3 ms·

Oh, you "suspect" that. How conclusive! Look at the data, and quit the horseshit about "these people" and their misguided priorities. Food deserts. Lead pai

by ajamesm 10y ago

Oh, you "suspect" that. How conclusive! Look at the data, and quit the horseshit about "these people" and their misguided priorities. Food deserts. Lead paint poisoning. Lack of access to healthcare. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-health-20160216-story.html http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-hea... "Take, for instance, Sharlene Adams who recently needed a blood pressure cuff. To buy one required no less than four bus rides, a stop at her doctor's office for his signature, a visit to two different pharmacies and a side trip to borrow money to make the required co-pay. The 55-year-old eventually got her hands on the $40 item in East Baltimore 5 1/2 hours after starting on her quest, the Maryland students documented."

yummyfajitas 10y ago
Lack of access to healthcare actually probably has very little effect. See figure 8: https://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2513561 https://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2513561 Or see the Oregon experiment: https://www.nber.org/oregon/ https://www.nber.org/oregon/ Food deserts are actually the result of people's consumption choices - poor folks choose not to buy healthy food, so no one sells it to them. Making healthy food available does not change this behavior. http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/giving-people-access-to-healthier-food-isnt-enough/ http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/giving-people-ac...
- ajamesm 10y ago
  proximity to good food is necessary, but not sufficient, for healthy meals. People's consumption choices are also informed by (for example) whether they have the skills to cook the food that's available to them
twblalock 10y ago
There is plenty of data, in the article you linked, demonstrating that the behavior and priorities of these people are indeed misguided and violent. That's not what I suspect, that's what I know, and there is no shortage of data to back this up. The thing I suspect is that the violence these people visit on themselves contributes more to their situation than lack of access to government services. I didn't say that more government services wouldn't help at all. By the way, the Baltimore Sun article you cited is not about poor white people. It is about poor urban blacks in West Baltimore. That's not really relevant to this discussion, because blacks have faced enslavement and discrimination for centuries in this country. Discrimination against blacks, especially in hiring practices, has helped the poor white people we are talking about. Having to now compete against non-whites for jobs is a significant component of the poor white anger in this country, although many don't want to admit that.

by ajamesm 10y ago

yummyfajitas 10y ago

Lack of access to healthcare actually probably has very little effect. See figure 8: https://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2513561 https://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2513561 Or see the Oregon experiment: https://www.nber.org/oregon/ https://www.nber.org/oregon/ Food deserts are actually the result of people's consumption choices - poor folks choose not to buy healthy food, so no one sells it to them. Making healthy food available does not change this behavior. http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/giving-people-access-to-healthier-food-isnt-enough/ http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/giving-people-ac...

ajamesm 10y ago
proximity to good food is necessary, but not sufficient, for healthy meals. People's consumption choices are also informed by (for example) whether they have the skills to cook the food that's available to them

twblalock 10y ago

There is plenty of data, in the article you linked, demonstrating that the behavior and priorities of these people are indeed misguided and violent. That's not what I suspect, that's what I know, and there is no shortage of data to back this up. The thing I suspect is that the violence these people visit on themselves contributes more to their situation than lack of access to government services. I didn't say that more government services wouldn't help at all. By the way, the Baltimore Sun article you cited is not about poor white people. It is about poor urban blacks in West Baltimore. That's not really relevant to this discussion, because blacks have faced enslavement and discrimination for centuries in this country. Discrimination against blacks, especially in hiring practices, has helped the poor white people we are talking about. Having to now compete against non-whites for jobs is a significant component of the poor white anger in this country, although many don't want to admit that.