7 ms·

I come from a rural community in midwest United States. It is rough. All of the factories closed. Then all of the small businesses closed. Then all of the groc

I come from a rural community in midwest United States. It is rough. All of the factories closed. Then all of the small businesses closed. Then all of the grocery stores closed. We now have to drive almost an hour to the local Wal-Mart to get our groceries. The crime rate sky-rocketed, job rates feel, and everything went to pot. [0] It is grim. I am very fortunate I arbitrarily chose "Computer Science" for my college degree. I make extremely good money. I could have easily ended up back in my small town trying to make ends meet. Observation: A lot of my friends did not make it out and are doing great. A lot of my other friends are NOT. One false move and you are stuck with a degree nobody wants, working a shitty nowhere job to survive, and not enough time or energy to change careers. IMO, The rise of the "alt-right" and general dissatisfaction in modern America comes from the same place: The jobs suck, the retirement sucks, the communities are car-hell, you work yourself into the grave to make someone else money and get very little back. My family ran funeral homes for years, made decent money. Now my parents are in their 50s and disaster after disaster have drained their bank accounts. The community went broke, so we went broke. Thankfully, they managed to get regular 9-5 jobs around the community to support themselves, but it feels like everybody is constantly walking on a tight-rope, and one more stiff breeze is going to upset everything. 0: https://www.areavibes.com/keokuk-ia/crime/ https://www.areavibes.com/keokuk-ia/crime/

tlobes 7y ago
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40600593 https://www.jstor.org/stable/40600593 Similar story in the Weimar Republic from 1918-1933
- sitkack 7y ago
  The movement you should fear is the right wing politician that deposes Trump.
  - googlesux 7y ago
    So if a Ted Cruz character beat Trump we should fear this
- mancerayder 7y ago
  Minus the detail of the years following a major war. The devastation isn't comparable to the Rust Belt economic story.
TuringNYC 7y ago
Honest question: why do many of these communities continue to vote for “pull yourselves up from your bootstraps” conservative politicians and reject “help a man when he’s down” progressive politicians? It seems what these communities need is a helping hand, better educational options, and healthcare safety nets.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- cheez 7y ago
  You're thinking about it the wrong way. They vote for people who promise not to take even more from them.
- Sojuwa 7y ago
  Not exactly excited to jump at the party that unfairly blanket paints of them as redneck white supremacist Nazi idiots. Doubly so since they masquerade as intersectional saviors of humanity while doing so.
- torstenvl 7y ago
  There are a large number of assumptions to unpack in your question. Most key, I think, is the mapping between progressive proposals and helping people when they're down. If I'm a rural American farmer or miner, how does it help me to require me to buy health insurance or pay a fine? How does it help me to tax me so that the future white collar and management classes of the American populace can owe less in student debt? The problem isn't just that the rural poor don't act in their own best interests. It's also that the coastal rich are extremely presumptuous about what other people's interests are.
  - conception 7y ago
    Well.. First - when you buy that Heath insurance, if you're poor or poorish, it's heavily subsidized. Of course, it might have been free but a number of red States didn't expand Medicare. But yes, it may cost you money because Oabamacare was step 1 and was always planned to be tweaked but well... We've seen how political discourse has gone. But medical bankruptcies have fallen tremendously with Obamacare. That's why you have to pay because it'll save you if you're unlucky. Just like social security. Re:free college - why do you think rural areas couldn't benefit from free college? Less, more expensive education isn't going to help. And the people that need to pay for it are the ones destroying your neighborhoods and city centers (aka the Walton family and their ilk) The lack of investment in their people and empathy for their people of Midwest governments is what's killing them, not costal elitism. The green new deal is a perfect example of the sort of investment it needs. But they'll fight it because winning is all that matters, people's lives be damned.
christiansakai 7y ago
What can we do to help them? I was thinking to create free programming resources but I realize not everyone can be programmer and there are already a lot of free resources out there?
- honkycat 7y ago
  You really can't help, it's already gone. I think socialized healthcare would go a long way. Would allow people to take risks instead of clinging to crappy jobs in order to keep their healthcare. Also a lot of people lose their money to a medical bills. We are ALL going to get sick and die someday and it will be expensive. A lot of this pain is self-inflected, in my opinion. Consolidation of wealth was another large part of it. These communities were mis-managed into the ground. Boondoggle public works programs have wasted a huge amount of public money for very little benefit and a gigantic maintenance cost. Why does a town of 2000 people need miles and miles of blacktop that lead nowhere? The funding for education dropped out. Nobody wants their kids to go to a shitty school. Why does a town of 2000 people need its own school? The quality of education is HORRIBLE and there are tons of little towns scattered around my area, each with their own school. A few small towns banded together and consolidated their school systems, and the results have been AMAZING. 3d printer labs, advanced placement classes, WAY higher pay for teachers, you name it. My town decided to not join in, so we all ended up staying at my tiny school that only offers 3 years of classes and 0 advanced classes. Additionally, wealth has been drained out of these communities by big box stores, Amazon. But before them, there was Walmart. None of the money that people spent at Walmart went to the local community. It went out of state and out of the hands of locals. Small town butchered their main streets by putting large roads through them, which caused people to drive through the town instead of hanging out at main Street in spending money. It ruined the charm and made the community not pleasant to live in. Finally, and this is just my opinion, small towns suck to live in. I moved out as soon as I could and I consider it one of the best decisions I ever made. There are no well paying jobs for educated workers. Trade jobs are very hard on your body, and often don't pay as well as people think. There's no culture, nothing to do, nobody ambitious hanging around. It is mostly just the leftovers. This was not true when my parents were growing up, it was actually a brilliant little town with a lot of wealth and a great little community, but it is definitely true now. Everybody left for the well paying jobs in the city. There's a huge brain drain in small to America. Check out strongtowns.org if you want a good overview, a lot of the content I have read on that site rings very true.
wutbrodo 7y ago
> The crime rate sky-rocketed, job rates feel, and everything went to pot. [0] > 0: https://www.areavibes.com/keokuk-ia/crime/ https://www.areavibes.com/keokuk-ia/crime/ Heh, I find it darkly comic that the livability score of your town is one point _higher_ than San Francisco's (as someone who's been here since my teens, a bit over a decade, and still loves it). I'm not really sure what that says beyond the fact that sites like areavibes have never been particularly useful, but it's interesting to think that the exact counterexample to your description of your city's pathologies curves right back around by at least some metrics. Again, taking for granted that this captures something useful, perhaps it's just "second-tier" cities like Phoenix that are making out well in the bifurcated economy.
- perseusmandate 7y ago
  According to this site Phoenix has an F in crime, as does Salt Lake City. It also has a C+ for cost of living, F for schools, D for employment. Seems off

tlobes 7y ago

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40600593 https://www.jstor.org/stable/40600593 Similar story in the Weimar Republic from 1918-1933

sitkack 7y ago
The movement you should fear is the right wing politician that deposes Trump.
- googlesux 7y ago
  So if a Ted Cruz character beat Trump we should fear this
mancerayder 7y ago
Minus the detail of the years following a major war. The devastation isn't comparable to the Rust Belt economic story.

TuringNYC 7y ago

Honest question: why do many of these communities continue to vote for “pull yourselves up from your bootstraps” conservative politicians and reject “help a man when he’s down” progressive politicians? It seems what these communities need is a helping hand, better educational options, and healthcare safety nets.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
cheez 7y ago
You're thinking about it the wrong way. They vote for people who promise not to take even more from them.
Sojuwa 7y ago
Not exactly excited to jump at the party that unfairly blanket paints of them as redneck white supremacist Nazi idiots. Doubly so since they masquerade as intersectional saviors of humanity while doing so.
torstenvl 7y ago
There are a large number of assumptions to unpack in your question. Most key, I think, is the mapping between progressive proposals and helping people when they're down. If I'm a rural American farmer or miner, how does it help me to require me to buy health insurance or pay a fine? How does it help me to tax me so that the future white collar and management classes of the American populace can owe less in student debt? The problem isn't just that the rural poor don't act in their own best interests. It's also that the coastal rich are extremely presumptuous about what other people's interests are.
- conception 7y ago
  Well.. First - when you buy that Heath insurance, if you're poor or poorish, it's heavily subsidized. Of course, it might have been free but a number of red States didn't expand Medicare. But yes, it may cost you money because Oabamacare was step 1 and was always planned to be tweaked but well... We've seen how political discourse has gone. But medical bankruptcies have fallen tremendously with Obamacare. That's why you have to pay because it'll save you if you're unlucky. Just like social security. Re:free college - why do you think rural areas couldn't benefit from free college? Less, more expensive education isn't going to help. And the people that need to pay for it are the ones destroying your neighborhoods and city centers (aka the Walton family and their ilk) The lack of investment in their people and empathy for their people of Midwest governments is what's killing them, not costal elitism. The green new deal is a perfect example of the sort of investment it needs. But they'll fight it because winning is all that matters, people's lives be damned.

christiansakai 7y ago

What can we do to help them? I was thinking to create free programming resources but I realize not everyone can be programmer and there are already a lot of free resources out there?

honkycat 7y ago
You really can't help, it's already gone. I think socialized healthcare would go a long way. Would allow people to take risks instead of clinging to crappy jobs in order to keep their healthcare. Also a lot of people lose their money to a medical bills. We are ALL going to get sick and die someday and it will be expensive. A lot of this pain is self-inflected, in my opinion. Consolidation of wealth was another large part of it. These communities were mis-managed into the ground. Boondoggle public works programs have wasted a huge amount of public money for very little benefit and a gigantic maintenance cost. Why does a town of 2000 people need miles and miles of blacktop that lead nowhere? The funding for education dropped out. Nobody wants their kids to go to a shitty school. Why does a town of 2000 people need its own school? The quality of education is HORRIBLE and there are tons of little towns scattered around my area, each with their own school. A few small towns banded together and consolidated their school systems, and the results have been AMAZING. 3d printer labs, advanced placement classes, WAY higher pay for teachers, you name it. My town decided to not join in, so we all ended up staying at my tiny school that only offers 3 years of classes and 0 advanced classes. Additionally, wealth has been drained out of these communities by big box stores, Amazon. But before them, there was Walmart. None of the money that people spent at Walmart went to the local community. It went out of state and out of the hands of locals. Small town butchered their main streets by putting large roads through them, which caused people to drive through the town instead of hanging out at main Street in spending money. It ruined the charm and made the community not pleasant to live in. Finally, and this is just my opinion, small towns suck to live in. I moved out as soon as I could and I consider it one of the best decisions I ever made. There are no well paying jobs for educated workers. Trade jobs are very hard on your body, and often don't pay as well as people think. There's no culture, nothing to do, nobody ambitious hanging around. It is mostly just the leftovers. This was not true when my parents were growing up, it was actually a brilliant little town with a lot of wealth and a great little community, but it is definitely true now. Everybody left for the well paying jobs in the city. There's a huge brain drain in small to America. Check out strongtowns.org if you want a good overview, a lot of the content I have read on that site rings very true.

wutbrodo 7y ago

> The crime rate sky-rocketed, job rates feel, and everything went to pot. [0] > 0: https://www.areavibes.com/keokuk-ia/crime/ https://www.areavibes.com/keokuk-ia/crime/ Heh, I find it darkly comic that the livability score of your town is one point _higher_ than San Francisco's (as someone who's been here since my teens, a bit over a decade, and still loves it). I'm not really sure what that says beyond the fact that sites like areavibes have never been particularly useful, but it's interesting to think that the exact counterexample to your description of your city's pathologies curves right back around by at least some metrics. Again, taking for granted that this captures something useful, perhaps it's just "second-tier" cities like Phoenix that are making out well in the bifurcated economy.

perseusmandate 7y ago
According to this site Phoenix has an F in crime, as does Salt Lake City. It also has a C+ for cost of living, F for schools, D for employment. Seems off