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dutch777

(3,715 posts)
2. It seems we have a hard time understanding that some states or at least parts of states...
Mon Feb 1, 2021, 02:02 PM
Feb 2021

...are almost beyond help. And some seem to even mess up the help when they get it. WV is certainly one and the rural (non coastal) parts of LA, MS and many other places are others. The old coal mining areas of central PA are similar. The industries they once relied on for gainful employment are gone or almost so. The basic education level is frequently way below the national average. And focused training programs either don't exist or the skills they teach don't have a ready market in the local economy, so they encourage the young and the capable to move-- a brain drain, energy and tax base loss. While some places that had their original core industries gutted, such as steel and Pittsburgh, and made a comeback, they took 40+ years and are still the exception.

It is a challenge for the country and for the Dems as these places are not contributing significantly to GDP, they voted Trump typically by 70% margin or more and are higher users of government support programs and low supporters of the tax base for both the states and the Fed government. I have yet to see anything other than lip service to this issue and am very curious if de facto we will just be leaving wide swaths of this country to slip back to almost subsistence existence.

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