The article doesn't mention the diners I go to, but it does tell me that the author of the article is an elitist idiot.
Its not idiotic. The transport problem discourages investment in these places. The unavailability of delivery services and amenities discourages internet based businesses and services like call centers, not to mention tourism (the place is actually beautiful, after all).
Yes thank you exactly
I thought the article was excellent and not condescending at all. Having spent significant time in Appalachia (especially northern Alabama), the article has the ring of truth. This really is the way millions of people live.
I was struck by the phrase that "poverty is the natural condition of humans". If you think about it, that is a true statement. My grandmother grew up in Alabama during the 1920s and the stories she told me about how things were back then stick with me to this day. Let's just say that the average welfare recipient today is extremely wealthy from the vantage point of my grandmother, who had to raise a family of 10 in a house that is barely bigger than my living room (boys, including my father, slept in the barn with the cows once they got out of diapers).
All this without a single penny of government aid.
Don't be so sensitive. I live in the northern reaches of Appalachia in New York's Southern Tier. This article tells very well, I think, the story of the decay in poor, white society.