Posted on 01/12/2014 9:34:36 AM PST by Jack Black
“the vast moribund matrix of Wonder Bread–hued Appalachian towns and villages stretching from northern Mississippi to southern New York”
I didn’t know the Appalachians extended to Mississippi.
BINGO!
National Review would never have dared to print a piece like this about blacks or Hispanics, so they saved their venom for poor white people. I think the main objection to them is that they do not support gay marriage, a big human-rights issue over at NR these days.
Placemarker
I saw part of that show, too, but I doubt the veracity of most of it. If the stuff was really that profitable, I’m sure every enterprising person with more than an acre of good dirt would be growing the stuff behind an electrified fence...
Yet, many if not a majority still vote Dem especially in WV? The Kenyan held an open war on coal and yet these people continue to vote it..why? Just to keep getting the food stamps? I don’t get it.
I don’t understand your hostility.
I have relevant experience on the matters we are discussing.
I am commenting on the point re amenities and transport because this really does affect economic growth and potential.
I have seen these effects in the third world (raised lots of money for farm to market road nets), and even large parts of California.
Build a road and they will come is not usually a false statement.
Tourist amenities are likewise. You can have the worlds prettiest beach but only some of the hardy will actually want to stay in the local grass shacks and use the outhouse.
Fine, those people aren’t “survivors”, but they are customers.
As for call centers, there are plenty in the US, I have contracted with several. And contracted with home based phone support systems too.
If the author had come to this part of Texas, his wonder bread would have been corn tortillas-but he won’t dare do that-much better to pick on those obvious WASPs...
No, it means that it is difficult to attract specialized talent to the area if the available lifestyle is unappealing. Even if the potential business is dependent on relatively low skilled labor you will still need to attract some high skilled people. These people generally have conventional tastes, their wives probably more so.
And lack of amenities closes off other things, like retirement homes, vacation homes and venues, etc.
And think about what the presence of Walmart means. Its an effect AND a cause.
P4L
I’m wary of any presentation today of rural America by urban hipster Christian hating liberal kids
It is invariably demeaning and edited for the worst
Duck Dynasty being an exception and that is how they got their audience
I will never forget having lunch here in Nashville with The new CMT brass from NYC Viacom
Looked like Occupy Che wannabes
And it shows now....
These folks detest normals like me in the heartland
Either that or you get the smarmy Ken Burns reconstructive PC adaptation
Preachy
Culture today is FUBAR
Yet any urban or minority family setting will get the Huxtables or Lopez gloss over fantasy depiction divergent from the reality one would expect honestly
Ginseng is hard to grow, I looked into it once. It’s extremely picky about its growing conditions, has a poor germination rate, and it takes several years to reach harvestable size.
That said, it’s still on my “maybe-someday” list of potential crops to grow.
Kevin Williamson doesn’t seem to meet the description as an urban hipster Christian hating liberal kid. He has rather extensive conservative credentials. Check his wiki.
For what its worth, I myself have seen similar conditions and problems among white residents in parts of rural California, particularly in the north, Humboldt, Mendocino and Lake counties, parts of the Central Valley, etc. All is not well, and from what I can see its getting worse.
Judging from your map, Maine and Mississippi are in about the same shape.
I was looking at my home state, county-by-county, and it looks like the highest disability rates are in the de-industrialized areas — places which once had a lot of factory jobs but those places closed.
The people won’t move to get new jobs.
And it’s lucrative enough to stay on assistance.
The writer is a conservative and frequent guest on Red Eye. The article is to show how the "War on Poverty" has failed (in terms of what was envisioned) the very people it was designed to help. I don't consider a put down of the people there at all. Better to be poor there than East Orange, NJ.
It sounds like growing asparagus here-I’m going to do that in a big raised bed as soon as I have the room for a large one-the climate here in the hills is okay for it to produce till early summer, but the soil on top of solid limestone is not-hence the raised bed. Maybe the ginseng would do better in a greenhouse, where the conditions could be controlled?
The death of "King Coal" is a big problem, and that's unlikely to be reversed. But what do you replace coal with as an economic driver?
Parts of Appalachia are at high enough elevations, and scenic enough, and have highway access good enough to encourage resort development -- golf clubs, ski resorts, spas, second home communities, and the like. I'm not suggesting that the locals are financially able to join Linville Golf Club or High Hampton Country Club, but such places do provide jobs, and do add to county tax revenues.
The real problem areas are those parts of the mountains whose terrain is too rough for large-scale agriculture, but not high enough to encourage the development of resorts. Much of eastern Kentucky and West Virginia fall into this category. As the article so graphically describes, there is literally nothing to do in such locales.
Some new highways might help stimulate the economy, by improving connectivity between new manufacturing plants in Appalachia with markets in the Midwest and Southeast. I-73, through extreme western WV, is on the drawing boards, but is years away. Extending I-26 from its current terminus near Johnson City, TN north across the western tip of VA to Lexington, KY would be a boost, as well.
It takes time to grow a large enough root that can be dug and sold.
The ginseng grows in patches. The berries fall off and start growing next to the original plant. Up here, people not only illegally trespass and dig on private land, they also pick and pocket all the berries to plant in their own secret patches.
There have been efforts to commercially cultivate ginseng, but the premium prices go for large wild roots.
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