West Virginia poverty gets worse under Trump economy, not better.

[elleng]

Last edited Mon Oct 8, 2018, 01:29 AM - Edit history (1)

'West Virginia has a growing poverty problem, and experts there who study the issue say Americans in every state should pay attention.

The Appalachian state is, along with Delaware, just one of two states where poverty rose last year, bucking the national trend of growing incomes and declining hardship, according to U.S. Census data released earlier this month. West Virginia's poverty rate climbed to 19.1 percent last year from 17.9 percent, making it just one of four states with a poverty rate above 18 percent.

President Donald Trump plans to visit West Virginia on Saturday, when he's expected to tout his economic accomplishments. The president has said he's "very proud" of the state and claimed that he "turned West Virginia around." His administration has focused on reviving jobs in the coal industry, which has added about 2,000 jobs across the U.S. since Mr. Trump's inauguration.

Mr. Trump has boasted about the state's GDP growth, but its economy grew by 1.3 percent in the first quarter, or 37th in the nation and lagging the national rate of 1.8 percent, according to government data. It had fared better in 2017: up 2.6 percent for the year, tenth among the 50 states, compared with 2.1 percent for the nation.

Coal "is a potent message," but it overlooks the reality of West Virginia's economy, said Sean O'Leary, senior policy analyst of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, a nonpartisan think tank. "The growth we've had is in low-wage industries. Folks who find jobs haven't found jobs that keep them out of poverty." . .

West Virginia's poor residents will face another burden beginning in October, when work requirements for food stamps go into effect across the state. Martinez said she believes the measure, which requires able-bodied adults without dependents to work, volunteer or receive job training for at least 20 hours a week to receive food stamps, will push more into poverty and ramp up demand for her soup kitchen's services.'>>>

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/west-virginia-poverty-gets-worse-under-trump-economy-not-better/

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

But how to get some poor white people to understand that their cycle of poverty isn't related to their white skin and some brown or black person taking their jobs - but is all about the wealthy people they vote for whose aim is to keep them poor?

They feel overlooked and Trump tells them they are being overlooked, so they feel like he understands - then Trump and the rest of the GOP go about overlooking them as usual with periodic rallies and dog whistles to keep up appearances while continuing to overlook them some more.

But because they feel like someone is listening, even though no one is, they continue to support the very people holding them down.

They hear less educated whites are dying in record numbers and all they hear is the white part. Because their grandfather wasn't educated and he made a decent living in the mines - even though he didn't, not really - but times sure did feel better back then - even though they weren't.

Poverty is a dream killer. A soul crusher - but then so is ignorance.

They're grunts in a class war - fighting for the wealthy - who define victory as keeping the grunts down.

But because the Generals tell them they are fighting for "Our way of life" - that handy "Our" making them feel included - they hear white people fighting for the "real" America and "taking back" the country - that can never truly belong to those being marginalized - where white skin meant success - except for the poor whites being kept down by the very system of inequality they help to prop up with ignorance and prejudice.

Miners were offered free education and training but many did not take advantage of it because they were waiting for a "way of life" to come back. They weren't adapting.

A species that won't adapt does die out.

The Generals in the class war understand this no matter how much they rage against evolution. But instead of educating the grunts, they tell the grunts that they are perfectly fine just the way they are - as the grunts continue to die out from ignorance and poverty and the despair that brings.

It's a cycle - a cycle intentionally perpetuated for the results it brings.

OK. I'm ranting again. Sorry. It just makes me sick that people are taken advantage of by playing on their fears and prejudices instead of lifting them up through education.

[elleng]

2. Recently saw rerun of Bourdain's show @ WV;

made a few years ago, I think; very interesting. No suggestion of racism; au contraire.

And HRC told them coal would decline, presenting no solution.

[Solly Mack]

3. That's not accurate. HRC had a plan for helping miners but her less than well

thought out remark about closing mines and coal businesses became the lede.

How well her plan would have worked we will never know. I don't pretend to know if it would have worked - but she did have a plan.

Her plan got lost in the attacks of her remark.

I do know nothing Trump has done will have a positive effect on the future of West Virginia and that the GOP doesn't care at all. If they did, they wouldn't be for deregulation and attempting to exact every drop of blood from a dying industry - which will leave the land and the people drained and depleted - solely for the sake of a few more votes.

Bourdain wasn't looking for the ugly underbelly of the people he met or their circumstances. He never did - not really. He looked for commonality. Bourdain would have made a great representative of the people. Except people like him don't usually run for office - they seek a deeper meaning.

[True Blue American]

4. Bernie Sanders told the people of WV ,

“ Those jobs are not coming back!” So did the elected Officials there. Anyone who watched those Town Halls and knows anything at all about how the economy is changing understands that.

But honestly it is not just WV, it is all over the country. The same can be said about most states, big city or rural..

In my area right now there are factories that need skilled workers so badly. Thousands of jobs are going unfilled.

But companies are also to blame. After years of surplus workers they dropped Apprenticeship programs. Labor was downgraded. College for all was preached. Today a 2 year Degree or even Vocational School can give you a high paying kob. Tool shops all over are begging for workers.

So many today will not start at the bottom, move up as they gain experience. Some will choose to move out of poverty. I may be a Democrat who believes in a hand up, not a several generation dependence.

I agreed when Clinton and Gingrich put a time limit and work requirement on Welfare. Only the ignorant think someone else will fix things for them.

[SergeStorms]

5. As "rants" go...

yours is excellent. There's not much that can be added to your assessment of the situation in "coal country". Trump keeps promising that the entire "coal way of life" will return to West Virginia, when only a few coal jobs have been added. It's always easier to desire a return to a former time period or way of life, than it is to learn a new skill and change the fundamental way of life in an area so rich with coal history. It's never going to be the same again, but that doesn't stop Trump from lying to these people, telling them it will. Human nature - like water - seems always to take the path of least resistance. Listening toTrump's lies is the easiest thing to do.

[pdsimdars]

6. This has been a theme of mine for the Dems to start pushing

Yes, the economy may be good but how is YOUR life.
Yes, they gave big tax cuts, but how much did YOU get.
Bring it HOME to people. Bring all Trump's talking points home to where they belong.

Here's an interesting fact I heard, that the payment of INTEREST for the national debt is almost as big as the military budget. People need to hear that.

[JudyM]

7. Yes! We certainly need some cogent messaging like this, we need slogans to repeat.

I had another thought, which was to focus on Dems’ not being an out of control mob, but instead intensely focused on safety of women.... and POC and children, etc. Wrote more here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211252134

[3Hotdogs]

8. That goes to the old question --- I believe it was Ronnie Raygun --- "Are you better off today---?"

Dems need to push that.