U.N. Official Shocked at Poverty In Rural Alabama

[IsailedawayfromFR]

"Out there?" Be more specific. Explain how someone needs to uproot their whole life and family to chase jobs that may not exist by the time they get "out there." They could get out there and end up in the same position they are now, rejected by all employers in the human-resources game, and now living in a place more expensive than before. Moving to where the jobs supposedly are is easier said than done.

Maybe bachelors can afford that luxury, but it's not viable for everyone.

Then that person is not hungry enough, or is something like this.  http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,294695.msg1541304.html#msg1541304

[mirraflake]

Yeah, gas stations and stores are always hiring because they want to pay minimum wage and make everyone work nights, weekends and holidays. I can get those jobs anywhere; the job boards are full of listings for them. I DID that job for over a decade and vowed to myself never to settle for that again. Any idiot can work at the local Dollar General, but it won't get them anywhere.

@jmyrlefuller

Do you not read what i type?  I can get you a job paying $20+ $25+ per hour 50-60 hours per week in hours. I have friends asking if I know someone.

Get out of that little podunk town. Why limit yourself just because you are afraid to  move out.
I hate to be cruel but you are burning up your highest earning income years.  You will end up working to age 80  and will never have a comfortable retirement

[jmyrlefuller]

I guess I should clarify why I bring this up. You can tell someone "if you can't find work here, leave to where there is work" all you want. Yet that territory the person leaves behind is still there, the people left behind are still mired in depression, and that just leaves one fewer intelligent, useful person in the area every time someone leaves. It's known as "brain drain" and it doesn't help these areas like in Alabama or West Virginia one iota. It just creates slums.

[jmyrlefuller]

What these areas really need is a way to monetize the resources they have. For years, much of Appalachia did that with coal, and there is still some natural gas being drilled there. Agriculture is another resource that can be used. If they have something to sell, to provide to the rest of the world, especially if it's something that can't easily be purchased anywhere else, that's how we get these areas out of poverty.

[mirraflake]

I guess I should clarify why I bring this up. You can tell someone "if you can't find work here, leave to where there is work" all you want. Yet that territory the person leaves behind is still there, the people left behind are still mired in depression, and that just leaves one fewer intelligent, useful person in the area every time someone leaves. It's known as "brain drain" and it doesn't help these areas like in Alabama or West Virginia one iota. It just creates slums.

So..you are going to  be stubborn and stick around? What will that accomplish? You need to look out for yourself and your family.

Trust me on this you will be in your late 50's and early 60's in a wink of an eye and wonder where time went.

You were let go what 7-8 months back and still no job?  No wonder woman have no interest in you. They want men with advancement and ambition. Sorry to be cruel to you but that's facts.

I'm done with you..It's like talking to a wall.

@jmyrlefuller

[jmyrlefuller]

So..you are going to  be stubborn and stick around? What will that accomplish? You need to look out for yourself and your family.

Trust me on this you will be in your late 50's and early 60's in a wink of an eye and wonder where time went.

You were let go what 7-8 months back and still no job?  No wonder woman have no interest in you. They want men with advancement and ambition. Sorry to be cruel to you but that's facts.

I'm done with you..It's like talking to a wall.

@jmyrlefuller

I was not talking about me.

[roamer_1]

The only ones tied to the land are farmers.

@roamer_1

@mirraflake
That's not true at all.
Hunting and fishing is tied to the land.
Trapping is tied to the land.
Foraging is tied to the land.
Heck, even gardening is tied to the land.
Hillbilly networking is tied to other people that are tied to the land.
ALL of the above factor into a subsistence life.

There ain't no money in it, but you'll always get by. Hard scrabble all the time, for sure, but you'll make it work.
Take a guy out of the holler, drag him to a city in a desert somewhere, dress him up and give him a job... You think you're helping him out, but in fact, you've just drastically limited his options if he doesn't get to keep that job.  He can't make do there. And that is how he'll think of it. His whole life has been about setting store. Months in advance of his need. That's how subsistence works.

To turn it around, take yourself, without any money, and get dropped on twenty acres with nothing on it, fifty miles from town, in the middle of winter, and see how you'd do.

The two methods of living are incompatible. You don't understand.

[roamer_1]

Take several weeks and drive/fly to low unemployment areas and starting pounding the pavement while living in a Holiday Inn express.. If you can't find anything go back home. What is so hard about it? or go online look for jobs in those areas and send resumes.


Plenty of places right now in the US that are booming.  Business growth right now is at 40 year highs.

@mirraflake
Those folks are stone dead broke. They can't fly, nor drive that far, not to mention staying at the Holiday Hotel.

Hitch, or catch a train, stay in a tent in the sticks or in a rough-as-hell hobo town if they want to be close enough in to matter.

In the mean time, if he's got a family back home, they're falling desperately short every day he ain't there making do... You don't know what you're talking about.

[mountaineer]

I guess I should clarify why I bring this up. You can tell someone "if you can't find work here, leave to where there is work" all you want. Yet that territory the person leaves behind is still there, the people left behind are still mired in depression, and that just leaves one fewer intelligent, useful person in the area every time someone leaves. It's known as "brain drain" and it doesn't help these areas like in Alabama or West Virginia one iota. It just creates slums.

Good point, and that is exactly what I see in my neck of the woods. Many of those from this area who obtained college educations kept on going -> to Columbus, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, etc. What the heck were they going to do around here?

So many of the people who remain in my county simply are uneducated, and they're perpetuating the lack of interest in knowledge through their children. Very sad.

[mirraflake]

@mirraflake
Those folks are stone dead broke. They can't fly, nor drive that far, not to mention staying at the Holiday Hotel.

Hitch, or catch a train, stay in a tent in the sticks or in a rough-as-hell hobo town if they want to be close enough in to matter.

In the mean time, if he's got a family back home, they're falling desperately short every day he ain't there making do... You don't know what you're talking about.

So the solution is to stay in the area with no jobs or minimum wage jobs and watch your family and quality of life continue to go down the drain??  SMH

I am in the employee benefit business and work with employers hiring people.  Poor people wanting to get out of their situation will find  a way-that is if they really want to improve their situation. Stay with friends or relatives in better area while looking for a job..I have seen them borrow friends small rv's and stay in them.


There is also the internet.  Even poor people still have the 'net.

@roamer_1

[mirraflake]

@mirraflake
That's not true at all.
Hunting and fishing is tied to the land.
Trapping is tied to the land.
Foraging is tied to the land.
Heck, even gardening is tied to the land.
Hillbilly networking is tied to other people that are tied to the land.
ALL of the above factor into a subsistence life.

There ain't no money in it, but you'll always get by. Hard scrabble all the time, for sure, but you'll make it work.
Take a guy out of the holler, drag him to a city in a desert somewhere, dress him up and give him a job... You think you're helping him out, but in fact, you've just drastically limited his options if he doesn't get to keep that job.  He can't make do there. And that is how he'll think of it. His whole life has been about setting store. Months in advance of his need. That's how subsistence works.

To turn it around, take yourself, without any money, and get dropped on twenty acres with nothing on it, fifty miles from town, in the middle of winter, and see how you'd do.

The two methods of living are incompatible. You don't understand.

Maybe 1-2% of the people live of the land. I live in a very rural appalacian area and most people in my area don't even put in a garden. If it can't be bought at Krogers they would starve.

@roamer_1

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Good point, and that is exactly what I see in my neck of the woods. Many of those from this area who obtained college educations kept on going -> to Columbus, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, etc. What the heck were they going to do around here?

So many of the people who remain in my county simply are uneducated, and they're perpetuating the lack of interest in knowledge through their children. Very sad.

those are the type of folks who elect Robert Byrd in Congress for 73 years.

Keep them uneducated and they will believe their lot is decreed.  Educate them aND they prosper

[mountaineer]

those are the type of folks who elect Robert Byrd in Congress for 73 years.

Keep them uneducated and they will believe their lot is decreed.  Educate them aND they prosper

[Bigun]

those are the type of folks who elect Robert Byrd in Congress for 73 years.

Keep them uneducated and they will believe their lot is decreed.  Educate them aND they prosper

If I may be so bold, I would like to point out that what passes for "educated" these days is very different than it was even a half century ago.

[Smokin Joe]

If I may be so bold, I would like to point out that what passes for "educated" these days is very different than it was even a half century ago.

No kidding. I have seen some of those eighth grade math books from 70-80 years ago, and they are humbling. Most HS grads can't do it.

[Bigun]

No kidding. I have seen some of those eighth grade math books from 70-80 years ago, and they are humbling. Most HS grads can't do it.

Unless they are math majors or engineers most college graduates can't do it.  And none of those holding degrees in "education " for sure.

[mountaineer]

If I may be so bold, I would like to point out that what passes for "educated" these days is very different than it was even a half century ago.

Indeed. I just read David McCullough's bio of the Wright brothers. With "only" high school educations, they (esp Wilbur) were more learned and brilliant than any of today's Ph.Ds, I'd wager.

[Bigun]

Indeed. I just read David McCullough's bio of the Wright brothers. With "only" high school educations, they (esp Wilbur) were more learned and brilliant than any of today's Ph.Ds, I'd wager.

On of the MAJOR problems we have today is that our children are being indoctrinated by people who have themselves been fully indoctrinated!

[Smokin Joe]

On of the MAJOR problems we have today is that our children are being indoctrinated by people who have themselves been fully indoctrinated!

Yeah, that leaves us with a generation which doesn't even know what questions to ask.

[Bigun]

Yeah, that leaves us with a generation which doesn't even know what questions to ask.

More than one in many cases.

[thackney]

Unless they are math majors or engineers most college graduates can't do it.  And none of those holding degrees in "education " for sure.

The math teachers?

My daughter who is majoring in dance but minor in education would prove you wrong.  Straight A through college calculus.

[Smokin Joe]

The math teachers?

My daughter who is majoring in dance but minor in education would prove you wrong.  Straight A through college calculus.

A wagon is four feet by eight feet and two feet in depth. How many pecks of shelled corn can be put in the wagon?

There are exceptions to every rule, and @thackney I would expect your daughter to do well. However that does not make her representative of the multitude.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

This article is nothing more than partisan garbage:

By many accounts, poverty in the U.S. is worse than in most developed nations, despite rhetoric espoused by President Donald Trump and others who claim that the U.S. is the "best country in the world."

The same poverty existed all throughout Obama and Clinton administrations. And it's not just Republicans who say this:

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So why do they only mention this kind of thing during a GOP administration?

[skeeter]

This article is nothing more than partisan garbage:

The same poverty existed all throughout Obama and Clinton administrations. And it's not just Republicans who say this:

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So why do they only mention this kind of thing during a GOP administration?

I'm sure it was written in time to help influence turnout in the recent election.

[goatprairie]

This article is nothing more than partisan garbage:

The same poverty existed all throughout Obama and Clinton administrations. And it's not just Republicans who say this:

! No longer available

So why do they only mention this kind of thing during a GOP administration?

At the core of these kind of "reports" by leftist rags is the idea that only socialism can pull all people out of poverty. The people who are "impoverished" are never responsible for their situation.  It's always those nasty capitalists keeping the oppressed down and poor. Never explained is why all those super rich liberal billionaires and multi-millionaires don't share their wealth with all the poverty stricken Americans they claim to champion.
Leftist rags like The Guardian have a special interest in trying to promote socialism and slander capitalism. Maybe they can explain why China is now the second largest economic power in the world and Cuba is still  a miserable economic disaster after almost sixty years of socialism. 
Sixty years ago Cuba was the economic powerhouse of Latin America and had a better economy than many European countries. Now it is only slightly  better than Haiti economically.
Sixty years ago millions of Chinese were literally starving to death thanks to Mao's Five Year Plans and an underlying rotten Marxist economic system.
I'm sure the good people at The Guardian can reveal to us how the Chinese were better off starving to death under communism.