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theHandpuppet

(19,964 posts)
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 01:30 AM Jun 2014

Where Are the Hardest Places to Live in the U.S.? (New York Times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/upshot/where-are-the-hardest-places-to-live-in-the-us.html
The New York Times
Where Are the Hardest Places to Live in the U.S.?
JUNE 26, 2014

Annie Lowrey writes in the Times Magazine this week about the troubles of Clay County, Ky., which by several measures is the hardest place in America to live.

The Upshot came to this conclusion by looking at six data points for each county in the United States: education (percentage of residents with at least a bachelor’s degree), median household income, unemployment rate, disability rate, life expectancy and obesity. We then averaged each county’s relative rank in these categories to create an overall ranking.

(We tried to include other factors, including income mobility and measures of environmental quality, but we were not able to find data sets covering all counties in the United States.)

The 10 lowest counties in the country, by this ranking, include a cluster of six in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Kentucky (Breathitt, Clay, Jackson, Lee, Leslie and Magoffin), along with four others in various parts of the rural South: Humphreys County, Miss.; East Carroll Parish, La.; Jefferson County, Ga.; and Lee County, Ark.... MORE at link provided above.

For a related article on this subject published in the NYT Magazine on the 26th, please see this thread in Appalachian Group:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1272290

7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Where Are the Hardest Places to Live in the U.S.? (New York Times) (Original Post) theHandpuppet Jun 2014 OP
Morning kick theHandpuppet Jun 2014 #1
Illustrating there is not one "America" etherealtruth Jun 2014 #2
And the gaps seem to be getting wider theHandpuppet Jun 2014 #3
Hope folks will take the time to read a post by DUer JDPriestly... theHandpuppet Jun 2014 #4
So the answer is the eliminate disability betterdemsonly Jun 2014 #5
Several factors contribute to the high rate of disability theHandpuppet Jun 2014 #7
Pine Ridge or East St Louis AngryAmish Jun 2014 #6

etherealtruth

(22,165 posts)
2. Illustrating there is not one "America"
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 10:23 AM
Jun 2014

From the article:

Here are some specific comparisons: Only 7.4 percent of Clay County residents have at least a bachelor’s degree, while 63.2 percent do in Los Alamos. The median household income in Los Alamos County is $106,426, almost five times what the median Clay County household earns. In Clay County, 12.7 percent of residents are unemployed, and 11.7 percent are on disability; the corresponding figures in Los Alamos County are 3.5 percent and 0.3 percent. Los Alamos County’s obesity rate is 22.8 percent, while Clay County’s is 45.5 percent. And Los Alamos County residents live 11 years longer, on average — 82.4 years vs. 71.4 years in Clay County.

Clay and Los Alamos Counties are part of the same country. But they are truly different worlds.

theHandpuppet

(19,964 posts)
4. Hope folks will take the time to read a post by DUer JDPriestly...
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 12:40 PM
Jun 2014

...in response to the thread linked in the OP, "What's the Matter With Eastern Kentucky?". That link again, to Appalachian Group, is http://www.democraticunderground.com/1272290

May thanks to JDP for contributing a very thoughtful post on the subject of rural poverty.

 

betterdemsonly

(1,967 posts)
5. So the answer is the eliminate disability
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 01:27 PM
Jun 2014

and force people to go into debt for college loans, so they can build nukes and lobby the government for a living? This article has a much more conservative slant than people realize. How do they know for sure the disabled of these areas are simply unemployed people? Poverty tends to lead to disability for a variety of reasons.

theHandpuppet

(19,964 posts)
7. Several factors contribute to the high rate of disability
Sat Jun 28, 2014, 02:23 PM
Jun 2014

As you suggested, most of those are the results of poverty: poor health caused by food inadequacy, lack of medical services (including prenatal and pediatric care), contaminated environments, bodies prematurely aged by dirty and dangerous jobs. In some areas like Appalachia there's also a much older demographic, as the young have left to seek employment elsewhere.

Places like Appalachia have neither the infrastructure nor the type of educated workforce that would attract modern businesses, especially those in the technology fields. Further, those who do obtain college educations don't return, leaving a terrible brain drain away from areas needing their skills the most. It's a maddening catch-22 and frankly, I don't feel there's the political will in this country to solve this ever-growing problem.

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