Politics was not my intent when posting this to the forum. I regularly visit family in these areas of Alabama, and thought others may be surprised by this take. It's always hard to see poverty like this, be it in Alabama, the Philippines, or what have you.
The brightest minds in the world frequent HN. I'm always interested to hear what folks think about problems, and even better, solutions.
And if it is a "3rd world" state, why aren't people jumping to donate and help and aid them?
"Cuz 'rednecks." The only group you're allowed to prosecute on TV, media, and public discourse.
But if liberals were running in and giving free aid, and helping lives, those people would start to like liberals.
I mean, when we help people in Ghana, do we check to make sure they don't have any conflicting political values? When we aid Syria, have we checked to make sure they're there aren't any nationalists and racists?
I'd love to hear an actual rebuttal, but I guess I'll have to settle for downvotes from people who can't. I guess bigotry is okay when it's people you hate.
Unfortunate headline. Would expect to see it changed.
Growing up I spent a few years in Alabama. Not at all surprised by any of this, but it's not "the worst in the United States", or the developed world, by any stretch.
Not that it's a competition, but census data would put a couple of states (I believe consistently Louisiana, West Virginia, & Arkansas) below Alabama in median household income.
It's not about how poor or rich the state is, but what percentage of people live in poverty. The poverty definition used is living for less than 50% of median income in the area (in this case state) so it's more of an income inequality measure.
Hah, being from Arkansas, we always said "Thank god for Mississippi". Arkansas was often 49th in many scales of poverty, MS was 50th. I'm sure Alabama has issues too.
Article has a picture of a falling down house. But guess what, it's a house!
Go look under an overpass in San Francisco to see even more dire poverty and even less chance of self obtaining minimum standards of living (i.e food and basic shelter) as cost of shelter is so far removed from potential income.
But probably stating California has worst poverty in developed world doesn't support the underlying motive of the article.
Incidentally, Alabama does have a lot of poverty and isn't a place most of would be comfortable living due to social climate. Which is a real shame because I find it to be quite a beautiful state, at least the areas I've seen.
I would have thought Mississippi but it doesn’t surprise me that it’s in the South. Huntsville has some defense work and I know there’s a Mercedes plant (in Vance, I had to look that up). But I can’t think of anything else in the state.
>The US has the second-highest rate of poverty among rich countries (poverty here measured by the percentage of people earning less than half the national median income
That is a preposterous way to compare poverty between countries. By this definition, an American can make more money than a Frenchmen, but the former will be counted as poor and the latter not. And I reckon that we'd fair much better than the EU as a single entity under this standard.
Measuring food security by obesity rates is also dumb. Americans are fat because food is incredibly abundant, we have a cultural preference for junk food, and we are physically lazy. That says absolutely nothing about the availability of healthy food.
We are unhealthy individuals, but our health care system is the absolute best at treating diseases. We pay a lot for it because we’re the only developed country where the health care industry isn’t a monopsony (single or oligarchic purchaser).
Our child mortality and life expectancy are conflated with a large immigrant population and the existence of an underclass. If you equalize the results for diversity, America does just as well as the other developed countries.
And it is absurd to compare the entire US to tiny countries like Denmark or even medium sized ones like France. If you broke the US into regions, you’d probably get different results. I bet New England and the Pacific Northwest would be at the top of many of those categories.
Basically, this data is framed with a conclusion in mind and doesn’t account for how big, diverse, and unique the United States.
>A United Nations official investigating poverty in the United States was shocked at the level of environmental degradation in some areas of rural Alabama, saying he had never seen anything like it in the developed world.
i.e., the worst poverty the official had ever seen in the developed world, not the worst according to some comprehensive study.
I remember seeing somewhere that they mostly rely on Mountain Dew for hydration and even feed it to the baby, so bad that they have early tooth decay issues. Apparently the amount of people living in trailer parks is huge and constantly growing.
Troubling when you think that this is happening in the US. I saw that kind of situation in central america.
From what I remember and what I can find, that was something that was particularly found in Appalachia, not Alabama (see this article[0]). A quick check on Google maps shows that Alabama is about as far from Appalachia (in West Virginia) as London, UK, is from Hamburg, Germany. So I think it's a stretch to say they're in the same geographic area.
a former co-worker of mine from there used to say that when a tornado touches down in Alabama it always hits a trailer park, because it can't not hit a trailer park
[+] [-] patrickg_zill|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tomrod|8 years ago|reply
The brightest minds in the world frequent HN. I'm always interested to hear what folks think about problems, and even better, solutions.
[+] [-] katastic|8 years ago|reply
"Cuz 'rednecks." The only group you're allowed to prosecute on TV, media, and public discourse.
But if liberals were running in and giving free aid, and helping lives, those people would start to like liberals.
I mean, when we help people in Ghana, do we check to make sure they don't have any conflicting political values? When we aid Syria, have we checked to make sure they're there aren't any nationalists and racists?
I'd love to hear an actual rebuttal, but I guess I'll have to settle for downvotes from people who can't. I guess bigotry is okay when it's people you hate.
[+] [-] futhey|8 years ago|reply
Growing up I spent a few years in Alabama. Not at all surprised by any of this, but it's not "the worst in the United States", or the developed world, by any stretch.
Not that it's a competition, but census data would put a couple of states (I believe consistently Louisiana, West Virginia, & Arkansas) below Alabama in median household income.
[+] [-] c2h5oh|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jesus_Jones|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mythrwy|8 years ago|reply
Go look under an overpass in San Francisco to see even more dire poverty and even less chance of self obtaining minimum standards of living (i.e food and basic shelter) as cost of shelter is so far removed from potential income.
But probably stating California has worst poverty in developed world doesn't support the underlying motive of the article.
Incidentally, Alabama does have a lot of poverty and isn't a place most of would be comfortable living due to social climate. Which is a real shame because I find it to be quite a beautiful state, at least the areas I've seen.
[+] [-] CalChris|8 years ago|reply
https://www.careerinfonet.org/oview6.asp?soccode=&id=&nodeid...
[+] [-] dokument|8 years ago|reply
Mercedes in Vance.
Hyundai in Montgomery
Honda in Talladega
Toyota in Madison
Airbus Mobile
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] thrden|8 years ago|reply
[1]http://www.politifact.com/california/statements/2017/jan/20/...
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] gumby|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wildmusings|8 years ago|reply
That is a preposterous way to compare poverty between countries. By this definition, an American can make more money than a Frenchmen, but the former will be counted as poor and the latter not. And I reckon that we'd fair much better than the EU as a single entity under this standard.
Measuring food security by obesity rates is also dumb. Americans are fat because food is incredibly abundant, we have a cultural preference for junk food, and we are physically lazy. That says absolutely nothing about the availability of healthy food.
We are unhealthy individuals, but our health care system is the absolute best at treating diseases. We pay a lot for it because we’re the only developed country where the health care industry isn’t a monopsony (single or oligarchic purchaser).
Our child mortality and life expectancy are conflated with a large immigrant population and the existence of an underclass. If you equalize the results for diversity, America does just as well as the other developed countries.
And it is absurd to compare the entire US to tiny countries like Denmark or even medium sized ones like France. If you broke the US into regions, you’d probably get different results. I bet New England and the Pacific Northwest would be at the top of many of those categories.
Basically, this data is framed with a conclusion in mind and doesn’t account for how big, diverse, and unique the United States.
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] rndholesqpeg|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] scythe|8 years ago|reply
>A United Nations official investigating poverty in the United States was shocked at the level of environmental degradation in some areas of rural Alabama, saying he had never seen anything like it in the developed world.
i.e., the worst poverty the official had ever seen in the developed world, not the worst according to some comprehensive study.
[+] [-] wnevets|8 years ago|reply
Well I'm sure the fine folks of Alabama will sleep better at night knowing this.
[+] [-] dogecoinbase|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tr4cefl0w|8 years ago|reply
Troubling when you think that this is happening in the US. I saw that kind of situation in central america.
[+] [-] lelandbatey|8 years ago|reply
[0] - https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/09/12/221845853/mo...
[+] [-] itronitron|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ischio|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] icantdrive55|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] lewis22|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] RickJWag|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Tempest1981|8 years ago|reply
Question: is there another community that has high-quality discussions on political issues? Would love to find one.