they have the means to move to a metro area,they would not fit in and they may not have the skills and their cars could breakdown and they would pay rent.
do they have car insurance now??

[wiesenhauffer]

Originally Posted by Marc Paolella

This is the whining mentality keeping poverty going in rural Alabama. Here’s a suggestion: Instead of cancel culturing and locking threads, stop reading it and move on. You have the freedom to decide how to spend your time. This is SO the progressive mentality: “Oh, I don’t like what’s being said. Let’s find a way to shut it down”.

I literally gave you the answer to the problem, but you don’t like it because it doesn’t fit with your world view. Reality doesn’t care. Either behavior and decisions change, or poverty stays forever. Poor people aren’t owed anything. They have to do what more wealthy people do: take care of the business of life using observation, reason, logic, and good decision making based on objective reality. Period.

well, Mr. Marc, the problem is that you're telling the TRUTH and a few know it alls hate to hear a divergent point of view that ruffles their feathers, because they are obviously thin-skinned.


Then they say what you're saying is "off topic"...the next thing I'll read is someone will be calling you a "Yankee"....lol


Generational, so-called "rural poverty's" genesis is EXACTLY what you describe - really it is, whether it's rural or urban.


With all of this local/native brilliance on display, they are closer to the problem so why on earth does this problem of generational poverty still exist, if these brilliant people are so "In Charge" ??


Got an answer? then let them go fix it rather than providing daft and pedantic so-called solutions and observations.


No, they want to fake left, go right...then attempt to discredit your own contributions, then accuse you of drifting away from the OP's original question.


My own roots are found deeply all over the SE, including to this day all around Dallas County, AL, Greene, Shelby, Jefferson, etc - generational planters/farmers, businessmen, and (sad to say) politicians in and around old Marion and Old Cahaba etc.


I know the area...well....I don't have all of the answers, but I DO know that your comments are not entirely off-base, even though attempts are clearly afoot to demonize you at the expense of truth glaring them in the face.


It irks some of them.



Marc, what you suggested is an affront to the local color...lol...it offends their sensibilities, you see? lol
You have offended the "Grand Dames" and mackdaddy HMFICs of the local forum.



Some don't understand that sometimes, truth is a bitter pill.


I saw this devolving "event", Marc, from a 100 yards away.


Pass the popcorn and another beer.




ON THE BEACH

[Dave_n_Tenn]

It's easy to identify poverty, but hard to know the why... and this thread is how to solve poverty in rural areas.

The why is different in east Tennessee rural areas then it is in everglades agricultural area and different again in the Ozarks of Arkansas. The Demographics are different, culture different, different ethnicity and therefore generalizations are wrong. I mention these three because I've live in those three.

The common value is they're connected to the land. Land is life and life is in agriculture, the two are connected. The bad thing is addiction. No one is starving, no one is without basic services unless they are suffering mental illness or physical illness from addiction.

You can not remake rural America

[Beliciano]

Originally Posted by Marc Paolella

Start thinking for yourself please and stop reciting Bernie Sanders talking points. Major corporations make life wonderful and easy by inventing, producing, and delivering innovative goods and services that we decide not to live without. They get big and powerful because we are happy to give them lots of money to produce the next amazing thing. A state of the art Ipad now costs over 2 large. Which I will voluntarily fork over to Apple because it is a magnificent piece of technology. And to do that I have to give fantastic service to my clients so they keep voluntarily giving me nice green dollars for my service. Stop beotching about corporations. They are us. They are people who get together and produce amazing things for us to buy and enjoy. Give me more capitalist corporate greed. It makes my life fantastic while also providing endless jobs and opportunities for quality people to move up and create more marvelous things to use in this very short thing we call life. Collectivists are garbage!

Oh I am thinking for myself, and that's why I said what I said. If you think corporations exists to make us happy and maximize life for every one around, well then that's you. Go on and keep thinking that. I am sure the corporatists really love people like you. I ain't one who will gladly give half of my paycheck to get a gadget that these people sell for 100 x as much money as it costs them to manufacture!!

[wiesenhauffer]

Originally Posted by Surge0001

It is not the "the same damned puzzle." Your poverty is not the same as our poverty, our poverty is a completely different beast, this is not your crack head neighbor Bob that flunked out of high school like what you have. These are people who have been in poverty for generations because of generation of institutional racism and Jim Crow law as well as the destruction of rural jobs through outsourcing in the past 60 years. It is not "lazy people who need to suffer" they are Americans trying to find a living, with nothing around them to find a living through and they are too poor to move.


And no we do not need more stereotypes here, you can stay up North

Wow..


I'm native Southerner, have close relatives all over AL and financial interests all over AL (for decades), and attended grad/professional school in the State.



Jim Crow is gone. There is no "institutional racism" or systemic racism. Does racism exist? yes


Racism should not be a "catchall" for making bad choices and awful decisions. They last time I checked, there is no admission charged for public education, or entry to a library, right?



I agree with Marc for the most part. Although the genesis of regional US poverty can be quite different, but that has nothing to do with making bad decisions, having no self-respect, awful family life, low levels of education ( it's FREE), having a destructive family life, having no fathers at home, failure to speak English, and having multiple illegitimate children, and having subcultural foundational values.


These deficiencies have NOTHING to do with "outsourcing of jobs in the past 60 years". That's laughable and a complete non sequitur.


I agree with Marc, yep as someone who is not from "Up Nawth".


The first law of holes, or the law of holes, is an adage which states: "if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging". Digging a hole makes it deeper and therefore harder to get out of. It's an untenable position, it is best to stop making the situation worse. Folks in "generational rural poverty"
should decide for themselves to stop making the situation worse.

That's the hard truth in most, not all cases.

[Dave_n_Tenn]

To make something healthy that has the capacity to heal... you must remove the infection.

The infection is drugs and the ensuing degradation to the family unit. The government has NEVER been able to help and generally makes matters worse when they see only victims. You DO NOT coddle addiction.

[Beliciano]

Originally Posted by Dave_n_Tenn

To make something healthy that has the capacity to heal... you must remove the infection.

The infection is drugs and the ensuing degradation to the family unit. The government has NEVER been able to help and generally makes matters worse when they see only victims. You DO NOT coddle addiction.

At the end of the day, there are extremely few opportunities for folks to get out of poverty in the rural black belt. The only option for most folks is moving somewhere else. We are not talking about places like Huntsville or Birmingham where opportunities to advance through life or a career are much easier to find. In most of the rural blackbelt the opportunities are almost nil and very few who stay behind in these places actually do experience that. You are not going to pull yourself out of poverty by working at Wal-Mart or a fast food job, and that's basically all there is to for employment in most of those places. When you have towns where every employed person practically works a dead end job this is what happens. Which is partially why places like Huntsville and Atlanta keep growing, because you cannot get ahead in these rural places.

As long as there is no opportunities in these places, poverty will always be a problem. With that being said, (this is not directed at you at all) there are some folks commenting on this thread who do not have the slightest idea about the black belt and the dynamics of it who keep derailing and hijacking this thread. They are just using this thread to talk down groups of people!!