Posted on 04/24/2012 6:36:46 AM PDT by Daffynition
It was a county formed 19 years before the Civil War.
But in the towns lying between borders in Owsley, in the coal fields of eastern Kentucky, a portrait of Americans shows a community that appears frozen in time, where many still live without water or electricity.
According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the Appalachian county has the lowest median household income in the states - a staggering 41.5 per cent of residents falling below the poverty line.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Rich in the things that matter.
Right on, Daffy.
How’s that Great Society working? Not Tooooo Good!!!
I moved from my 45 year home of Seattle to a small farm in central KY last August. I am living the phrase "I gave up a high standard of living for a high quality of life." I LOVE it here. And you can live below the poverty line and still live very well indeed.
And then there is this:
Then according to leftist/Marxist ideology crime should be rampant.
I joke with my friends in Seattle about my move to central KY thusly: “It is just like Washington. You have some very beautiful homes and wonderful people and you have single wides with cars on blocks in the yard. Oh, and if you hear banjo music, you DO want to paddle faster.”
I didn’t like the article. While I don’t have a romantic view of Appalachia, the article goes out of its way to make the people look dirty and lazy — the captions under the first two pictures are “filthy” and “slovenly.” Then, of course, the comments portray a degree of prejudice that is disgusting. If they were comments about a black ghetto, they would be removed or reported as abusive but hey, we’re talking poor whites so its OK to say things like “why are these people allowed to breed” or “I bet you won’t get a full set of teeth among them.”
I didn't notice anywhere in the story where it mentions what the poverty line is?
Nor did I notice where it mentioned how many of these people are government dependents or how long they've been government dependents.
HOLY COW! I just went to the article. The first and third images are VERY much what the interior of my nearest neighbor’s single wide looks like, only my neighbors is MORE messy.
He keeps his lawn meticulous, though.
The guy that built the house we bought (It’s about four years old now), placed it on the property so he could not see the trailer. We’re on a plateau and the single wide is in the valley about 80 feet below, about 400 yards away. His kids are really nice. We do bike rides together.
bttt
There are communities like this in every state.
This country grows half of all pot and 90% of all Moonshine made in the USA. It pays no taxes on that income. Recently, charity clinics have closed their doors, because of how well the people of the region were doing financially.
IMO, even if you don’t have much money or an education, you still don’t have to live like a filthy slob.
There were times in my youth when my family was struggling & my dad out of work. But the house & yard was always spotless.
I have been to Appalachia several times. It amazes me that people would live like this.
It’s almost like there is some generational malaise that govern the lives of people who live there. People there seem not to give a damn about much of anything.
—There are communities like this in every state.—
You’re preachin’ to the choir on this one. But to use an analogy, every state has at least one city, but NYC is bigger than Sioux Falls.
I’ve seen this stuff in Washington state, but there is a LOT more of it here in KY, relative to the size of the population. Heck, one of my new best friends here is 15 years younger than me and when he was a kid they used an outhouse.
When I was a kid we lived in Washington, California, Texas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. I thought back then that outhouses were something from the 19th century.
—Kentucky really is two or three states rolled into one.—
I think that is true of a lot of states. Washington is even more stark in that there is even a significant climate difference. California, likewise.
I’m gonna guess the film poster alludes to the fact that in rural Appalachia, there are places you DO NOT GO, & people you DO NOT MESS WITH, if you know what I mean.
I saw a sign in rural KY that said, “Be shot or be gone”. Never saw a Welcome sign.
Heck, those of us who live in cities, can drive to the ghetto and find similar situations also.
What exactly is the point of this article? The south side of Chicago is not its own county, so it can’t be cited as the “poorest” county in America based on the criteria used here. I have a feeling that the south side has more crime, in addition to the poverty cited in this article. But it wouldn’t be politically correct to do an article about life in the ghetto.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.