Riggo-toni Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/local/2017/07/21/how-disability-benefits-divided-this-rural-community-between-those-who-work-and-those-who-dont/?utm_term=.3692f679f6e4&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1 Disabled and disdained In rural America, some towns are divided between those who work and those who don’t Tyler would hold a sign on the side of the road and beg for money. He would go to a town 30 miles down the road and stand at one of the region’s busiest intersections, where he prayed no one would recognize him, to plead for help from people whose lives seemed so far removed from his own. To Tyler, the collapse of the coal industry had left two kinds of people in these mountains. There are those who work. And there are those who don’t: the unemployed, the disabled, the addicted, and the people who, like his family, belonged to all three groups. Those who work rarely mix with those who don’t, except in brief encounters at the grocery store, at the schools or, for Tyler, along the side of the road, where he knew he was likely to encounter acts of generosity as well as outbursts of resentment. .... She knew how she must look, in her pajamas and mismatched socks, to people who work. She knew what they must say about her disability: It’s only anxiety, only depression. Why couldn’t she work? Why did she buy soda and cigarettes when they needed food? How could she afford the Internet and cable TV bills on a $500 monthly disability check? She would sometimes consider how she would answer. She would say that cigarettes and soda make hard days a little easier. That television is just about her only connection to a world that hasn’t seemed to want her anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BornaSkinsFan83 Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 Meanwhile they probably hate Black folks and accuse them of being EXACTLY what they are. And I love that Tyler, 19, would rather panhandle on the corner than, say, join the military. Hell i think I'd respect him more if he sold drugs. At least he'd have some get up and go in him then. What a ****ed culture. I swear poor rural whites, particularly in the South, are the dumbest people around. Been suffering, dying and even killing other poor people for rich whites since at least 1861. Never realizing they got more in common with and share the same struggle with their poor Black neighbor or the poor immigrant family across the street than they do with Scarlett O'Hara at the top of the hill. Band together with them and collectively improve their station in life? Na, feeling superior to someone else and feeding their fragile ego is much more important of course. Oh i know! Let's vote for Donald J Trump on top of his gold-plated toilet. He cares about us! Oh and **** liberals! Oh I know! Let's go fight for the Confederacy and save slavery. We need preserve the Southern way of life! Oh and **** Yankees! Suckers. And don't worry. I'm a poor white myself. I'm allowed to say this. I give you you all permission to speak freely too. (and sorry if I seem angry. I am.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diehard Otis Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 The unfortunate truth is that the evolution of the 21st century economy (along with the cascading shift in domestic demographics to support its development) exacerbates this crisis. Consider The Wall Street Journal's take: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2017/05/30/rural_america_is_the_new_039inner_city039_411659.html (the link is to Real Clear Politics, which links directly to the WSJ article - humor me, it's an backdoor past their pay wall) And they're not alone. The Washington Post reports on these issues regularly, which is clear from the OPs link. From what I've read, there is a lot to unpack. But the root of it all--more or less--is economic dislocation. That is, the industries that formed a significant portion of the economic backbone of small town society are gone (universities, prisons, and some agribusiness notwithstanding). The domestic manufacturing base is no more. The corporate supply chain has gone global. Consequently, the vacuum of slim job prospects are filled by the usual ills: alcohol, narcotics, and crime. Just like many in-town communities. There's a pattern to communal decay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warhead36 Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 Rural whites are the downfall of this country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TradeTheBeal! Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 Generations of Brain Drain out there too. Anybody born out there with half a brain gets the hell out of there, starts hustling and grinding in or near the nearest urban area and never looks back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diehard Otis Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 8 minutes ago, Warhead36 said: Rural whites are the downfall of this country. I dunno about that. In my opinion, they tend to get scapegoated a lot. 5 minutes ago, TryTheBeal! said: Generations of Brain Drain out there too. Anybody born out there with half a brain gets the hell out of there, starts hustling and grinding in or near the nearest urban area and never looks back. Agreed. That's exactly what J. D. Vance did <-----and he admitted to it! (if you're not familiar with the name, he's the dude who wrote Hillbilly Elegy) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grego Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 Generalizations = bad. That's a pretty good rule to follow. (Generally speaking) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamebreaker Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 It's interesting that many of them don't see their situations being similar to minorities in inner cities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destino Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 3 hours ago, Gamebreaker said: It's interesting that many of them don't see their situations being similar to minorities in inner cities. Do you believe inner city residents imagine themselves as similar to white rural poor people? Doubt it. Both would likely take offense to the comparison. Humans are weird that way. Writing an article ****ting on either group is simple, because finding people behaving badly in poor areas is low hanging fruit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadySkinsFan Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 The Democratic platform had training for displaced workers in it. What it may not have had are plans to put the jobs where the workers were already living, where their families and friends were. They might have thought, rightly, that they would have to move, an expensive proposition, away from said families and friends. If these things weren't taken into consideration, they may have bought the huckster's spiel that the coal jobs would be restored, bigly. When we all know that wasn't going to happen. I think that this is the biggest reason to reject the Democratic plans for the shiny nothing promised by Trump. Even the other Republicans running didn't have any programs, and they believed the TV celebrity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 5 hours ago, Warhead36 said: Rural whites are the downfall of this country. Ship 'em back to Europe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoodBits Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 6 hours ago, Warhead36 said: Rural whites are the downfall of this country. Has anyone told them to try praying? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tshile Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 we wont let people work (or people employ others) for anything below a certain wage we pass regulations that make production more expensive then we buy the stuff from other countries that lack these "protections" because it's cheaper we can't (or won't?) do anything meaningful to hold the other countries' accountable, and many options get you labeled as an isolationist, a protectionist, etc; economists will shun you for suggesting tariffs, citing trade wars as the only inevitable outcome. we won't roll back any of the protections because we care about how laborers are treated and we care (to some degree) about the environment; but only our laborers and only our environment, if it's the air in china that's unhealthy or children putting items together in sweat shops then who cares, give me that cheap ****. we allow illegal/undocumented workers to be here and work under the table, bypassing our own protections on our own soil, so that stuff can be even cheaper because now it doesn't have to be imported. we won't do anything to fix their legal status, and we don't really do anything the problem growing (much less being here in the first place.) we also have a country full of people who think certain work is beneath them, for whatever reason. we talk about retraining and relocating, but the logistics are hard enough without factoring in that a subset don't want to retrain and don't want to relocate (and we have politicians more interested in theater and various culture wars than governing the country) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Harris Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 I never know whether to laugh or shake my head or what whenever I read the oh so predictable BASF posts in these threads. At BASF, we don't make hot takes. We make hot takes more hotter. 4 hours ago, Destino said: Do you believe inner city residents imagine themselves as similar to white rural poor people? Doubt it. Both would likely take offense to the comparison. Humans are weird that way. Writing an article ****ting on either group is simple, because finding people behaving badly in poor areas is low hanging fruit. It's a one way street for the es apologists. Wasting your time here buddy. But great point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamebreaker Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 5 hours ago, Destino said: Do you believe inner city residents imagine themselves as similar to white rural poor people? Doubt it. Both would likely take offense to the comparison. Humans are weird that way. Writing an article ****ting on either group is simple, because finding people behaving badly in poor areas is low hanging fruit. I don't disagree. 16 minutes ago, Major Harris said: It's a one way street for the es apologists. Wasting your time here buddy. But great point. What are you talking about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadySkinsFan Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 CEO of CSX transport company says fossil fuels are a dead industry https://thinkprogress.org/fossil-fuels-are-dead-says-rail-baron-b177af077344 So, we need to get folks trained and position jobs where they currently live. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Harris Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 Driving I 40 for the last 2 days. Not sure fossil fuels are dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TradeTheBeal! Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 3 minutes ago, Major Harris said: Driving I 40 for the last 2 days. Not sure fossil fuels are dead. Hows the Bar-B-Q out there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riggo-toni Posted July 22, 2017 Author Share Posted July 22, 2017 The US was the first country to jump on the internet bandwagon (after all, our government invented it), which gave us a huge jumpstart in the current generation of industry titans like eBay, Amazon, Google, Apple, etc. Renewable energy will be the next big industry, but instead of financing research, our Trump government is fighting it while simultaneously trying to prop up yesterday's technologies. None of this can save dying steel and coal communities anymore than we could save gold towns after the mines were tapped out. Instead we are holding the rest of the economy and country back. I doubt the "disabled" and their ilk even bother to vote. Rather, it is the "disdainers" who vote for Trump, angry that they are working fast food or retail rather than in mines or mills, and even angrier at their neighborhood welfare queens and want someone to toss them off the dole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Harris Posted July 23, 2017 Share Posted July 23, 2017 12 hours ago, TryTheBeal! said: Hows the Bar-B-Q out there? We hit leonards BBQ in memephis. It's the oldest BBQ in the city and it was dam good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEANDWARF Posted July 23, 2017 Share Posted July 23, 2017 Laziness or slothfulness knows no race, geographic location, or political party. It is base on how one see themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twa Posted July 23, 2017 Share Posted July 23, 2017 21 hours ago, LadySkinsFan said: CEO of CSX transport company says fossil fuels are a dead industry https://thinkprogress.org/fossil-fuels-are-dead-says-rail-baron-b177af077344 So, we need to get folks trained and position jobs where they currently live. I remember when they said that about railroads ....for the thousandth time then some idiots decided high speed rail was a great idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkB452 Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 ...and the son's wife does not work because of ?...and they don't have a food garden on that property? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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