Hard Times In West Virginia

[Jimmy Snacks]

Good watch and few years old...I'm not posting as a shot at either party rather as a look at a part of the country that has been used up and doesn't have a lot of hope. 

 

 

[Edmo]

I’ve spent some time there in WVA. It’s pretty grim. 
I don’t know which idea was dumber, bringing back coal like Trump said or retraining all the workers like Hillary said. 
Most of the small towns down there look like this. It’s not just McDowell county. Sad.

[Angry ginger]

1 hour ago, Edmo said:

I’ve spent some time there in WVA. It’s pretty grim. 
I don’t know which idea was dumber, bringing back coal like Trump said or retraining all the workers like Hillary said. 
Most of the small towns down there look like this. It’s not just McDowell county. Sad.

if they are unwilling to move to find jobs nothing will ever change for the people because jobs aren't going to magically appear regardless of which party is in charge.    Poor rural white areas all over this country where people failed to adapt and there was limited industry.  Unfortunately in WV case it effected pretty much the whole state  

 

 

[snoughnut]

16 minutes ago, Angry ginger said:

if they are unwilling to move to find jobs nothing will ever change for the people because jobs aren't going to magically appear regardless of which party is in charge.    Poor rural white areas all over this country where people failed to adapt and there was limited industry.  Unfortunately in WV case it effected pretty much the whole state  

 

 

Are they supposed to move to China, Mexico, Taiwan, etc.where all the jobs for poor, uneducated people went?

[Jimmy Snacks]

1 hour ago, Edmo said:

I’ve spent some time there in WVA. It’s pretty grim. 
I don’t know which idea was dumber, bringing back coal like Trump said or retraining all the workers like Hillary said. 
Most of the small towns down there look like this. It’s not just McDowell county. Sad.

That’s what struck me...the sadness and it’s easy for some people to dismiss the situation but these folks worked back breaking jobs in shitty conditions to supply the country with Coal and to see the empty promises made to them by an endless procession of politicians is pretty fucking pathetic. 

[Jimmy Snacks]

31 minutes ago, Angry ginger said:

if they are unwilling to move to find jobs nothing will ever change for the people because jobs aren't going to magically appear regardless of which party is in charge.    Poor rural white areas all over this country where people failed to adapt and there was limited industry.  Unfortunately in WV case it effected pretty much the whole state  

 

 

 

12 minutes ago, snoughnut said:

Are they supposed to move to China, Mexico, Taiwan, etc.where all the jobs for poor, uneducated people went?

Good post Chad.

[Anler]

2 hours ago, Edmo said:

I’ve spent some time there in WVA. It’s pretty grim. 
I don’t know which idea was dumber, bringing back coal like Trump said or retraining all the workers like Hillary said. 
Most of the small towns down there look like this. It’s not just McDowell county. Sad.

My BIL lives in West Virginia just outside of a town that looks just like that one. Beautiful country but devastating poverty. He said people there either work for the coal mine or are on welfare or SS disability. Said kids coming out of high school go straight to disability because they cant read. Its pretty crazy driving around there looking how people live, you cant believe you are in America. 

48 minutes ago, Angry ginger said:

if they are unwilling to move to find jobs nothing will ever change for the people because jobs aren't going to magically appear regardless of which party is in charge.    Poor rural white areas all over this country where people failed to adapt and there was limited industry.  Unfortunately in WV case it effected pretty much the whole state  

 

 

Move to where with the zero money they have now? 

[Jimmy Snacks]

In the video he is talking to the guy selling stuff on the roadside and he says miners were offered a chance to go to school when the mines closed and he says how are the old timers supposed to go back to school and that a lot of them can’t even read or write anyhow...fucked up situation.

[Anler]

5 minutes ago, Jimmy Snacks said:

In the video he is talking to the guy selling stuff on the roadside and he says miners were offered a chance to go to school when the mines closed and he says how are the old timers supposed to go back to school and that a lot of them can’t even read or write anyhow...fucked up situation.

There is really nothing to do there anyway. With the mines closed and timber slow there is pretty much zero industry. They have had a bit of a natural gas fracking boom but the pipelines are all pretty much laid now. After that will be pretty much maintenance left and that wont be enough. And now heroin has run rampant. Its not a good place. 

[Edmo]

10 minutes ago, Jimmy Snacks said:

In the video he is talking to the guy selling stuff on the roadside and he says miners were offered a chance to go to school when the mines closed and he says how are the old timers supposed to go back to school and that a lot of them can’t even read or write anyhow...fucked up situation.

My mom would chase me down the street when I was a kid if I didn’t want to go to school. The apathy is bad in some of these areas...just don’t GAF about education. You’re not going anywhere if you can’t read/write.

[Highmark]

I've driven thru there 4 times and each time I've ventured off the interstates some thru the rural countryside.   Amazing country but easy to see how not much industry would or could grow in spots there.  Add in a population that is under educated and reliant on govt welfare and its easy to see why business' would avoid investing there. 

[Jimmy Snacks]

27 minutes ago, Edmo said:

My mom would chase me down the street when I was a kid if I didn’t want to go to school. The apathy is bad in some of these areas...just don’t GAF about education. You’re not going anywhere if you can’t read/write.

Right but I’m guessing that the old timers and those that followed thought the coal jobs would always be there and why not as politicians promised them for years that would be the case. Now as Anler said the place is overrun with opioids and zero opportunity. Remember this family from Boone County...WTF.

 

 

[hayward]

There's a self-proclaimed  multi-millionare from here that's been buying up property in WVA for the past couple years and taking guys down for hunting.  He doesn't live there, just owns land and is building a big lodge on one of the places.  Just so happens the guy that delivers our wood pellets from down there lives right in that area, and makes hay off a couple small really hilly fields that he has for the past 30 years.  He claims he didn't know the one property was sold and was mowing hay and someone comes pulling up the lane, gets out and starts having a shit fit that he's there.  All over a couple round bales of cow hay.

We might feel sorry for these people, but there's a whole lot of unappreciated in America that don't mind forgetting about them and just walking right over top while smearing their faces in the mud in the process.  No clue how hard some of these people in rural america have worked over the years to make an honest living, and now the work is gone never to return.

[SSFB]

1 hour ago, snoughnut said:

Are they supposed to move to China, Mexico, Taiwan, etc.where all the jobs for poor, uneducated people went?

Bootstraps.

[Highmark]

No different than inner cities some of the problems there are generational.

[Angry ginger]

2 hours ago, snoughnut said:

Are they supposed to move to China, Mexico, Taiwan, etc.where all the jobs for poor, uneducated people went?

plenty of manufacturing jobs in the south.   Manufacturing is far from dead in America it's just changed zip codes and requires in some cases a bit more skill.  

[XCR1250]

1 hour ago, Anler said:

There is really nothing to do there anyway. With the mines closed and timber slow there is pretty much zero industry. They have had a bit of a natural gas fracking boom but the pipelines are all pretty much laid now. After that will be pretty much maintenance left and that wont be enough. And now heroin has run rampant. Its not a good place. 

Where do they get the monies to buy heroin?

[SSFB]

Just now, XCR1250 said:

Where do they get the monies to buy heroin?

Maybe they have a Sandy's Sub Shop with a gloryhole.

 

[Angry ginger]

1 minute ago, XCR1250 said:

Where do they get the monies to buy heroin?

In every poor community black or white there is always money for drugs.   turn tricks,  rob friends and family,  rob strangers they always find a way.  

 

 

 

[Anler]

Just now, XCR1250 said:

Where do they get the monies to buy heroin?

They steal everything that isnt nailed down and even stuff that is. My BIL told me they back up pick up trucks to ATM machines and rip them out of buildings. But if you have anything at your property that has any value chances are you wont have it for long. Its worse than living in the city. 

And dont think for a minute that you are going to "defend your property" with your guns, WV is the most armed state in the union. Nothing is safe

[XCR1250]

Just now, Angry ginger said:

In every poor community black or white there is always money for drugs.   turn tricks,  rob friends and family,  rob strangers they always find a way.  

 

 

 

Tricks take money, from whom would they get the money from? Friends apparently have no money either, neither do family.. Strangers? How often do strangers get robbed there? Couldn't locate any crime statistics that said robbing strangers was happening..dunno 

[Angry ginger]

2 hours ago, XCR1250 said:

Tricks take money, from whom would they get the money from? Friends apparently have no money either, neither do family.. Strangers? How often do strangers get robbed there? Couldn't locate any crime statistics that said robbing strangers was happening..dunno 

leave you car parked somewhere and see how it works.  And how does turning tricks take money-  it's been how chicks score drugs for decades.     

[Highmark]

3 hours ago, Jimmy Snacks said:

Right but I’m guessing that the old timers and those that followed thought the coal jobs would always be there and why not as politicians promised them for years that would be the case. Now as Anler said the place is overrun with opioids and zero opportunity. Remember this family from Boone County...WTF.

 

 

One of those shows that's like a car wreck that you just can't not look at.

Poverty that leads to drug abuse or drug abuse that leads to poverty.   Both cases led to some pretty significant violent crime.  Likely some of both neither is an excuse.

[Mainecat]

7 hours ago, Jimmy Snacks said:

Good watch and few years old...I'm not posting as a shot at either party rather as a look at a part of the country that has been used up and doesn't have a lot of hope. 

 

 

Could be Northern Maine too.

[spin_dry]

4 hours ago, snoughnut said:

Are they supposed to move to China, Mexico, Taiwan, etc.where all the jobs for poor, uneducated people went?

True. A piece of the puzzle for them is fear and low IQ. It’s really a fucking sad situation.