Trump gives America's 'poorest white town' hope

[Fishrrman]

AbaraXas wrote:
"I wonder what they think Trump will do to increase business at a prison and mental health hospital?"

Put more illegal criminals into prison, and drive more leftists crazy...

[Cripplecreek]

At the very least, they'd be honest with themselves.  They are expecting largess from the government, which is a Democrat line item.

Voting Republican will not, and should not, ever bring the government out to 'take care' of your problems.

The only thing they should want from government is indifference about their personal lives.

[mountaineer]

As soon as I saw the posted article, I thought of the J.D. Vance book, "Hillbilly Elegy." He describes how and why Appalachian people think and act as they do. He speaks of personal experience; his grandparents hailed from a little town in Kentucky.

 Anyone here with any connection to Appalachia really should read the book. I couldn't put it down.

[mountaineer]

Companies do come to small towns in the region, looking for potential employees. Too often, the prospects 1) fail the drug test and/or 2) cannot demonstrate competence in whatever reading comprehension and basic math skills the job may require. A good part of my state is within "Appalachia," and I've heard this from a lot of state officials and others.

[Oceander]

Yeah. Your totally right. It would be better if they voted for Hitlary.

BTW, I think it is great to get the Commie Pinko perspective here at TBR from fine posters like you.

Drop the bottle there.

[bigheadfred]

Beattyville Kentucky's primary economic source is the local prison where most residents work. (after that, the local school system and mental health hospital).

They are not a mining town where a mine closed. They are not a manufacturing town.

They mostly support a prison and mental health hospital.

I wonder what they think Trump will do to increase business at a prison and mental health hospital?

I wonder what they think Trump will do to increase business at a prison and mental health hospital?

Are you kidding me?   At the rate trump is running his yap I am going to be an inmate of one or the other or BOTH.

[bigheadfred]

Comon @Frank Cannon. The term is "Commie Pinko Fag". Get it right.   

[bigheadfred]

It's "flunkyist toady".

 

That is...hilarious!  "He was the flunkyist toady that I've ever seen".  ( singing...Three Dog Night--Mama Told Me Not To Come)

[goatprairie]

My little town doesn't have any industry to speak of aside from farming. These days most people here landed here the same way I did. Jackson county is cheaper to live in but the pay is better across the county line in Washtenaw county.

The last time there was any industry that employed anyone it was seasonal. In the early 1900s Mexican migrants came to work the cucumber fields and cucumber seed was a big export. During the winter ice cut from the pond was shipped out.

There aren't any extremely poor small towns in my area like Beattyville. But undoubtedly there are small towns in a 100 mile radius that wish something big would move in.
But my response to them would be the same....if there's nothing in your area, get out. Move to where the jobs are. Almost 100 years ago my grandfather moved out of N. Michigan when the mines ran out. He took his family to Detroit during the Depression where there were jobs. That is what people in the small towns where there's nothing happening and the future doesn't look promising have to do.....move. The sad facts of life.

[geronl]

The problem is, other than perhaps direct government intervention (nationalized industries) I don't know what kind of help the government can be.

That sounds more like a curse than "help" to me. It sounds like a nightmare.

[geronl]

At the very least, they'd be honest with themselves.  They are expecting largess from the government, which is a Democrat line item.

Voting Republican will not, and should not, ever bring the government out to 'take care' of your problems.

Yet another personal insult against a TBR member and no ban. Yet I would be banned for making generalized Trumper comments.

This forum has gone to the dogs.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Two of the unspoken issues behind the lack of skilled labor are:

1. Businesses are now very unwilling to train new employees to meet shortage skillsets. (remember the early-80's and how companies would hire people to perform data entry... and then conduct in-house training?  Not anymore.)  The view is now that people should do it and pay for it themselves.

2. Many small towns have fetishized the "blue-collar" worker to the point of refusing to go and attend a community college to acquire the skills that companies need, but for which they will not hire and train new employees.

The two issues feed on themselves, forcing business out of the small towns.

It's much like the inner cities, but with a different cultural focus and less violence.

---

And I only heard calls for the people in the inner cities to 'pick themselves up by their bootstraps' and go to college.

It's good advice and the small-towns need to heed it.

(I'm all for anyone pushing aid for those that do want to go back to school and burnish their skills, whether it be in technical school, community college, or a university.)

 


Blue collar jobs ain't coming back. They will come back as robots

[ShadowAce]

I wonder what they think Trump will do to increase business at a prison and mental health hospital?

@AbaraXas

Where do you think the dain-bramaged liberals are going to end up?

[mountaineer]

There aren't any extremely poor small towns in my area like Beattyville. But undoubtedly there are small towns in a 100 mile radius that wish something big would move in.
But my response to them would be the same....if there's nothing in your area, get out. Move to where the jobs are. Almost 100 years ago my grandfather moved out of N. Michigan when the mines ran out. He took his family to Detroit during the Depression where there were jobs. That is what people in the small towns where there's nothing happening and the future doesn't look promising have to do.....move. The sad facts of life.

They do move out. That's what Hillbilly Elegy describes: the migration of "hillbillies" from Kentucky to industrial towns farther north (in that case, Middletown, Ohio). So many young, working age people have moved from my state, there are few left but the elderly and the welfare recipients. Doesn't do much for the tax base.

[Jazzhead]

As soon as I saw the posted article, I thought of the J.D. Vance book, "Hillbilly Elegy." He describes how and why Appalachian people think and act as they do. He speaks of personal experience; his grandparents hailed from a little town in Kentucky.

 Anyone here with any connection to Appalachia really should read the book. I couldn't put it down.

Agreed.  Fascinating book.   

[Cripplecreek]

They do move out. That's what Hillbilly Elegy describes: the migration of "hillbillies" from Kentucky to industrial towns farther north (in that case, Middletown, Ohio). So many young, working age people have moved from my state, there are few left but the elderly and the welfare recipients. Doesn't do much for the tax base.

Southeastern Michigan is full of hillbillies. Most have been here for 3 generations but haven't lost the hillbilly or the accents. A lot of the whites you'll encounter in and around Detroit are hillbillies.

A bluegrass sing plays on the jukebox. The banjo and fiddle duel it out.

A biker named Spanky waits his turn at a pool game and loudly taps out the rhythm of a washboard beat on his pool stick along with the song. He's pretty damn good at it too.

The bar owner, an old Southerner who's been sitting quietly on a stool, looks up and smiles, admiring his skill.

"Best jukebox in town!" Spanky yells to him. "You don't find jukeboxes like this anymore."

They're at Red's Park-Inn bar, an old, country-western dive in southwest Detroit. It could easily be in rural Tennessee. Hoods of race cars adorn the wood-paneled walls, and signs near liquor bottles say things like "Lord, if I can't be skinny make my friends look fat." The owner's picture is embedded in a slab of polished wood someone made into a rustic clock and nailed above the bar. Not one but two placards warn players not to gamble on pool.

Outside, it's a rough Detroit neighborhood. Inside, though, it's a guarded slice of country life.

http://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/southland/Content?oid=2197305

[Wingnut]

This forum has gone to the dogs.

Are you gonna bark all day little doggie? Or are you gonna bite?

[goatprairie]

They do move out. That's what Hillbilly Elegy describes: the migration of "hillbillies" from Kentucky to industrial towns farther north (in that case, Middletown, Ohio). So many young, working age people have moved from my state, there are few left but the elderly and the welfare recipients. Doesn't do much for the tax base.

Most or many of the small town residents around my area benefit from the ag industry. Some have a few industries like poultry processing or making furniture.  Some have tried to gear up the tourist industry which I guess brings in a little money.
But for the most part they're meant to be small towns. Nothing inherently wrong with that at all. In fact as long as I can get internet services and be not too far from grocery stores, medical facilities, etc. I'd rather live in a small town. Right now I basically live out in the country with a farm on one side of my property.
It's just when some residents of the small towns complain about there being no industry or jobs that I would like to remind them there most likely will never be much in the way of good jobs for many small town residents.
Like anything else, if you don't like your situation, work to improve it. Adapt to the situation or move.

[Cripplecreek]

Most or many of the small town residents around my area benefit from the ag industry. Some have a few industries like poultry processing or making furniture.  Some have tried to gear up the tourist industry which I guess brings in a little money.
But for the most part they're meant to be small towns. Nothing inherently wrong with that at all. In fact as long as I can get internet services and be not too far from grocery stores, medical facilities, etc. I'd rather live in a small town. Right now I basically live out in the country with a farm on one side of my property.
It's just when some residents of the small towns complain about there being no industry or jobs that I would like to remind them there most likely will never be much in the way of good jobs for many small town residents.
Like anything else, if you don't like your situation, work to improve it. Adapt to the situation or move.

I like my little town without any industry. Its nice and quiet but there is plenty of industry within a half hour drive.

Most of the residents here are retirees but as they die they're being replaced by young families.

[geronl]

How'd you get that from this:

I was talking about the people that live in these towns.

I wasn't referring to that. I'm the one Frankie called "Commie Pinko Fag", it's on my list now.

[TomSea]

Some of these communities actually need nothing more than an acknowledgement they are there.

We may like the idea of no government at all; but some places, really have little state, local or federal government. They are that remote.

They feel forgotten.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Some of these communities actually need nothing more than an acknowledgement they are there.

We may like the idea of no government at all; but some places, really have little state, local or federal government. They are that remote.

They feel forgotten.

I was under the impression they wanted to be left alone.

[geronl]

Some of these communities actually need nothing more than an acknowledgement they are there.

We may like the idea of no government at all; but some places, really have little state, local or federal government. They are that remote.

They feel forgotten.

This is why Joe Biden said junk mail was a good thing for old people.

[mountaineer]

We may like the idea of no government at all; but some places, really have little state, local or federal government. They are that remote.

They used to be, but no place - at least in the eastern U.S. - is remote any longer. They also used to mistrust government, but then people like Sen. Bobby KKK Byrd came along and showed them how wonderful a life perpetually on the dole truly  could be. So regardless of their attitude toward government in the abstract, they love the "concrete" of their monthly do-nothing benefits.

[Cripplecreek]

I was under the impression they wanted to be left alone.

I wish they would leave me alone or at least stop charging me taxes for my road frontage. Its an un-maintained 2 track that I wish the county would declare abandoned so I can gain 25 feet of easement.