Part of the problem is that poverty is also regional. The poor in Appalachia are like the poor in the Black Belt of Alabama: they’re the ones who refused to move to where jobs are. Initiative is not a government program or a college course.
We have jobs. They just don’t want them. The Disability is rampant here. They do work. It’s cash-only jobs so it doesn’t affect their benefits. Some of them lack transportation. They have repossessions and evictions on their credit. It’s a spiral of bad decisions.