In these kinds of conditions, people do whatever they have to do just to survive. With so much poverty around, serving those on food stamps has become an important part of the local economy. In fact, cases of soda purchased with food stamps have become a form of “alternative currency” in the region.
In his article, Williamson described how this works… It works like this: Once a month, the debit-card accounts of those receiving what we still call food stamps are credited with a few hundred dollars — about $500 for a family of four, on average — which are immediately converted into a unit of exchange, in this case cases of soda. On the day when accounts are credited, local establishments accepting EBT cards — and all across the Big White Ghetto, “We Accept Food Stamps” is the new E pluribus unum – are swamped with locals using their public benefits to buy cases and cases — reports put the number at 30 to 40 cases for some buyers — of soda. Those cases of soda then either go on to another retailer, who buys them at 50 cents on the dollar, in effect laundering those $500 in monthly benefits into $250 in cash — a considerably worse rate than your typical organized-crime money launderer offers — or else they go into the local black-market economy, where they can be used as currency in such ventures as the dealing of unauthorized prescription painkillers — by “pillbillies,” as they are known at the sympathetic establishments in Florida that do so much business with Kentucky and West Virginia that the relevant interstate bus service is nicknamed the “OxyContin Express.”
A woman who is intimately familiar with the local drug economy suggests that the exchange rate between sexual favors and cases of pop — some dealers will accept either — is about 1:1, meaning that the value of a woman in the local prescription-drug economy is about $12.99 at Walmart prices.Sounds like a horrible situation out there.
Ironically I have to put the blame for all of this on people like those at "Freedom Outpost" here, who seem to be exhibiting some honest indignation here in view of this horrible economic situation, BUT then are too stupid to realize that their general "anti-government" ideology denigrates our government institution which is the only institution with the authority to impose the judgement to correct this situation.
Its NOT going to get better "on its own", or with more "freedom" you bunch of disgraced morons.
14 comments:
Look at their Representatives and Senators--these are mostly red states or, if they didn't vote "red," in the last election they have mostly Republican Senators or "Blue Dog" fiscally conservative Democrats. In addition, they're all in the "Bible Belt," and they're extreme evangelical Christians who believe in suffering and harsh punishment as a means to "cleanse" the soul.
The problem is, that's what they want for everyone else in the country, too.
Right Mike the Senators in this area are like Rand Paul, McConnell, Corker, Lamar Alexander... all card-carrying "debt doomsday" people...
And the majority sectarians of christendumb have been a big problem for 2,000 years...
Seems like the only big victory we have up to this point in this war is getting out from under the metals,
but the only substitution for the metals we have come up with so far is "freedom" ie the chaos like we see here going on in Appalachia....
I'd like to see (as a start) about a dozen people I'm thinking of perp-walked into a new "Moron Annex" at GITMO, get them off the streets, but thats never going to happen so I guess we have to keep up with the "educational" approach...
rsp,
I view it as a subsistence culture similar to what I imagine would exist if there was no government.
right Ryan .... the soda-pop serves as a low-tech bitcoin....
rsp,
Oh please. I'll take you on a tour of Detroit, Chicago's south and west sides, East St. Louis, Columbus, Cleveland, Quincy, Racine, Beloit and countless blue state rural outposts where there's plenty of government and you'll see large swaths of uglier images, believe it or not. This phenomena of run down ugly isn't a Blue State better than Red State thing. far from it.
As someone born and raised in Appalachia, I've regularly seen this poverty first hand. In his book "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt", Chris Hedges describes this type of poverty in gruesome detail, in what he calls America's "sacrifice zones."
People have been trying for decades to solve the problem of Appalachian poverty, with little success. I've come to the depression conclusion that depopulation is the only real answer. Coal is the only reason people lived their to begin with, and now the coal is almost gone, or being sourced from the Wyoming powder basin.There are few other industries in Appalachia, and the low levels of higher education make any sort of service sector economy next to impossible. As liberal as I am, I have a hard time blaming these people for retreating into Christian doomsday fantasies and gun hoarding, since these things are their last defense against an increasingly hostile and complex world....Many people in my generation are moving back to the cities, which is probably a better lifestyle anyway.
If it wasn't for nursing/elderly home care and the financial support from Medicare/Medicaid/SS/SSDI/SSI, it seems like their wouldn't be any economy at all. The WaPo had an interesting article recently about West Virginia's unique political situation- they hate the government, but they know full well that they rely heavily on transfer payments to maintain any standard of living.
The welfare folks are manipulated with angst by the repuKKeKlan leaders and rally around the flag pole of rascist bigotry.
"This phenomena of run down ugly isn't a Blue State better than Red State thing. far from it."
Right it's a top vs. bottom thing. Unfortunately, neoliberal political strategy is all about making sure poor whites are so busy hating poor blacks that they will never achieve the political solidarity needed to pose a challenge to the ruling classes.
Matt,
Calling these people morons isn't helping. They've been left out of our cultural dialogue, and are isolated. Those of them who are looking for NEW answers won't join up with people who call them morons.
They'll only feel rejection and hatred, conclude that you want them to just go away, and so will look for more welcoming places to learn new perspectives.
Joe Bageant's essays on Appalachian culture should help you be more aware of their context, so please read some of his old blog articles, or his subsequent books.
With a better grasp of context, we can always make better use of available data.
http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/2012/oct/09/book-review-deer-hunting-jesus/
ps: somewhat analogous to what "we" did to Appalachia?
We wanted their coal. We got it. Does it really end there?
Afghanistan: “It is impossible for this situation to continue without a revolution.”
Countless Dead, Poverty, Corruption – and the Taliban Rising
What We Did to Afghanistan
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/01/13/what-we-did-to-afghanistan/
“How in the hell can it be that one part of a nation knows so little about the lives of the other?”
Without context, FULL CONTEXT, all data is meaningless.
Roger I'm not asserting that the victims of the current unjust policy are morons, I'm asserting that the ilk of people like the authors of the post that forms the basis of my post are morons...
Try 'Freedom Outpost' here, or the Alex Jones website, or World Nut Daily or the Glen Beck site or any other of these morons to see out of control libertarianism spiced up with a copious amount of metal-love and a sick common ideology of general denigration of the authority of our institution of civil govt and you may be able to see my general point better....
rsp,
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