Poverty exists in places in all states, but I just can't allow you all to think that all of Appalachia is the stereotypical Hill Billy. For the most part the people in the cities I names above and in countless others I failed to name, are salt-of-the-earth. Transplants to these areas tend to love the local culture and thrive on it.
You know what I think? I have a suspicion that because this is the heart of the Bible Belt, many in the government would love to see these towns fail and the people either be hushed (deemed inbred stupid hill billies) or dispersed in order to break up the strong Christian culture that is there now.
Take a vacation to Asheville (for example) and I guarantee that you will fall in love with the mountains and the people. www.exploreasheville.com
You have a point. Another goal is to herd them all into the metropolitan areas where they can be more easily controlled, divested of their firearms, and access even more government services that hook them on dependency.
With generational poverty, it's hard to discern what is the chicken and what is the egg.
In the Native American areas in the west (I'm most familiar with the Cherokee in OK), there are generations of drug and alcohol dependency, broken families, illiteracy/lack of education, and domestic abuse.)
Naturally, these folks are very poor. Smart high school kids are heavily courted and fought over by colleges and universities. They'd have a free ride to about any institution of higher learning they would choose. But only a few are able to break the ties that bind them to that area, even though the opportunities for upward mobility are there.
Asheville is moonbat central, but for the most part the moonbats are harmless.
Southern Iowa was once a coal mining center but when the RRs switched to diesel and most homes went to propane, the mines closed.
Most of the sons and daughters moved away for better jobs and opportunities, leaving behind many who had no interest in bettering themselves.
I've been to 48 of the 50 states and to over seven countries. I've seen poverty in the USA and in third world nations as well. It exist in places everywhere. I can go up the road and find it if I look or I can go to New Jersey and find it. In that respect Appalachia is no different. My family settled in East Tennessee in the mid to late 1700's. They built the first paper mill east of the Blue Ridge Mountains and established the first paper in the state.
My dad grew up in the poorest parts of Knoxville at the time yet they had all meals and needs provided for by his dad who during the Dpression worked as a night Supervisor over janitors in a then popular downtown Knoxville resturant.
My mom grew up on farms the same thing. Grandad ran a saw mill and farmed. One friend of dads grew up on a farm about 40 miles east of Knoxville. That guys dad in one year made a profit of $.25. But his family was clothed, fed well, loved, and knew the love and fear of GOD and still do even in their now fisical sucesses.
My wife's family was a little bit more prominent. The Historical Markers at the Sevier County Court House tell of them. Sevier County is where Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are located. Her grandfather many generations back founded and named Sevierville for John Sevier whom he established the region for.
I will say this as well. If a Hillbilly or Redneck sees you or your wife broke down on the side of the road they are likely to at least offer help or call someone for you or her. If you are getting physically beaten up or robbed in public by thugs intervention will most likely happen. Folk just don't walk on by looking the other way as they do in other places of the so called civilized cities. I've seen teens at a local mall hanging out start to run toward a stupid 50 something year old jerk racing his engine at my wife crossing in front of him in her wheelchair in the parking lot.
I hear the words Sir, Mam, and Thank You, in the stores I shop at not by just the employees but by customers yes even at Wally World. We do have some issues common to every state and almost every county USA likely no more or less. Thanks to Liberals we have a huge menace raising our crime stats called illegal aliens.
I've lived in a 100 year old cabin one half log the other newer part wood frame house that would make Green Acres house look good. I moved in it with my first wife on family land. Years later I still live on same land in a double wide with a view many persons pay big dollars for. My front windows face the Cumberlands. My property line at the top of the ridge looks out toward the other side of the Tennessee Valley and I can see The Great Smokies on about any day.
I love the region I live in. No matter what I will by choice and with pride live in Appalachia :>}
How about the Bristol-Kingsport-Johnson City area? How is that area doing?