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That and the Mississippi valley contain 80% of poverty. They get 20% of aid to poverty. 80% goes to urban poverty thru politics of poverty as Bush and Clinton foundation for private giving points out.
How do you measure that 80% of poverty number - is it by population, unemployment, something else?
I'm from the area and this level of poverty is not uncommon, especially in extreme southwest VA, southern/western WV, and eastern KY. I drove from Russell County, VA, which is rural and "poor," all the way through Buchanan and Tazewell Counties in VA, into WV into Mingo and McDowell Counties back in July and was appalled. Where I'm at in east TN is bad compared to normal places like Nashville, but WV and VA are beyond devastated. More buildings were burned out or collapsed than were standing. Roads often only have room for one car at a time. Cell phone reception, cable, and broadband are nonexistent. Even indoor plumbing can be hard to come by. Most of the country was probably better off in 1950 than the heart of Appalachia is today.
We Appalachians have a strong sense of place and family ties, as that's all we've historically had. It also takes money to move, which most residents don't have. With the economy the way it is, times aren't like they used to be where you can just go anywhere you like and find a job quickly. Because of the poverty and difficult economy, people get stuck, even if they want to leave.
Because of the poverty, tax revenues are low and things that require revenues like education, health care, roads, are of poor quality. Without the infrastructure and educated (or even trainable) population, why would companies move here when there is a surplus of educated, trainable labor elsewhere? That's not even counting the difficult topography to deal with.
Drug addiction, abuse, and violence are a way of life here. Crime is through the roof - in my metro of about 300k, there is a murder or attempted murder almost every day in the viewing area. The first ten minutes of each news broadcast is pretty well filled with violence and drug busts. There's a lot of talk about Jesus and family values here...as the locals pop their pills, deal them, shoot each other, and beat their wives.
Kids who are born in the area are pretty much screwed. One problem builds on another and it's like a snowball rolling down here. The stereotypes are true. Appalachia is done and constantly trying to invest in it at this point is fruitless.
True. But all the aid in the world won't erase policy unless there's a societal shift in how inhabitants of that region see work and education.
This x1000. My Dad was born and raised in that area around Eastern KY - the pic of the house in the 1st post is upscale compared to my grandparent's old home down in the holler.
The statement in the article that 'most of the people would work if they could' is a load of BS. The vast majority, including my own blood relatives, don't mind the squalor and would rather sit at home doing nothing and collecting welfare than get a job. I've seen it first hand for decades - they will fake injuries to get workman's comp and divorce spouses as a formality to get more aid and food stamps, all the while continuing to cohabitate. They know how to work the system.
My Dad, who would have been 83 this year, enlisted in the Air Force as soon as he was able - it was either that or work in the coal mines. He finally did get out and make something of himself but was vilified by his kin for doing well. We were considered the 'city cousins' and our treatment alternated between being called snobs and accused of acting 'high and mighty' or being hit up for money. My Dad built a saw mill on some property he owned just so he could employ his relatives back in the 70's. Somebody got jealous or mad or something and burned it down after a year or 2. He also allowed a favorite uncle going thru hard times to live in a house he owned on the same property rent-free. This uncle and his family didn't want to/couldn't pay for coal to heat the house and was too lazy to go up the mountain to cut wood for the stove so they burned porch railings and interior trim instead. This is the twisted kind of mentality that permeates this area.
I have a cousin there mad at my Mom right now - he lost his job due to drug use about 5 years ago and wants her to *give* him an acre of her land so he can mortgage it to buy a trailer to haul up there. No kidding. No offer to buy; just outright told her she had enough money and should just give it to him.
Most of the people there simply do. not. care. about education and bettering themselves. Not all, but most. And the drug use? Yeah, it's really, really bad.
Kids who are born in the area are pretty much screwed. One problem builds on another and it's like a snowball rolling down here. The stereotypes are true. Appalachia is done and constantly trying to invest in it at this point is fruitless.
There are simply no standards for bettering oneself and it is definitely generational. Back when the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was established in the 30's after the Great Depression, my grandma said the locals jokingly referred to it as We Piddle Around. Even people with factory jobs up north would quit so they could come home and get an 'easy' job with the WPA where they got paid for very little actual work. Not much has changed in 80 years.
Markets change, and laborers must move with it. If an area is impoverished due to lack of work, then move. That or live "in squalor." If you choose the latter I wont pity you. There is no high road to living in poverty because you are not willing to try a little harder.
... Because of the terrain, large portions are unsuitable for agriculture. And the mountains make it hard to establish any kind of large manufacturing concern, chiefly because there isn't enough flat area and transportation. This is not some new development. It has been this way since, well, forever. ...
I wonder why some mountainous and remote regions nevertheless manage to prosper, while others languish. For example, many areas along the Rockies appear to be doing well, despite having higher mountains and harsher climate (less suitability to agriculture) than the Appalachians. Why don't we read about Denver or Cheyenne being failed cities with endemic poverty?
Appalachia is only 100-200 miles west of some of the most bustling population centers on the Eastern seaboard. I drive across Appalachian highways regularly, between Ohio and D.C. It's just shocking how the D.C. wealth spills westward for dozens of miles, and then stops abruptly at Interstate 81.
No need to go all the way to Appalachia to see poverty. Every city in America has squalor, and it's usually quite extensive. I'm confident every person on this forum knows exactly where in his city to find it. The only thing "special" about Appalachia is that the impoverished are white.
So much for Conservative politics being good for the economy, you can't get much more Conservative than the backwoods of West Virginia.
It's ridiculous for me of all people (I'm definitely a lefty) to defend the conservatives, but West Virginia's embrace of conservative politics is a pretty new phenomenon. It used to be a unionized bastion of Democratic politics. Voted for Humphrey over Nixon in 1968, Carter over Reagan in 1980, and Dukakis over Bush in 1988. Bill Clinton did better in WV than he did nationally in both 1992 and 1996. Of course, that's now a time gone with the wind. Whether voting for the crowd who wants to eliminate food stamps will do WV any good remains to be seen. I have my doubts. Southeastern KY has been staunchly Republican since the Garden of Eden, and it's far poorer than West Virginia.
If you want the poster child for a historically Republican region that has been destroyed and continues to vote for their own destruction, hop over to the Great Plains. If you ever get the chance to make the long windy drive from Kansas City to Denver, get off the interstate if only for an hour or so and see the desolation first hand. The nothing, reminiscent of The Neverending Story, is truly something to see. Never fancy, there used to be reasonably livable communities in remote corners of Kansas, Nebraska, etc. Not much left of them today except thousands of forgotten ghost towns.
Quick browsing should you care to read more: Battle of Blair Mountain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Depopulation of the Great Plains - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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