We all know that the economies of both inner city Detroit and Rural Appalachia are in distress. In the last few decades, with the decline of the domestic auto and coal industries respectively, these places have taken a severe beating. Employment is down. Drug use is up.
What’s interesting, however, is how disparately Republicans have chosen to frame the situation in these two places. Detroit is supposedly suffering because the people there are stupid and lazy and dependent on government handouts from liberal policies. But Appalachia is supposed to be hardworking Americans who have just been ravaged by liberal policies, and will do fine if they are just left free to keep mining their coal.
But the reason Detroit went broke is the same reason West Virginia is going broke: lack of economic diversification. I know right wingers are trying to blame Detroit’s bankruptcy on “liberal policies”. But the fact is all of Detroit was built on the auto industry, just like the Appalachians was just relying on the coal industry, and with the shifting fortunes of that just one industry, these places are getting hurt.
This is no excuse to call the people who live in such places stupid and lazy and leave them out to die on the street. You help them get back on their feet. That’s what competent and just governments do. There is no “liberal policies” that are hurting Detroit or keeping Appalachia down. There is no fundamental difference in the work ethic of the people living in those places. Trying to do so is not helpful and only helps to polarize the country and keep policies which might help both of them to get back in their feet from being implemented. We should not let Detroit just suffer “until it learns its lesson to work harder”, nor artificially keep trying to prop up an archaic industry in Appalachia in the name of “hard working Americans who just want to be free to work hard”. It’s dysfunctional to paralyze any useful action by just partisan blaming. Let’s stop blaming and roll up our sleeves and start fixing. It’s not communist fascist tyranny for a government to help its people fix such problems. That’s what governments, at least competent ones, are supposed to do.
No actually government is not for fixing stuff never has been. At ours anyhow. It was mainly setup to referee disputes amongst ourselves. If an area is dying then it is up to the people that live there to either resolve the problem or move. If somebody doesn't want to move, that's on them.
We all know that the economies of both inner city Detroit and Rural Appalachia are in distress. In the last few decades, with the decline of the domestic auto and coal industries respectively, these places have taken a severe beating. Employment is down. Drug use is up.
What’s interesting, however, is how disparately Republicans have chosen to frame the situation in these two places. Detroit is supposedly suffering because the people there are stupid and lazy and dependent on government handouts from liberal policies. But Appalachia is supposed to be hardworking Americans who have just been ravaged by liberal policies, and will do fine if they are just left free to keep mining their coal.
But the reason Detroit went broke is the same reason West Virginia is going broke: lack of economic diversification. I know right wingers are trying to blame Detroit’s bankruptcy on “liberal policies”. But the fact is all of Detroit was built on the auto industry, just like the Appalachians was just relying on the coal industry, and with the shifting fortunes of that just one industry, these places are getting hurt.
This is no excuse to call the people who live in such places stupid and lazy and leave them out to die on the street. You help them get back on their feet. That’s what competent and just governments do. There is no “liberal policies” that are hurting Detroit or keeping Appalachia down. There is no fundamental difference in the work ethic of the people living in those places. Trying to do so is not helpful and only helps to polarize the country and keep policies which might help both of them to get back in their feet from being implemented. We should not let Detroit just suffer “until it learns its lesson to work harder”, nor artificially keep trying to prop up an archaic industry in Appalachia in the name of “hard working Americans who just want to be free to work hard”. It’s dysfunctional to paralyze any useful action by just partisan blaming. Let’s stop blaming and roll up our sleeves and start fixing. It’s not communist fascist tyranny for a government to help its people fix such problems. That’s what governments, at least competent ones, are supposed to do.
We all know that the economies of both inner city Detroit and Rural Appalachia are in distress. In the last few decades, with the decline of the domestic auto and coal industries respectively, these places have taken a severe beating. Employment is down. Drug use is up.
What’s interesting, however, is how disparately Republicans have chosen to frame the situation in these two places. Detroit is supposedly suffering because the people there are stupid and lazy and dependent on government handouts from liberal policies. But Appalachia is supposed to be hardworking Americans who have just been ravaged by liberal policies, and will do fine if they are just left free to keep mining their coal.
But the reason Detroit went broke is the same reason West Virginia is going broke: lack of economic diversification. I know right wingers are trying to blame Detroit’s bankruptcy on “liberal policies”. But the fact is all of Detroit was built on the auto industry, just like the Appalachians was just relying on the coal industry, and with the shifting fortunes of that just one industry, these places are getting hurt.
This is no excuse to call the people who live in such places stupid and lazy and leave them out to die on the street. You help them get back on their feet. That’s what competent and just governments do. There is no “liberal policies” that are hurting Detroit or keeping Appalachia down. There is no fundamental difference in the work ethic of the people living in those places. Trying to do so is not helpful and only helps to polarize the country and keep policies which might help both of them to get back in their feet from being implemented. We should not let Detroit just suffer “until it learns its lesson to work harder”, nor artificially keep trying to prop up an archaic industry in Appalachia in the name of “hard working Americans who just want to be free to work hard”. It’s dysfunctional to paralyze any useful action by just partisan blaming. Let’s stop blaming and roll up our sleeves and start fixing. It’s not communist fascist tyranny for a government to help its people fix such problems. That’s what governments, at least competent ones, are supposed to do.
We all know that the economies of both inner city Detroit and Rural Appalachia are in distress. In the last few decades, with the decline of the domestic auto and coal industries respectively, these places have taken a severe beating. Employment is down. Drug use is up.
What’s interesting, however, is how disparately Republicans have chosen to frame the situation in these two places. Detroit is supposedly suffering because the people there are stupid and lazy and dependent on government handouts from liberal policies. But Appalachia is supposed to be hardworking Americans who have just been ravaged by liberal policies, and will do fine if they are just left free to keep mining their coal.
But the reason Detroit went broke is the same reason West Virginia is going broke: lack of economic diversification. I know right wingers are trying to blame Detroit’s bankruptcy on “liberal policies”. But the fact is all of Detroit was built on the auto industry, just like the Appalachians was just relying on the coal industry, and with the shifting fortunes of that just one industry, these places are getting hurt.
This is no excuse to call the people who live in such places stupid and lazy and leave them out to die on the street. You help them get back on their feet. That’s what competent and just governments do. There is no “liberal policies” that are hurting Detroit or keeping Appalachia down. There is no fundamental difference in the work ethic of the people living in those places. Trying to do so is not helpful and only helps to polarize the country and keep policies which might help both of them to get back in their feet from being implemented. We should not let Detroit just suffer “until it learns its lesson to work harder”, nor artificially keep trying to prop up an archaic industry in Appalachia in the name of “hard working Americans who just want to be free to work hard”. It’s dysfunctional to paralyze any useful action by just partisan blaming. Let’s stop blaming and roll up our sleeves and start fixing. It’s not communist fascist tyranny for a government to help its people fix such problems. That’s what governments, at least competent ones, are supposed to do.
The suburbs in Detroit are almost all doing better than Detroit, some astonishingly better. They sprung up due to the auto industry, so why is that? Have the Big 3 gone out of business? Maybe Detroit's leadership has driven business out over the years with their policies. I think the real question is, why aren't the Democrats doing anything about Detroit's problems, since they've run it for over 50 years? Republicans often try, but of course we're all racists to you so that could be part of the problem as well.
What are Republicans doing for Appalachian coal country?
I don't know, I live in suburban Detroit. I'm assuming Republicans are often fighting against Liberals to keep coal jobs...are they not? At least the President is: https://www.economist.com/graphic-d...save-americas-failing-coal-fired-power-plants
You didn't say what the solutions are.
There are many. But some of the most interesting ones were proposed by both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, and also by some posters here: education and retraining.
\We need to update the work force. All the low-tech, low-skill jobs are going overseas. It's not because of liberals. The market forces are demanding it. Did you know that all those jobs Trump was trying to protect at the Carrier plant in Indiana during his campaign? I bet Fox News doesn't report this, but they are moving 500 more jobs this year to Mexico. And they are likely going to be closing that plant altogether by next year. Google it.
Meanwhile, lots of higher skill jobs are going unfilled, and corporations are having to resort to the horror of recruiting skilled immigrants from other countries to fill those jobs. Why not fill them with Americans. I bet we can train and educate both Tyrone from Detroit and Billy Joe Bob from rural WV to do those jobs. That's the way to make America great again. Not to try to maintain the economy of the 1950s just to artificially prop up jobs and skills which are obsolete in today's economy.
We all know that the economies of both inner city Detroit and Rural Appalachia are in distress. In the last few decades, with the decline of the domestic auto and coal industries respectively, these places have taken a severe beating. Employment is down. Drug use is up.
What’s interesting, however, is how disparately Republicans have chosen to frame the situation in these two places. Detroit is supposedly suffering because the people there are stupid and lazy and dependent on government handouts from liberal policies. But Appalachia is supposed to be hardworking Americans who have just been ravaged by liberal policies, and will do fine if they are just left free to keep mining their coal.
But the reason Detroit went broke is the same reason West Virginia is going broke: lack of economic diversification. I know right wingers are trying to blame Detroit’s bankruptcy on “liberal policies”. But the fact is all of Detroit was built on the auto industry, just like the Appalachians was just relying on the coal industry, and with the shifting fortunes of that just one industry, these places are getting hurt.
This is no excuse to call the people who live in such places stupid and lazy and leave them out to die on the street. You help them get back on their feet. That’s what competent and just governments do. There is no “liberal policies” that are hurting Detroit or keeping Appalachia down. There is no fundamental difference in the work ethic of the people living in those places. Trying to do so is not helpful and only helps to polarize the country and keep policies which might help both of them to get back in their feet from being implemented. We should not let Detroit just suffer “until it learns its lesson to work harder”, nor artificially keep trying to prop up an archaic industry in Appalachia in the name of “hard working Americans who just want to be free to work hard”. It’s dysfunctional to paralyze any useful action by just partisan blaming. Let’s stop blaming and roll up our sleeves and start fixing. It’s not communist fascist tyranny for a government to help its people fix such problems. That’s what governments, at least competent ones, are supposed to do.
That's pretty vague. What specifically do you have in mind here?
I'm well-aware of all of this, and never said otherwise.
But if you want government solutions, you need to come up with an actual plan, and not platitudes and generalities. What do you have?
What do you want, a detailed bill proposal on a chat site?
Here are some of Hillary Clinton's proposals, along with further elaborations on it from the University of Chicago. They seemed like very smart places to start a conversation on the issue. But that seems so far away now.
Issues Archive - The Office of Hillary Rodham Clinton
www.forbes.com/sites/ucenergy/2016/...plan-to-revitalize-coal-country/#712780091953
As part of this agenda, Hillary is calling for a tax credit for businesses that hire apprentices, providing much needed on-the-job training—especially for young Americans.
Her plan would put forward a tax credit for businesses of $1,500 per apprentice and would insist on accountability for employment and earnings outcomes for programs receiving the credit. Hillary’s plan will also grant a bonus on that tax credit to businesses for providing opportunities specifically for young people.
If there's to be something to talk about, yes, or at least something concrete. Generalities and vagaries don't give anything meaningful to talk about.
Of that, this one could have some merit:
Though the preference for "young Americans" doesn't exactly jibe for the areas you're talking about.
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