Distressed Communities Index

[ATCclears]

Rural America Is On The Verge Of Collapse

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[2Wheels4Ever]

The only thing I'm distressed about is city people moving to the country.....

 

[MannyGlocks]

Don't buy it...

 

[Camelfilter]

Easily agree with the S. Oregon map.

 

[41mag]

I used to watch these reports with the same anxiety as earth quakes & tsunamis. Then I noticed a corresponding list of articles always predicting massive stock losses 'soon' and various other indexes of financial ruin and social breakdown plaguing those upscale communities that prospered during the distressing rural depletion. Time and again I was whip lashed and brainwashed into believing my pitiful financial status was on the verge of collapsing even further.

My little community seems in better individual shape now than in the last 25 years.

 

[bolus]

Not sure why they dont make it easy to find how they define the Distressed Communities Index but this is is:

 

[NW Backpacker]

Apparently hospitals are closing in rural areas:
Rural Health News by Topic: Closures of healthcare facilities and services - Rural Health Information Hub

Some say we're in a depression and the bread lines are at the grocery store via food stamps. There are 38 million on food stamps today:

Food Stamps Charts | Matt Trivisonno

They say SS and Medicare are almost out of money. They've been saying that for at least 40 years.

I wonder what the economy would look like if the goobermint didn't spend a trillion dollars per year that it doesn't have? What would the unemployment rate be if the goobermint canned the employees that don't do something that's really useful? Would that look like a depression? Possibly.

EDIT: What is the actual unemployment rate?
Is it 3.X% or 7.X%?
Here's what the 'real' unemployment rate is

Or is it really closer to 21%?
Alternate Unemployment Charts

 

[CamoDeafie]

Not sure why they dont make it easy to find how they define the Distressed Communities Index but this is is:

View attachment 583215

I'm honestly surprised that anything below 68% of the median income equals "distressed" maybe the definition has changed, but last I recall, isn't the median simply "the middle number of a data set"?

I mean... of course half the incomes reported will fall below the median, or over the median in a data set going from the smallest income to the largest income reported

It just seems ridiculous. Now... percentage of "working age adulta not in work"? How do they figure that data... voter rolls? Birth rates? Number of adults on unemployment benefits? Number of adults in labor force? Number of adults on disability, or welfare, and thus not "working"? What about those adults who are in colleges and the likes... methinks its a bit more complicated than simply saying if greater than 40% of "working age adults" are "not working" it means distressed community.. perhaps jobs are not there in enough numbers, perhaps there are other factors (disability, ages, welfare, being students)? Again, maybe I'm not agreeing with the assertions that a large portion of the Gulf States, or most of the old South, are "distressed" it also seems strange that a large portion of NM is "distressed" when its mostly military employment, snowbirds, and recently retired adults are in there...also, conspiciously... the areas with immigrant/migrant problems does not seem to be counted as " severely distressed communities" in California....

Also claims Portland metro, Seattle metro, Bay Area/San Fran.. actually most of the largest urban centers are "prosperous"

 

[The Heretic]

Reduce services to rural areas == motivate people to move into (or at least near) urban areas where they are easier to control and have less independence.

 

[MannyGlocks]

I see this as more b.s. anti-Trump garbage.

 

[41mag]

meanwhile, ....'the news is good from Lake Wobegon, where
all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average'....

 

[MannyGlocks]

Quoting Garrison Keillor the old uber liberal eh?

He did a great job on "Prairie Home Companion" but talk about a liberal marxist, ugh.

 

[Stomper]

I'm reminded of the old adage, "one man's meat is another man's poison".


You have some ivory tower pinheads deciding what the "poverty line" is.... that could include using the "barter system" for local trade, not having "pay TV" piped 24/7 into your living room, not having a mobile smart-phone that eavesdrops on you, any kind of internet access they can track your interests on, or an $800 espresso machine on your kitchen counter.... while some folk are perfectly content to draw their water from a hand-pump, raise and slaughter their own livestock, and do their business in an old outhouse.

Those barbaric savages!!

 

[The Heretic]

I'm reminded of the old adage, "one man's meat is another man's poison".


You have some ivory tower pinheads deciding what the "poverty line" is.... that could include using the "barter system" for local trade, not having "pay TV" piped 24/7 into your living room, not having a mobile smart-phone that eavesdrops on you, any kind of internet access they can track your interests on, or an $800 espresso machine on your kitchen counter.... while some folk are perfectly content to draw their water from a hand-pump, raise and slaughter their own livestock, and do their business in an old outhouse.

Those barbaric savages!!

Yup. Back when I used to watch the news, and I didn't always have all of the amenities, I would see interviews with the "poor" where they had better furniture, better TVs and entertainment systems and better cars than I did - complaining about how bad off they were. I have seen a lot of people like that - personally.

That said, it is not unusual for people to be doing ok one day and then 'stuff happens'. What are they going to do? Sell all their things for a tenth of what they paid for them? No, they will hang onto them in the hopes that their situation will turn around.

How many people on this very forum sell guns, sometimes a lot of their guns, because stuff happened to them and they suddenly needed the money? I have gotten some pretty good deals buying their guns.

I know 'stuff happens' and it can make a serious dent in savings - if you have savings, many people do not.

Unplanned stuff has happened to me and my family, and it wiped out a chunk of my savings. Even with decent insurance, last year's medical bills put a dent in my savings. This year too - I didn't plan to get injured, I didn't plan for someone plowing into my car either. I didn't plan for the engine to break on the new (to her) car I bought my daughter. But stuff happens.

I have savings, I have a good paying job too, but I have BTDT when I was living paycheck to paycheck, or worse, didn't have a paycheck and no idea when or if I would ever get another paycheck. So I understand where at least some of these people come from.

I have a friend in her fifties, who works 2-3 jobs and she has a daughter who has a lot of medical problems, is autistic to boot, not to mention other trauma. The jobs come and go, but the medical bills keep coming in. Having to move because of an oil boom doubling her rent didn't help. Having a POS car that breaks down all the time and living where winter piles on with sub-zero temps and ten foot snow drifts makes life really hard. I can sympathize, but fortunately I never really had to deal with life that hard.

There but for the grace of God go I.

 

[Stomper]

That last line... true dat!!

 

[CountryGent]

Easily agree with the S. Oregon map.

Ditto. I'm only mildly surprised it isn't darker in some spots. Though this area has very wonderful natural beauty, socially it is beyond screwed up. The wife sees a lot more of it by the nature of her occupation.

 

[The Heretic]

The really bad thing is the part about how farmers are affected.

Besides the impact on the food supply, as time goes on, it becomes increasingly likely that many farmers in the "bread basket" won't be able to weather the trade war with China, with or without subsidies.

Short term, many farmers will go out of business. Some farmland will go fallow.

Long term, banks and large ag firms will take over the farms.

Almost as if someone had planned it.

 

[SUPER X]

Rural America Is On The Verge Of Collapse

View attachment 583136

Distressed is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[41mag]

He did a great job on "Prairie Home Companion" but talk about a liberal marxist, ugh.

yes, entertaining for decades but his political philosophy became ever thicker & less over-lookable towards his demise....

Still, he had some things as ideal as any fantasy I've been able to conjure for my own entertainment.
What began as occasional gentle prods led to deeper radio-noticeable smirks & wider provocation of audience catcalls responding to his Minnesotan roots. I wondered whether the now-resident Minnesota Somalian community listened to his program, and what kind of tolerance for political BS they might endure without protest.

 

[MannyGlocks]

Minnesota - No place I'd go.

markist ideology is something I don't want or appreciate....

However, I just read Brett Easton Ellis's book "White".

He's a breath of fresh air.

Yep, he's gay, but recognizes the left is not what they claim: Inclusive, sure, if you dogmatically agree with them in every politcal/or what have you category and never, ever, disagree. Then you're A-Ok, but find any questions to ask, you're an alt-right bubblegumbag.

Fascist much?

He finds the left dogmatic and rather infantile.

You disagree with me? Where's my 'safe space" wahhhh,, I'm traumatized.....agree with me or I'll die.....wahhh, I'm past 15, maybe 25/35, but I need a safe space.....wahhhhhhh