Persistently poor counties in USA

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UtahOwl
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Persistently poor counties in USA

Post by UtahOwl »

PersistentPovertyCounties.png
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As promised, here is the map of the persistently poor counties (assuming it's inserted successfully into this post!). Note the concentration of these in the Appalachian area of KY. "ERS has defined counties as being persistently poor if 20 percent or more of their populations were living in poverty over the last 30 years (measured by the 1980, 1990 and 2000 decennial censuses and 2007-11 American Community Survey 5-year estimates). Using this definition, there are currently 353 persistently poor counties in the United States (comprising 11.2 percent of all U.S. counties). The large majority (301 or 85.3 percent) of the persistent-poverty counties are nonmetro, accounting for 15.2 percent of all nonmetro counties." Source: Economic Research Service (ERS) of USDA.

johnkarls
Posts: 2095
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

Inner-City Holocaust & America’s Apartheid “Justice” System

Post by johnkarls »

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The foregoing posting by Utah Owl (aka June Taylor) was “promised” at last evening’s meeting in the sense that she volunteered it, rather than its having been requested by anyone.

By way of background, whenever Yours Truly makes references to his experience with inner-city conditions [please refer to the third and fourth sections of this Bulletin Board, both entitled “Inner-City Holocaust and America’s Apartheid ‘Justice’ System (In Honor of Jonathan Kozol and In Memory of John Howard Griffin)”] June always muddies the waters by talking about rural poverty.

Which was probably confusing for our 10 attendees last evening (except, of course, for June and Yours Truly) -- our 11th RSVP was at the death bed of a life-long friend.

Section F-3 of the Suggested Discussion Outline repeated the following statistics that were contained in the Suggested Answers to the Short Quizzes (as well as elsewhere for other meetings) --

F-3. The many times that we have focused on America’s 30% Permanent Under-Caste occupying our inner-cities, we have recognized that the typical conditions facing the 178 “I Have A Dream”® Programs in 51 American cities during the 1990’s when Yours Truly was the volunteer Treasurer of IHAD-National were --
F-3-a. SINGLE-DIGIT high-school graduation rates for the class immediately preceding, and the class immediately following, the Dreamer class.
F-3-b. 99% of all Dreamers living in single-adult households.
F-3-c. 95% of all Dreamers living in single-adult households headed by a druggie.
F-3-d. 75%-80% of all Dreamers living in a single-adult household headed by a druggie who hands over all receipts to the pusher so that the kids have to steal just in order to eat.
F-3-e. Virtually-universal recognition by inner-city 5-year-olds that their only realistic career objectives are pusher or pimp, or girl friend of a pusher or pimp graduating to whore.

*****
Constantly dragging rural poverty into such discussions cripples any attempt at analysis because inner-city and rural conditions are radically different, as a result of which possible steps to alleviate the poverty in the two settings are radically different.

BUT THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN MUDDYING THE WATERS IS THE MISUNDERSTANDINGS THAT ARE CREATED --

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EXHIBIT A = THE RELATIVE SIZE OF THE PROBLEMS

The map that was posted by Utah Owl was created by the Department of Agriculture which, of course, has a vested interest in creating a distorted picture. The map was taken from ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/detail.aspx?chartId=38238 which comments on its map as follows:

“An important dimension of poverty is time. An area that has a high level of poverty this year, but not next year, is likely better off than an area that has a high level of poverty in both years. To shed light on this aspect of poverty, ERS has defined counties as being persistently poor if 20 percent or more of their populations were living in poverty over the last 30 years (measured by the 1980, 1990, and 2000 decennial censuses and the 2007-11 American Community Survey). Using this definition, there were 353 persistently poor counties in the United States. The large majority (301) of the persistent-poverty counties were nonmetropolitan (nonmetro) and exhibited a strong regional pattern. There are no nonmetro persistent-poverty counties in the Northeast, 29 nonmetro persistent-poverty counties in the Midwest, and 20 in the West. The remaining 252 nonmetro persistent-poverty counties are in the South, comprising just over 26 percent of the total Southern nonmetro population. This map is one of the county classifications found in the Atlas of Rural and Small Town America on the ERS website.”

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YOURS TRULY’S UNMASKING HOW THE DEPT OF AG IGNORES INNER-CITIES!!!

Why did the Dept of Ag study COUNTIES???

So the Dept of Ag could IGNORE INNER-CITIES!!!

In order to avoid wasting an inordinate amount of time gathering information, I focused solely on the 5 best known of America’s inner-city ghettos --

New York’s Harlem, South Bronx and Bed-Sty.
Chicago’s South Side.
Los Angeles’ South Central.

All of which are part of COUNTIES that have affluent areas so that they do NOT register on the Dept of Ag’s study!!!

New York City comprises 5 boroughs, each of which is simultaneously a county -- Manhattan (New York County), Queens (Queens County), Brooklyn (Kings County), Bronx (Bronx County) and Staten Island (Richmond County).

HARLEM (305,109) is only 19.2% of Manhattan’s 1,585,873, most of the rest of which is extremely affluent.

THE SOUTH BRONX (522,412) is only 37.7% of The Bronx’s 1,385,107, much of which is well-off or affluent so that it did NOT make the Dept of Ag’s list!!!

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT (157,530) is only 6.3% of Brooklyn’s 2,504,710, much of which is well-off or affluent so that it did NOT make the Dept of Ag’s list!!!

CHICAGO’S “SOUTH SIDE” (752,496) is only 14.5% of Cook County’s 5,195,022, much of which is well-off or affluent so that it did NOT make the Dept of Ag’s list!!!

LOS ANGELES’ SOUTH SIDE (aka SOUTH CENTRAL) (520,461) is only 5.3% of Los Angeles County’s 9,818,605 which includes Beverly Hills and Malibu among many other affluent areas!!!

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PRELIMINARY CONCLUSION RE STATS BASED ON COUNTIES

Nice try, Dept of Ag!!!

Can’t blame you for trying!!!

But why are you so afraid to provide population stats???

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EXHIBIT B = THE DISPARATE CHARACTER OF THE PROBLEMS

Yes, Hillbilly Elegy does provide a nice portrait of A SMALL GROUP OF THE RURAL POOR of a small area of the BACKWOODS OF KENTUCKY’s MOUNTAINS.

[And NOT a portrait of the Rust Belt states of Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania as the mainstream media is pretending it to be.]

While the Dept of Ag’s map shows (confirmed by its comments) that the Persistently Poor Counties are in the South (including Southwest Texas, New Mexico and Arizona).

And who knows how well Hillbilly Elegy describes conditions in THE SOUTH’S Persistently Poor Counties!!! [NB: Hillbilly Elegy does NOT purport to do so.]

But even if Hillbilly Elegy did describe the conditions in THE SOUTH’S Persistently Poor Counties, those conditions are radically different than our inner-city ghettos as described in the quotation above from Section F-3 of the Suggested Discussion Outline.

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FINAL (VS. PRELIMINARY) CONCLUSION

Yours Truly feels he has been a Good Sport!!!

After all, his Quizzes and Discussion Outline pointed out that Hillbilly Elegy did NOT, as claimed by the mainstream media, provide any insight into conditions in The Rust Belt (Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania).

And further questioned why Hillbilly Elegy did NOT even recognize the existence of America’s inner-city ghettos, since the small group of Hillbillies that crossed the Ohio River from Kentucky ONLY 30 MILES INTO OHIO, constantly travelled back and forth for the first 10 of those 30 miles through Cincinnati which does have a substantial inner-city ghetto.

Which did NOT “open the door” to a discussion of rural poverty, since Hillbilly Elegy did NOT deal with rural poverty (vs. a small group of Hillbillies).

Nevertheless, I feel I have been a Good Sport in starting to put into perspective why rural poverty DOES NOT HOLD A CANDLE to the Holocaust Occurring in America’s Inner-Cities and America’s Apartheid “Justice System.”

And it is time for anyone who wants to compare rural poverty to our inner-city ghettos to offer something other than COUNTY stats.

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