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Message
re: Louisiana town named most unequal town in the nation
Posted on 11/3/14 at 8:22 am to Paul Allen
Posted on 11/3/14 at 8:22 am to Paul Allen
I hate narratives like this that just present an issue with no solution. If it is so terrible and easily fixable please tell us how to fix it. 
3
Posted on 11/3/14 at 8:22 am to WeeWee
quote:
That is almost a year old and been discussed multiple times. Nobody is forcing the ppl that can't get a job to stay in LP, Tallulah, Waterproof, etc. They could easily stay in monroe, BR, LR, NOLA on one of their trips to go get their hair done. They might find a job in those cities.
that's how I feel about it. I have been hearing "we are short staffed" or "we are a couple of men short" all over the city here.
And $6,800 a year????
If you make $8/hr you make $16,640 a year. So either these people don't have full time jobs or most don't have jobs at all.
Now I do feel that $16k a year as minimum wage is a joke, I also know that raising it swiftly will hurt more than it helps.
Posted on 11/3/14 at 8:25 am to Paul Allen
You're talking about a parish, East Carroll, that has fewer citizens than my suburban subdivision in Baton Rouge. 
Posted on 11/3/14 at 8:29 am to WeeWee
quote:
Nobody is forcing the ppl that can't get a job to stay in LP, Tallulah, Waterproof, etc.
This. When the employment pool is greater than the number needed for said employment, the employer can pretty much control the wages.
Getting an education and doing something with it would prevent the employers from having an excess pool of employees to choose from thus having to raise wages if the pool were limited.
Supply and demand.
Posted on 11/3/14 at 8:35 am to Paul Allen
So long as we use bullshite terms like "income inequality" with reference to a tiny town with limited employment opportunities like Lake Providence, such a study is meaningless.
Nothing is forcing anyone to stay in Lake Providence. If you are poor and in good health there, it's because you are not frustrated enough with your situation to leave.
I grew up in a small town, and I left. I wanted more in life than a truck, a trailer, and a dog. If a fool like me can figure out how to escape the clutches of poverty, anyone can. The only people who are lucky enough not to have to move around are people whose family owns a major local business. The rest of us have to move around to maximize our opportunity. The days of driving 20 minutes to visit grandma are rapidly coming to an end. For many of us, families are spread out all over the country.
Nothing is forcing anyone to stay in Lake Providence. If you are poor and in good health there, it's because you are not frustrated enough with your situation to leave.
I grew up in a small town, and I left. I wanted more in life than a truck, a trailer, and a dog. If a fool like me can figure out how to escape the clutches of poverty, anyone can. The only people who are lucky enough not to have to move around are people whose family owns a major local business. The rest of us have to move around to maximize our opportunity. The days of driving 20 minutes to visit grandma are rapidly coming to an end. For many of us, families are spread out all over the country.
This post was edited on 11/3/14 at 8:43 am
Posted on 11/3/14 at 8:38 am to Paul Allen
CNN hates the landed gentry.
Posted on 11/3/14 at 8:42 am to Paul Allen
quote:The USA was built on capitalism, the very definition of the American Dream.
How so? How is he a communist?
Posted on 11/3/14 at 8:46 am to undrafted
quote:
I hate narratives like this that just present an issue with no solution. If it is so terrible and easily fixable please tell us how to fix it.
Agree
Posted on 11/3/14 at 8:54 am to The Easter Bunny
quote:
That top group is obviously doing something right
Not really...they haven't moved away yet.
The only reason that town is number one is because the rich haven't hauled arse. Would it be better for the top five percent to leave and let it fall off this list and leap up the list for impoverished shitholes?
Posted on 11/3/14 at 8:55 am to TigerPanzer
quote:
how do these $600K people earn their money?
the 12 white farmers that own all the land.
Pretty great Parish for hunting and fishing.
Posted on 11/3/14 at 8:57 am to member12
quote:
I grew up in a small town, and I left. I wanted more in life than a truck, a trailer, and a dog.
Me too, bailed from Union Parish by working on a rig 12 hours a day during the summer to pay for college. No one keeping them there. No one gave me shite, had to earn it.
Posted on 11/3/14 at 8:57 am to undrafted
quote:
I hate narratives like this that just present an issue with no solution. If it is so terrible and easily fixable please tell us how to fix it.
I don't even put too much faith in their narrative that there is a problem. Opportunity is available, but you have to be willing to move if you live in a tiny town like that.
Posted on 11/3/14 at 9:12 am to BugAC
quote:
There is only inequality of results. Not inequality of opportunities.
I'm voting with you this week, but it's absolutely not true that there is "equality of opportunities" across the social scale. It doesn't make you a whiny liberal to admit reality.
quote:
We have a 2 term black president and a potential woman presidential candidate
Which shows that America is not as racist as it once was, or at least that white America is not as racist as it once was. Doesn't say much about equality of opportunities. His "opportunities" were not exactly run of the mill.
quote:
How about, provide for yourself and only worry about yourself and your family, and the rest will work itself out.
1. Decide to provide for myself and my family
2. ...
3. Profit
Just like that?
Among other things, you're ignoring generations of dependency in these communities that has destroyed their family structure and created a situation where no one has a need for good work and only exceptional people want it.
If you grew up white middle class and are average in any way, then you can go ahead and assume that if you had grown up black lower class (or white lower class, for that matter), you would be hanging out on a street corner right now or whatever else the average person from that group is doing.
I hold my nose and vote Republican because they are the least likely of the available candidates to continue the present, sick situation that fuels so many bad things, possibly the worst of which is the animosity between Americans that is so prevalent in these threads. I don't know how the sense of community is faring in other parts of the country, but it is dead or dying throughout the South. I believe in capitalism and the free market, too, as the best ways to reduce poverty and reward individuals who work hard, have good ideas, etc, but the free market won't save us as long we only preach while allowing the other side to claim all the empathy.
Specifically to the OP, it is plain laughable for a rich cotton farmer from Lake Providence to see the great great grandsons of cotton slaves wasting their lives away and feel zero empathy for them. To not feel any desire to help them. To see how they are today and not make the connection to where they came from.
/rant
Posted on 11/3/14 at 9:36 am to BearCrocs
quote:
Texas is better at hiding inequality
FIFY
Posted on 11/3/14 at 9:43 am to uway
So you want the farmers to just give money to them or give them a job? Neither will happen. They don't want the job and the farmer isn't going to hand them 100k.
Posted on 11/3/14 at 9:55 am to uway
People in America have often followed job booms in industries including the oilfields, petrochemical plants, timber industries, mining industries, etc. Many of these positions require very little to no education and can produce six figure salaries for people willing to relocate and work hard. What makes the residents of Lake Providence, or other Delta towns, unable to seek out some of these positions? I don't like farm subsidies and the ridiculous system of government money to farmers at all but it is not the fault of the remaining farms that the descendants of former workers have no jobs left in their operations. I fail to see what is holding back a person living in a town such as Lake Providence from getting a bus fare to North Dakota, South Texas, or areas where work has been very strong for low education opportunities other than their own choices to remain in an area with weak economic options. The concept of people moving to bigger cities in search of jobs is not exactly new.
Posted on 11/3/14 at 9:59 am to TigerDog83
quote:
I fail to see what is holding back a person living in a town such as Lake Providence from getting a bus fare to North Dakota, South Texas, or areas where work has been very strong for low education opportunities other than their own choices to remain in an area with weak economic options
Posted on 11/3/14 at 10:05 am to Jake88
quote:that's a good point.
The only reason that town is number one is because the rich haven't hauled arse. Would it be better for the top five percent to leave and let it fall off this list and leap up the list for impoverished shitholes?
at least lp has a tax base
Posted on 11/3/14 at 10:12 am to GreatLakesTiger24
I wonder if Briarcliff has ever played LPHS in football.
Posted on 11/3/14 at 10:17 am to uway
quote:
Among other things, you're ignoring generations of dependency in these communities that has destroyed their family structure and created a situation where no one has a need for good work and only exceptional people want it. If you grew up white middle class and are average in any way, then you can go ahead and assume that if you had grown up black lower class (or white lower class, for that matter), you would be hanging out on a street corner right now or whatever else the average person from that group is doing. I hold my nose and vote Republican because they are the least likely of the available candidates to continue the present, sick situation that fuels so many bad things, possibly the worst of which is the animosity between Americans that is so prevalent in these threads. I don't know how the sense of community is faring in other parts of the country, but it is dead or dying throughout the South. I believe in capitalism and the free market, too, as the best ways to reduce poverty and reward individuals who work hard, have good ideas, etc, but the free market won't save us as long we only preach while allowing the other side to claim all the empathy. Specifically to the OP, it is plain laughable for a rich cotton farmer from Lake Providence to see the great great grandsons of cotton slaves wasting their lives away and feel zero empathy for them. To not feel any desire to help them. To see how they are today and not make the connection to where they came from.
Awesome post. This guy gets it.
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