The USA's Poverty Problem

[@OBFYT]

Special thanks to War Thunder for sponsoring this video. Click the link and claim your bonuses: playwt.link/obfwt

[@mathteacher1729]

Polite suggestion- please reduce the volume of the background music. Maybe it's just me, but the narrator's soft-spoken voice was difficult to hear over the music. Yes I'm aware you have closed captions, and I appreciate them.

[@YOUnoobGER]

@@mathteacher1729 I agree, I think the music is too loud as well.

[@N_g_er]

@@mathteacher1729I'm gay too buddy

[@Potent_Techmology]

Great info and animations but the music is too loud and distracting

[@asajayunknown6290]

For most of the states, the wealth is concentrated in a few metro areas. Outside those areas, it is easy to find examples of pure poverty. Sometimes the economic disparity is evident right across the street.

[@conan007gd6]

I am from Texas, and while the cities (especially Austin) can be incredibly wealthy, rural areas are incredibly poor, especially along the Mexican border. Compare this to the northeast, where rural areas can be nice as well. I still am happy about all the growth here and am optimistic about the future.

[@hydra3468]

Well said. You'll find that this is true everywhere else in the world as well. Only thing that differs really is how impoverished those in the countryside are.

[@Wary_Of_Extremes]

Some rural folks/areas with the right culture did fine. The ones with hooting/hollering at v1olence and destruction, who think they're above hard work, don't read or study how to do farming or mechanic work better, etc...don't do well as the more focused, thinking ahead, studying, working hard rural folks. Thomas Sowell writes about this. The investing and working hard up front, and throughout, seen in the cultures and peoples who did agriculture in Wisconsin, saw them produce milk and cheese massively better than a lot of the south... Some of the southern farmers, even when they moved more northward to places with snow in the winter, couldn't be bothered building barns and doing the work to feed animals through the winter... they'd have skinny cows and pigs, with the cows not producing milk many months of the year. A culture of looking down at hard work, not planning ahead, not reading, etc.

[@Alpha-Cheeno]

Ubiquitous State of Absurdity (USA) : Home of the Craven, Land of the Free-for-All.

[@chaselowery9456]

A good example is here in northwest Florida a common problem is that the millionaires and billionaires are right along the coast in the south of the counties whereas those in poverty are at the northern most side of the county. You can also see the money in these counties only being largely spent in the area around the city and just bare minimum maintenance being performed in the northern areas.

[@jba2048]

One thing I have to say about Georgia is that Georgia is divided into two halves. You have Metro Atlanta where pretty much half of the states population lives, and you have Georgia. It is like living in a state within a state. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve lived here but living in Atlanta doesn’t feel like you are living in the south.

[@Alex-bf3re]

As someone who grew up in one of the poorest (and most rural) counties in Georgia and has recently begun attending UGA, I can definitely say that I agree with this statement. This is anecdotal, but I’ve noticed students from metro Atlanta and Athens live entirely different lives compared to students from elsewhere in the state, and as a result the difference in personality, speech, and appearance is incredibly stark.

[@bluelivesmurder5696]

As someone who was born and raised in Atlanta, has worked in Macon as well as south Georgian cities such as Albany, Fitzgerald, and Douglas, I concur with this statement. Metro Atlanta is like living in an entirely different world than the rest of Georgia.

[@2ndGear]

I concur with this analogy

[@sumedhgarimella6024]

As someone who grew up in the Atlanta area and lives in New York now, I mostly agree, but there's still a general Southern feel to the Atlanta area and enough reminders of the South to distinguish it from the rest of the country (history, weather, prevalent culture). If I were to give an analogy, it's like the South/Georgia is Hungary or another Central/European country with a lot of rural areas. Rural Hungary would be the state outside of Budapest, where nearly everyone is Hungarian, speaks Hungarian, and generally follows the archetypes of Hungarian culture, while Atlanta still has Hungarian signage and hallmarks of Hungarian culture but has a lot more English/other foreign languages and more people who don't fit the usual archetype of a Hungarian person politically, culturally, and socially. Likewise in Southern metros like Atlanta there's enough to distinguish that you're not in the Northeast (like the Netherlands) or the West Coast (like Spain), but the Southern culture is watered down as compared to other parts of the state/region.

[@spen.surrr1199]

As someone who lives in New Orleans. You’re not the south

[@sammolepo]

Background music a bit loud. It drowned the narrating voice.

[@8th_Sage]

I had to mute the video and use subtitles

[@xavierclayton9990]

Poor hearing is all.

[@viviviontheway]

too tiring i stopped the video...

[@gregarnot5066]

Me too Had to give up

[@andrewfox9074]

Lol no you need help

[@maninredhelm]

The cotton gin is not an example of Southern innovation. It was invented by a New Englander who thought the labor saving device would decrease reliance on slavery. Instead Southern plantations simply increased the use of slave labor in other areas of cotton production so they could feed even more material into the cotton gins.

[@marktapley7571]

All Whitney did was make improvements to an already existing machine. Until this time cotton was not a major crop because of the difficulty of separating the cotton from the hulls. Slaves were for the most part much better treated than the northern factory workers. in many places such as New Orleans there were more free blacks than slaves and many who were slaves were so only in the nominal sense. Many of them conducted their own affairs and made their own money. About 26% of free blacks owned slaves while only ap. 5% of whites did.

[@karenmassey8354]

@@marktapley7571Were the northern factory workers lynched and hunted down with dogs? Were they chained and sold at auctions?

[@WithoutFear804]

​@@marktapley7571 your dumbest person I've ever met in my entire life. Free blacks did not own slaves. Free blacks barely owned anything. Not even a lot of white people owned slaves and you think that black people were just living large while the KKK was burning black people alive??

[@006ahenry]

​@@marktapley7571most of the "free black people" who "owned" slaves only did so on paper. The slave that they owned, were family members, whose freedom HAD to be purchased. Not saying that there were not black land owners, who owned slaves in the traditional manner. Just dont think the 26% represents an accurate estimate.

[@RealieP]

That New England inventor DID NOT invent the cotton gin to decrease resilience on slavery 😂. The north relied on the cotton the south made to use it in factories. They def invented it so more cotton could be produced quicker so now slave can devote their time to something different to up cotton production.

[@oscartango2348]

US poverty is much more divided by rural and urban sectors. The south has some of the wealthiest cities in the US, but outside of those urban areas it is mostly third world country poor.

[@h0tb0i74]

Our cities are poor af too wdym 😭

[@neox9369]

@@h0tb0i74Atlanta(southeast) to be very specific is a high gdp city. So not sure what cities you mean by “our”, that’s vague

[@OnlineEnglish-wl5rp]

Which let's be honest is an absolute disgrace in the world's richest country. It's "freedom" for the plutocrats only

[@neox9369]

That’s with any state, rural areas are dying all across the US.

[@trombonegamer14]

There are very few places in the US that compare with the third world in terms of poverty. There are places in the Mississippi River delta that fit that, but it's a very small percentage of even the south as a region.

[@kenhunt5153]

Once you get out of the large Metros in the South the evidence of poverty in rural areas is shocking. I was stunned at the level of rural poverty in South Carolina.

[@baronvonjo1929]

Yeah I thought SC was okay place then I visited other states and realized just how poor we were. The cities have a lot money but everywhere else? I'm so confused why so many people are moving here. There is so little economic opportunity. The average income is 40k while new homes average 200k for small townhouses. There is nothing here. Just left Florida and it was shocking that's what a wealthy state looks like. It's crazy how much infrastructure and effort they had.

[@Alpha-Cheeno]

Ubiquitous State of Absurdity (USA) : Home of the Craven, Land of the Free-for-All.

[@kevinrusch3627]

@@baronvonjo1929 I think the thing that catches peoples' attention is the low upfront cost of living. The weather's nice, and while I'm not a particular fan of SC's politics, I think I'd rather live in Colombia than Orlando.

[@EingefrorenesEisen]

Moved from SC to MA 3 years ago. Best decision of my life even with the housing availability here.

[@Kyle-ms2et]

Yeah, it's pretty shocking. Like it's not the kind of poverty you'd see in more impoverished parts of poor countries, but it's shocking nonetheless.

[@waspwrap1235]

I would like to make one important point, this is not an overall trend from the north to the south, this is a trend from the north to the urban areas in the south. The rural areas still have to deal with tremendous poverty and racial issues.

[@rcox54321]

Our problem is that Southern politicians have been able to successfully blame these economic conditions on Northern politicians. This has given them cover and made them wealthy while creating the Red State v Blue State dynamic that is still ripping us apart and has been since our creation. From slavery at its inception to fighting unions today, wealthy Southern business and land owners have held back the poor and working class while amassing great wealth for themselves.

[@JohnD-zh9st]

Never really understood the Red v Blue divide being solely about North v South. Plenty of Midwestern States are deeper red than the South, and they have better economic/income numbers, higher IQ, and sometimes even better education standards, than not just the Red South, but the Blue North. Utah is a pretty successful state, as just an example, but people's negative attitudes towards Mormons seems to make people never consider that

[@bonniegaither3994]

@@JohnD-zh9st, slavery.

[@scuddyleblanc8637]

Blacks tend to vote for those Democrats who give them such horrible public schools. In Louisiana, school systems governed by Democrats have are some of the worst public schools in the country. School systems governed by Republicans are almost always much better than Democrat-run systems.

[@isaiahbarnett137]

I am from San Antonio and I just moved back last year. When I tell you everything has changed, i’m not lying. Places that were field 10 years ago are full of houses passed where you can see. Worst part is all the new development is built very cheap and it’s really brought the city down.

[@shasmi93]

This has happened to most cities in America my friend. That’s what happens when people keep reproducing out of control. Our population has long been unsustainable and it has made every single thing worse.

[@zhenyucai8688]

​​​@@shasmi93Stop with the lies lmao. U.S. population is only supported by an impore of immigrants(legal and illegal). The hard truth is that as a civilization modernized more and more, citizens stop having children. The future for humanity isn't a overpopulation problem but a infertility problem.😂 we might just go extinct from a lack of birth.

[@alexrhodes1026]

@@shasmi93 If our population was unsustainable, wouldn't it be shrinking? Considering our geography is so similar to China, I would suspect that our population could eventually grow to match it.

[@elainewieczorek3831]

I’m from a small town in Florida. Well it was a small town. Everything is being bulldozed for new homes, storage units, car washes, and dollar generals. The infrastructure is falling apart from all the people that live here now. All the growth is funneled into these building projects but nothing gets fixed

[@kevinrusch3627]

WV is such a strange case. It has pretty bad roads for industry (other than coal extraction), but the scenic beauty, low cost of living, and relative proximity to other big cities (Pittsburgh, DC, etc) should be great attractors for information-based industries. Run some fiber and you could really get some call centers going. But you'd have to break the political power of the coal barons, which is suuuuuuuper entrenched.

[@jmlinden7]

The cost of constructing a call center in WV is really high compared to building one in the south. Sure you get some minor labor cost savings but it's not worth the hassle. WV just doesn't have the population to supply large quantities of labor to any industry.

[@LoveBbyJay]

I lived in Mississippi for 3 or 4 months back in early 2022, I had known Mississippi was the forest state in the union but seeing it first hand shook me. I saw more "urgent care" clinics in renovated gas stations then I did all doctors, dentist and other medical offices combined...

[@tiredox3788]

As a Mississippian our healthcare system is bad.

[@heathclark318]

Failure to realize why is astounding... Given its rural and has a lot of heavy industry those urgent care clinics are what save farmers, loggers, oilmen and other field workers lives. Where getting to a hospital or Doctor could take hours thus meaning some of those men and women die... But yeah it totally sucks

[@NexusKin]

Fun Fact: 3 Doors Down, one of the most popular and recognizable post-grunge bands of the 2000s, is actually from Mississippi.

[@LoveBbyJay]

@@heathclark318 They were in fact not in rural Mississippi they were in Biloxi and Gulfport... Not places like Wiggins or Poplarville which ARE actually rural....

[@aprodutube]

As someone born and raised in Virginia, I will say that VA is South-ish. When I moved to Atlanta they considered me a Yankee but whenever I visited family in Pennsylvania they considered me Southern. I think that culturally we are somewhere in between. After all, Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy.

[@ToyotaTechnical]

Even the likes of Robert E Lee, a Virginian, was not very excited about the idea of the Union breaking apart. Virginia was the intellectual and industrial basis of the CSA during the Civil War, so it's a pretty mixed bag.

[@kdyy3]

Yea Virginia geographically is in the middle of the East Coast

[@worldfacts5298]

Texas isn’t exactly poor at the 2nd richest state. It’s just some rural regions in the east mainly, outside of that there isn’t that much. Although Texas is barely considered the south anymore, the west and south and north are so different from centeral and east Texas that they almost seem like different states.

[@j.campbell8491]

In Texas, the more eastern you go the southern it gets.

[@Deetnot]

Also with so many illegal immigrants willing to work for way less money.

[@CrisjoseCruz]

It’s simple. We have to spend all our money on running the AC all summer

[@eternity.in.a.m0m3nt]

How much it costs in electric bill a month for july month?

[@lopoa126]

The North spends it on heating 🤣

[@wudubora]

You have to take into consideration that the cost of living in the South is considerably lower that the West Coast and the North East.

[@neox9369]

Depends on what part of the south you are talking about. Upper GA, central/south Florida, then relatively less than say NY, San Francisco but still expensive

[@michaelblaney4461]

Thats because you can't get blood from a turnip!

[@jiraiyafo]

Rural towns all over America are in decay. Look across the mid west as well and other western states. Each state will have a dominant city or few which produces the lionshare of wealth

[@mattbowdenuh]

Tbf, that is pretty much true the world over. Cities are concentrations of people, wealth, and investment. You could analyze any region or any country and come up with exactly the comment you made.

[@Alpha-Cheeno]

Ubiquitous State of Absurdity (USA) : Home of the Craven, Land of the Free-for-All.

[@kingace6186]

That's the growing wealth gap seen clear as day

[@ViceCoin]

Rural states claim that NYC is collapsing. LOL

[@RUTHLESSambition5]

All these states are Republican strongholds😂😂😂

[@jacobbishop3987]

I’m from West Virginia and the political/ economic climate here is very frustrating. The people are politically misinformed into believing Obama is to blame for coal dying, and are not welcome to economic innovation that doesn’t have to do with coal. And the low state tax that accompanies conservatism leads to the roads being terrible (especially considering the terrain), leading to less industrial opportunity. The political attitude is ultra counterproductive here

[@andrewward5891]

It doesn’t help that Coal barons control WV. They’re invested in trying to save the coal industry and not interested in investing in new industries

[@ToyotaTechnical]

They're politically misinformed? Have you ever thought that perhaps you've been misinformed? He killed a lot of industries and markets. Here's one from my hat: Cash for Clunkers. He single-handedly wrecked the used car market in the matter of a couple of years.

[@amberallen7809]

I agree. I'm from Louisiana, not far out of New Orleans. It's a similar story here, though with oil. Oil is still doing pretty well, but the state doesn't see much benefit because of conservative taxation structures. Someone pointed out to me once that while it means the average person doesn't see improvement in their lives, what it does do, in a weird, roundabout way, is make the politicians honest. They run on the idea that "government doesn't work," get into office, and make it so that government doesn't work for the average person. Then they say, "see, told ya!" And the average voter, instead of asking "well, how are you going to make it work?" Just goes "yeah, you're right"

[@zhenyucai8688]

The tech just isn't there right now. Even all the electric vehicles technically run on coal. Because that's where a large chunk of our electricity is converted from. The current problem with the U.S. is that instead of creating our own energy. We import a lot from overseas.

[@scuddyleblanc8637]

@@amberallen7809 Democrats govern Louisiana's high crime, high poverty cities and parishes, not conservatives. In 8 years of a liberal Democrat governor, Louisiana had negative economic growth and a decline in population. Louisiana's Democrat-governed cities have some of the worst poverty and worst murder rates in the country.

[@Hexaroot785]

As someone living in Florida we are not in the south culturally or economically other then North Florida.

[@morriswatkins5667]

Florida is 🗑️

[@maryhildreth754]

So many people don't know that, and will insist that Florida is in the South because of the compass. I have also heard people say that Atlanta isn't "The South" (tm) anymore either. I believe people are talking about so many people from other regions moving there, as they do in most of Florida, and changing the culture.

[@Hexaroot785]

@@maryhildreth754 Atlanta Charlotte Raleigh Jacksonville Nashville are all southern cities culturally but economically are not like the south when people think of "the south" they think of poor cities in rural Louisiana or Mississippi

[@sophiestrano]

Economically I’d agree with you but culturally the state seems to fall right in line with the deeply conservative south. It’s hard to argue Florida doesn’t act like a southern state when you’ve got Ron desantis running things

[@mattbowdenuh]

Florida, the only state in the US where the further north you are, the more southern you are.

[@shurubura1956]

There's a huge mistake in the video, beacuse in the video it states that the US have 60.000$ ppp per capita where in reality the number is different. It is 80.000$ in the metric that you use for other countires. You can just check it out on Wikipedia.

[@fatboyRAY24]

Yep, save microstate tax havens the US per capita GDP is higher than all but about 3 European countries.

[@heathclark318]

So many errors and omissions as to why the situation is what it is. But seeing a lot of the comments here as someone who just clicked this video, its very much an echo chamber

[@thatonetroll1059]

Wiki is wild

[@javiermoretti1825]

Error. Kentucky never seceded from the Union and West VA became a Union state after breaking away from Virginia.

[@infidelheretic923]

More or less. Kentucky was a slave state. But opted to stay in the union for the simple reason of not wanting to be the frontline.

[@BoaConstrictor126]

Actually Kentucky initially seceded but the Confederate government was forced to flee the state capital when the Union Army invaded

[@javiermoretti1825]

@@BoaConstrictor126 Sort of. In the 1861 election, most of the state congressional seats went to Union sympathizers. In September 1861. Kentucky was admitted into the Confederate States of America on December 10, 1861. The provisional government in Bowling Green lasted a mere three months as Confederate forces, along with Governor Johnson, retreated to Tennessee in February 1862. Kentucky was never a full-fledged member of the Confederacy. What's more, it's largest city, Louisville, was always a Union base. FYI: I grew up in Louisville.

[@ArticBlueFox96]

Maryland never seceded either.

[@lancehammons5918]

West virginia is one of the richest state but poorest population Due to covid, more people from the cities are starting to realize how shitty the area is but with some of the cheapest homes

[@odiggler]

As a Southern Californian, my deepest respect for South! These are some of the hardiest and kindest people I have ever met, the ways the battle the inclement weather and their bond with the land, it's just unparalleled.

[@trexthethird4622]

The one map the will always consider Missouri southern; poverty

[@benstone3323]

Missouri is culturally southern everywhere except for KC and STL

[@acleme1709]

Sometimes I use the term "Soft South" to refer to states that culturally are kind of southern but are also kind of something else. I can absolutely attest that the manufacturing here in South Carolina has gone up significantly since I was a child and here in Greenville it seems like people who have moved in from other states to fill these jobs are starting to outnumber people who grew up here to the point that I have to specify that I'm from the area.

[@Alpha-Cheeno]

Ubiquitous State of Absurdity (USA) : Home of the Craven, Land of the Free-for-All.

[@BoaConstrictor126]

Same in Atlanta. I’m one of the few actually Southerners here

[@neox9369]

GA is way more diverse with people from literally all over the US and internationally, same with Florida

[@XeniasWorld]

I refer to the Midwest as the northern South 😅

[@Eurobeat_fan]

As a new Yorker I would like to apologize that a lot of New Yorkers are moving to SC. My neighbors moved there recently.

[@POLARTTYRTM]

The "funny" part about this is that the southg is mainly where most extraction happens that produces extreme amounts of wealth in the country.

[@PedroPedro-k9p]

The countryside generates wealth for the nation, cities print the money to buy it and thus, cities are rich and workers are poor.

[@jakobgeigelclermont]

@@PedroPedro-k9p That's certainly debatable; factories and stores are mostly in cities, and so are most workers. The countryside is where the necessary natural resources come from. Without cities, there are few stores and no consumer goods. Without farms and mines, there is nothing to make consumer goods with. Economic class is not a matter of urban/rural: it's a matter of worker or owner. Cities are not rich. Rich people (owners) are rich, and workers are poor. Business owners just happen to be in cities, where labour is cheapest and consumers are most numerous.

[@shy404usernotfound]

Sure it might produce a lot of wealth. But for whom? And it by far does not produce the most wealth.

[@PedroPedro-k9p]

​@@jakobgeigelclermontIn many areas waiters earn above what an average farmer does, corporations pay farmers just enough to not have farmers close shop, so they can sell their prodcts cheapers in cities and be better than other stores. It 100% is a rural vs urban thing, be it cultural, economic or politic. Also most farmers are business owners and have expensive equipment to work, yet they're dirt poor, so the owner vs workers analogy you make does not apply in this case (or many others).

[@silasbishop3055]

the Mountain West has more extraction.

[@maninredhelm]

West Virginia is the misfit state of the US. It is not the South, but it's not the Northeast or Midwest either. It's Appalachian, but unlike the other Appalachian states to the south it has no flatlands where most of the people in those other states live. So what you end up with is the northern extreme of a mountain culture that's a secondary regional culture everywhere else in the South but which is the primary culture in West Virginia (and nowhere else).

[@Bob-zl9gk]

Before all fabric and clothing production moved out of the US there was far less poverty in the South. People who lived in the South long enough can remember when nearly anyone could get a minimum wage job and after a year or so would earn a bit more than that. Once it all moved to Asia, though, there just weren't any jobs so naturally there's poverty

[@graciel2313]

What? Just in Alabama there is Mazda-Toyota, Mercedes, Honda, Hyundai and Airbus. In Huntsville NASA builds rockets and the FBI built a 2nd headquarters. Plus all of the automotive part manufacturers all over the state that suppy the auto plants here. that is just in Alabama. Your statement sounds like it came from 1970 instead of 2024.

[@mattbowdenuh]

12:24 I would venture to guess those statistics include immigrants who arrived in the US after schooling age. TX and CA have the largest immigrant populations, and illegal immigrant populations, in the US. It wouldn't surprise me that if you took the data for only naturalized and natural-born US citizens (those who were in the US during schooling age), then states like MS, AL, AR would look much worse comparatively. As I don't think it would be accurate to take someone who immigrated (legally or illegally) at 24 who didn't receive a high school equivalent from their home country and count that as an uneducated worker for state educational purposes and comparisons, but it would be accurate for purely labor market statistics.

[@Alpha-Cheeno]

Ubiquitous State of Absurdity (USA) : Home of the Craven, Land of the Free-for-All.

[@kevin.harter]

West Virginia is always gonna have these problems. It really comes down to the fact that there isn’t any land to build a large manufacturing hub or city on.

[@cathjj840]

But there are mountain tops for green energy production. Coal barons: the intractable problems always come down to powerful bad people (lookin' at you, Manchin et al.).

[@richdobbs6595]

Yeah, if you look at a map the states that have the least amount of flat land are WV, NH, and VT. Of these, WV is the worst.

[@caseyjones5145]

Worker protection is terrible in the south, thats why its "booming" right now, a lot of these jobs are low wage. nc has the worst worker protection in the country

[@andrewward5891]

That might change somewhat. A VW plant in Tennessee recently voted to unionize. If auto plants in the south start unionizing it might make other southern workers to demand more rights too.

[@MegaJellyNelly]

You should not use GDP per capita as a measure, you should use income instead. A lot of times, a high gdp per capita does not translate to higher average incomes.

[@pmaitrasm]

Exactly. GDP is a measure of money supply and money velocity, not actual wealth. People who are in possession of a lot of money that is borrowed are actually poorer than people who are in possession of less money but are debt free. People who make videos do not have the basic understanding of economics.

[@Jaysqualityparts]

Yep look at California for the details.

[@BoaConstrictor126]

Facts. I’m so sick and tired of hearing people talk about GDP. It means nothing for the average person.

[@themonsterwithin4000]

Just like when Britain colonized India and had increased their GDP while Indians were malnourished to the bone.

[@TheWizardGamez]

income doesnt matter. cost of living matters. and lower incomes may not mean much when the cost of living is dramatically cheaper.

[@acrawford01]

Last year I graduated college in Louisiana and searched for a job for 6 months. Many interviews and follow ups, but no offers. I spent a week applying to jobs in Texas, and then spent a few days driving to interviews there. When I was done, I had 3 job offers.

[@Megantheestallion123]

5:17 According to the IMF, The USA is 8th in gdp per capita adjusted for Purchasing Power parity. I dont know where he is getting these numbers from.

[@claussenmusic]

0:35 West Virginia is not really a part of the south. If you're going by civil war delineations, WV would be considered part of the north.

[@claussenmusic]

also 2:10 - "the north was not reliant on slave labor"-- It was reliant on the slave labor in the south. Where do you think the cotton in those factories came from?

[@Beardlybeloved]

WV was, on paper, a part of union but over half of its soldiers fought in favor of the confederacy. Southern WV and all of the counties bordering Virginia voted in favor of seceding from the union. Most West Virginians consider themselves southern.

[@alexrogers777]

@@claussenmusic No, the north was only reliant on *cotton* from the south. The cotton never had to be harvested by slaves as far as the north was concerned, it could have been harvested by anyone for all they cared. The south could have used any other form of labor besides slavery but chose not to.

[@NotTheRealRustyShackleford]

​@@alexrogers777 The factory owners in the North enjoyed the fat margins of slave labor as much as the plantation owners in the South did. There is a reason why immigrants are used to harvest agricultural products to this day, and it's because they work for less...

[@gobot4455]

The South has also the history of supporting politicies that facilitate the transfer of wealth from the many to the few.

[@freedomdude5420]

You think faith without thought and salve mentality play round in all this.

[@scuddyleblanc8637]

Blacks supported Obama, and Obama was best known for the transferring of wealth from the taxpayers to those who don't pay taxes. After Obama's transfer of wealth, the number of people living in poverty climbed to more than 50 million, a 50-year record.

[@theliato3809]

thats the whole country.

[@_Devil]

Who would've thought that the death of the one guy who had good plans for rebuilding the South would lead to the South not being rebuilt

[@WasFakestCenturyAesthetics]

You're talking about the guy who wanted the war in the first place?

[@jtlegionnaire6310]

the guy that let his generals burn down the few developed parts of the south? lol

[@jbone9900]

​@@jtlegionnaire6310 the south let evil and greed cuase a war.

[@jbone9900]

​@@WasFakestCenturyAesthetics your talking him destroying the evil confederate military and defending freedom.

[@kirbya9545]

@@jbone9900if you think that occupying a country that wants to be independent because it is pure evil ideology then surely you support 🇮🇱 correct? Because it is essentially the same thing

[@simon2493]

The problem is rural regions are over populated in the south, it's relatively rich people already living in the major towns, when it's a small town which are the problem some people have only jobs during summer season when it's harvest season.

[@dave_riots]

This isn't it lol

[@austinhernandez2716]

Living in the rural south, that's not how it is at all. Sure seasonal jobs exist. My hometown is flooded with migrant workers. But you think people just don't work the rest of the year? You think most people are seasonal workers? Most workers aren't in agriculture at all, they're a minority 😂

[@simon2493]

@@austinhernandez2716 US rural is poor you can't deny that it's 5s trip into Google. I didn't say most people are like this neither poverty rates are higher than 50%.

[@Alpha-Cheeno]

Ubiquitous State of Absurdity (USA) : Home of the Craven, Land of the Free-for-All.

[@alexrogers777]

@@austinhernandez2716 No, I've lived in the rural south, most of you really are unemployed bums. The map of which states take the most welfare proves it

[@legitaddress]

5:50 - You're missing the cost of living index and taking into factor things like state income tax, or sales tax which affects the working poor more. As a native Texan, most of the poverty is concentrated on the border, though also outside the Texas triangle at large. And Texans tend to bristle when they're lumped in with the rest if the south.

[@ToyotaTechnical]

Are the ones that bristle usually from Austin or Dallas?

[@samdherring]

Not sure why y'all have issue with being lumped in with us. Georgia loves Texas.

[@jebbroham1776]

Being poor used to be a kind of “safeguard” against ridiculous federal taxes, but now that’s no longer true.

[@cathjj840]

the federal government is entirely taken over by the rich people (i.e; it's an oligarchy). Rich people know the best source of ever increasing wealth is extracting it from poor people. Hence defund the IRS so it only has the staff and means to go after easy targets like poor people and never touch the big earners, i.e. the systematic cheaters. Just one example

[@EDude82]

Love your videos mate but the background music in this one was way too loud. Couldn't hear you for half the video

[@jokolo9882]

The music is far too loud.

[@markfennell1604]

I’m not sure where you getting your facts bro, but North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and Florida are in the top 10 in GDP. These states are in the south, for it to be considered, the poverty states not too bad and Tennessee it’s not that far behind it either that’s almost half of the whole top 10 in the country are in the south in GDP just saying

[@NadeemAhmed-nv2br]

Gdp per capita, India has a bugger gdp but is poor. Also median rather than avg wages which let's a person know what the avg Joe makes which is more than 2x more (closer to 3x) in the ne vs the south

[@JohnD-zh9st]

@@NadeemAhmed-nv2br and? South is simply cheaper, which is why so many northerners are fleeing south. Northerners always brag about how much richer they are up north, but are always planning an escape to somewhere cheaper - many of them are planning to run to third world countries. I know one who moved to Brazil and is always telling people about how Brazil is more tolerant and less dangerous than the USA (????)

[@spursc10]

Do a Google search on which States have the highest poverty? Lowest Education? Most Federally Dependent? the 10 states most dependent on federal assistance were red states: West Virginia, Mississippi, Alaska, Kentucky, Montana, Arizona, and Alabama. Around 52 percent of U.S. states that provided more to the federal government than they received were blue states.

[@JohnD-zh9st]

@@spursc10 Arizona is a swing state with a lot of blue, not a red state anymore, lol. Too bad all the people from blue California didn't make it get better

[@spursc10]

@@JohnD-zh9st Maybe. The facts are many states that are controlled by Republicans have lowest life spans, lowest education, lowest income, poor healthcare? With lower-than-average income levels, residents in these states contribute less through income taxes. They also receive higher-than-average levels of spending from programs such as Social Security, Medicare, social assistance grants and contracts. Actually the former Confederate states. Funny thing, is that when you look at those areas that are the poorest, they are also the areas that have: 1.) Highest infant mortality rates 2.) Highest teen pregnancy rates 3.) Most socially and politically conservative areas 4.) Highest high school dropout rates 5.) Lowest rates of postgraduate degrees 6. Most religious areas

[@50PullUps]

Nice thumbnail, but where is Lake Michigan?

[@Saltiren]

Oh damn that's a good catch

[@liamwood5043]

It’s covered up by the county outlines I think

[@Blight-eo4yk]

Aeted it sorry

[@austinhernandez2716]

In Michigan I think.

[@Hanstra]

Lake Michigan isn't real and neither is Michigan. Wake up, people

[@stynkanator]

The legacy of the Civil War.

[@dustinwashere]

Background music was very distracting. Couldn’t finish the video

[@shanekahan3300]

0:05 what in the world is happening the Lake Superior and Michigan in this map

[@Official_kiefer_Liefer]

And also most American citizens want a nice house and nice cars which are expensive so in America for those who aren’t not being able to afford expensive things is the same as having no money

[@wil404]

You also have to take into account the cost of living. People in New York will make more than people in Mississippi, but expenses will be cheaper in Mississippi than in New York. The numbers that would be most valuable to judge would be the average difference between income and expenses or the percentage of people that own their homes in particular areas.

[@sackeshi]

Get Maryland off that map lol. We have the highest average income per household.

[@sackeshi]

PakmanBrunner Our cities need work *baltimore but overall we're very successful state.

[@Deadlynk6489]

Isn't that mostly because of the DC metro area?

[@sackeshi]

@@Deadlynk6489 Yes but DC was part of Maryland before we gave up the territory. Also yes NOVA is also helped by DC metro

[@Jeffrey_Edward_Epstein]

That and Delaware. Like *Baltimore* we have Wilmington but everything else is pretty damn good.

[@adamrou12345]

Maryland shouldn't be The South. It's part of the Northeast Corridor. Maryland also did not try to secede from the Union so as for why anyone would consider Maryland the South is beyond me.

[@baddayoverdosed]

I really value the state of Georgia’s investment in the film industry over the last couple decades. The lower cost of living has allowed film crews like set workers, lighting and audio engineers, etc a chance to live solid middle class lives as opposed to just scrapping by in southern California

[@89playstation65]

The American civil war has a big part to play in why the south is still poor to this day. However, where i see rundown towns...i see opportunities for revival. It will take money and rebuilding and businesses to take a chance to move in.

[@89playstation65]

One such business that is gaining traction in the south...Buc-ee's Dont mess with that beaver.

[@1976Copper]

Mason-Dixon line was not remotely about separating north from south or slave from free state; it was merely to reconcile border disputes between Maryland and Pennsylvania, which traced to contradictory monarchical landgrants (I think the one to Mr. Penn and the one to Lord Baltimore). It was originally merely about clarifying state boundaries. All other associations accrue incidentally thereafter.

[@threefiveseven]

It wasn't made for that sure. But in the coming years it would serve as the divding line. It and the ohio river were the north-south cutoff. Which is why the union armies two biggest armies were named the army of the ohio and the army of the potomac. Two rivers that split north from south.

[@MisterKackhaufen]

2:40 you should have mentioned that the southern states lost a lot of capital when slave got their freedom. Imagine you spend lots of money on a machinery and then its suddenly free. Overnight some people lost a lot of money.

[@thewestisthebest6608]

As industry moves south this problem is getting fixed more and more. It’s the North and West where poverty continues to grow

[@markigirl2757]

I wondered about that as well Inakways heard up in the north it’s extremely expensive to live compared to where I’m at

[@jamieholsey1106]

Facts ! I’m from Georgia and moved to Seattle and it’s a mess . The homeless rate is off the charts . 📈

[@nataliekhanyola5669]

Industry moving to Texas isn't the same as industry moving to the south. What industry is moving to Alabama, Mississippi or North Carolina?

[@thewestisthebest6608]

@@nataliekhanyola5669 Boeing moved all production to South Carolina not too long ago and many car companies are moving to Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky and there is quite a bit of manufacturing already in North Carolina. The Democrats anti-business tax codes are catching up to them. They’ve been drying up business for years. Chicago has had near constant negative growth in population since 1960. 800,000 people moved out of California between 2021-2022. Mostly coming to Texas and Florida. It’s the new population trend

[@nataliekhanyola5669]

@@thewestisthebest6608 boeing is dying company with continuous failed designs with a total lack of safety. Those car companies are moving a small amount of production to the south, bare in mind that car manufacturing as it used to be known is virtually dead in western nations. Most cars are produced abroad, with cheap labour and automation.

[@jeremybeau8334]

When you love rich people so much that you gave all the money to theme and tax exception. Crazy how they love oligarcs in the USA.

[@lanell8473]

Missouri isn’t south

[@MIAMIC70]

No, it’s a shit hole.

[@travishillsthedarkangelbun504]

I expect nothing less from a Red coat

[@jaystrickland4151]

California and Texas are not surprising. They both have a large number of migrants working in agriculture. These tend to be adults without high school degrees from countries where free education ends in middle school. Compare to New York and Mass. where migrants are most likely to have advance degrees.

[@RobertH-qb5it]

Ummm sorry but this video is absolutely, positively not a surprise. The US south has been poverty stricken since, well, the US Civil War.

[@genkiferal7178]

before the Civil War! Many southerners didn't have shoes and so parasites would enter their bare feet and drain them of blood.

[@freedomdude5420]

What is political hold it back?

[@brianpstn74]

Did the study that provided the rankings for education include the private school sector? This possibility has always given me doubts about South Carolina’s low ranking given the massive size of the private school sector with the academic excellence they require in Greenville County alone.

[@baronvonjo1929]

After visiting other states I realized that yup... I live in a poor area. The local city is booming and wealthy. My state is exploding in population and is in the top 5 largest growers. I realized all kinds of metrics like gdp are being carried by other states. So much is becoming unaffordable like homes and houses. Its crazy to me the average new car in the US is 50k when the average income in my state is 40k. The states and cities and rural areas are so different. It seems on paper people only focus on the better off states and the figures from cities. Millions s of Americans have been left behind and it does feel like a backwards poverty stricken place. Its crazy to me we are the richest country in the world with so much infrastructure decay and poverty.

[@Alpha-Cheeno]

Ubiquitous State of Absurdity (USA) : Home of the Craven, Land of the Free-for-All.

[@recoil53]

Not crazy at all - infrastructure takes money to create and maintain. But it is the government that does those things and they get the money through taxes. Taxes have been going down since Reagan. Another thing that costs money is education. One of the biggest factors in the prosperity of a small town is education - which is paid from taxes. Those same poor areas are filled with voters that vote for tax cuts. They aren't left behind, they are reaping what they sow.

[@baronvonjo1929]

@recoil53 Well to be honest I'd vote for tax cuts because they don't do anything with out money to begin with I've noticed. Infrastructure is terrible. If they had good service's I would give more money. I guess technically cutting taxes won't help it. But it's obvious our taxes aren't being used in a good way.

[@recoil53]

@@baronvonjo1929 That's a backwards argument, but hey, you're the one that's left behind.

[@markigirl2757]

@@recoil53I mean why don’t u think think that I’m curious?

[@jamesgoode9246]

Why is the volume of this video so low ?

[@michaelblaney4461]

Well most of the southern states still have the $7.25 minimum rage😮

[@muirgirl]

Minimum rage is right

[@josephclark5414]

Great video man! Shared for sure!!

[@SkepticalChris]

Yup, the former Confederate states. Funny thing, is that when you look at those areas that are the poorest, they are also the areas that have: 1.) Highest infant mortality rates 2.) Highest teen pregnancy rates 3.) Most socially and politically conservative areas 4.) Highest high school dropout rates 5.) Lowest rates of post-graduate degrees 6.) Most religious areas

[@joebiggs135]

Those are also the areas with the most Blacks and Mexicans.

[@JohnD-zh9st]

Hm, there are plenty of deeply conservative and religious states in the Midwest that don't have the issues you mention. Why?

[@spursc10]

@@JohnD-zh9st South ? are former Slave states are states which had abusive loitering or vagrancy laws are "At Will" states are "Right to Work" states have very low Minimum Wage laws are fundamentally opposed to collective bargaining or unions have very weak corporate regulation of all kinds have very few employee protections of any kind have very low levels of corporate taxation have a weak public education system have a weak public health system are tightly controlled by monopolies.

[@JohnD-zh9st]

@@spursc10 What are you smoking? "Former slave states"? That was 150+ years ago now, get over it. And oh no, people don't want weirdos like you living in tents in their communities! No vagrant laws is how you get California. In addition very few states, if any, have corporate taxation?? And Florida public universities are some of the best in not just the nation, but the world. Texas has good schools too.

[@rubenrebenz1000]

Southern conservative states don’t provide as many social benefits and protections Democratic states do. Even though all American citizens pay taxes, Democratic states use more tax money to benefit a person’s livelihood and success in life. It shouldn’t be about a state’s economic status that rates it’s success, it should be about the quality of life it’s citizens enjoy.

[@boi9842]

quality of life in democratic states is poor.

[@corruptedpoison1]

Everyone needs to remember Mississippi still has higher GDP per person than the UK.

[@ebrimajallow9631]

GDP per captia is a fair measurement, because of population. Like I hate when people use it, because the US has hundred of millions of people, while a country like Finland has just 5 million it not a a fair measure.

[@Alpha-Cheeno]

Ubiquitous State of Absurdity (USA) : Home of the Craven, Land of the Free-for-All.

[@Lando-kx6so]

This is incredibly misleading & he even essentially says in the video that this is a poor measurement on how well off a place & the people are there. This also doesn't take purchasing power parity (ppp) into account. The standard of living for the typical person in the UK is far higher than that of Mississippi & you haven't been to either place if you don't think so

[@hereticalgames3695]

@@ebrimajallow9631per capita means it’s adjusted for population.

[@cathjj840]

@@hereticalgames3695 Only the number of the population. Not for wealth distribution within it. Saudi Arabia still has indigenous poor people, not to mention near-slave immigrants. The US middle class is shrinking and their ranking within it is going down, some regressing to lower classes.

[@alonerpro]

What was that last bridge?

[@TheContrarian09]

Yep, ms sucks. No one move here. I need land prices to stay low so i can build my shire in the future.

[@forest_fire959]

WHAT JS THE MUSIC AT THE WDN OF THE VIDEO????

[@dylanfox4239]

My guess why they are poor: Legacy of Slavery, end of cotton economy, loss/outsourcing of union jobs in Appalachia.

[@genkiferal7178]

how long can you blame slavery or jim crow ? cotton is still grown in the south.

[@dylanfox4239]

@@genkiferal7178 Bro, what did you think would happen to black communities after slavery? They’d up and get 1 million dollar houses, 401ks and stable communities. No silly, they stayed poor

[@atlantasailor1]

Republicans

[@genkiferal7178]

@@atlantasailor1 accept for the idiotic war spending, Republicans generally choose not to give money away that they don't have, but Democrats do. Living within your means and keeping what you earn is not unethical to Republicans or Libertarians.

[@major_kukri2430]

​@@genkiferal7178you're joking if you dont thinks slavery and jim crow doesnt have an effect on America today. You can see the effects in the video you're commenting under.

[@pubwvj]

One factor might be that if you are deep in poverty you are more likely to move south because it is an easier climate to survive in. The north has winter and winter kills, winter is brutal, winter increases costs of life making living harder. Note I am not talking about urban areas which slightly alters the climatescape.

[@SuperGreatSphinx]

Winter Is Coming

[@samdherring]

Climate plays less importance than cost of living imo but could contribute some. Hot as Hell down here though.

[@pubwvj]

If you have spent your life in the south I can understand but while it may be very hot the cold of winter kills as well as driving up the cost of living since you have to have a house capable of keeping out the cold and in the heat, fuel to heat the house, more food to heat yourself, specialized clothing and more to simply survive in the north. That said, I still prefer the north - no alligators. 😁

[@trevortimmreck]

As a michigan resident i wish i was paying 8.2 cent per kilowatt hour

[@Alpha-Cheeno]

Ubiquitous State of Absurdity (USA) : Home of the Craven, Land of the Free-for-All.

[@undertone2472]

If you were GM I bet you would pay 8.2¢ per kWH.

[@trevortimmreck]

@@undertone2472 I'll work on doing that and get back to you lol

[@flashsentry1791]

As someone who lives around Boston. The wages are up but the cost of everything else is up. So even if you make 100,000. You can barely put away 100 bucks per month for savings. That's why alot of people are moving south. Keep the same wage but lower cost of homes and goods in the south.

[@gregoryturk1275]

3 sponsor breaks in one video?/?w1!!1 bro needs to pay his bills

[@blackfalcon1610]

Geography! the north has large lakes and rivers that allow cheap boat transportation of goods and peoples. To contrast the south is mostly mountainous and outside the mississippi river not as many navagable rivers to allow cheap transportation of goods and peoples. It is Geography the reason why the north is more developed than the south.

[@SK-zi3sr]

There’s still alot of poor people in New York and los angelis

[@vicvic2081]

And they keep them segrated

[@angelaferkel7922]

What songs have you used?

[@samholland209]

What about the lower life expectancy in the South?

[@thysquid2157]

Well there tends to be correlation between poverty and lower life expectancy…

[@visorij3374]

We have a for profit healthcare system in the US, so less profit equals less access to healthcare, also a lot of southern states still haven’t passed Obamacare, coincidently those that have passed it have better health prospects

[@Alpha-Cheeno]

Ubiquitous State of Absurdity (USA) : Home of the Craven, Land of the Free-for-All.

[@jameslopez9661]

Thats because of diet and health issues

[@muhammad-bin-american]

Maybe its because they top in obesity, pollution and also less access to health care.

[@beastdork19]

as a Floridian I don't consider anything outside the panhandle and north florida the south because the culture becomes a lot more different. when I go on trips out of Florida I notice a change in things once I get out of ocala.

[@dave_riots]

Places that see a lot of extraction tend to see higher rates of poverty.

[@Alpha-Cheeno]

Ubiquitous State of Absurdity (USA) : Home of the Craven, Land of the Free-for-All.

[@home_def]

Clown here -> ​@@Alpha-Cheeno

[@Alpha-Cheeno]

@@home_def In high school, I was the class clown. I guess that attribute stuck with me & got a tad bit edgier.

[@MC_aigorithm]

What was the bridge in the very last shot at the end of the video???

[@htm000]

It's important to note Florida's (specifically Miami's) growing tech and finance sector

[@JohnD-zh9st]

Native Floridians hate it. Drives the cost of everything up, and is turning Florida's beautiful nature to parking lots and apartments.

[@htm000]

@@JohnD-zh9st It really does. I sold my condo for almost double what it would have been worth 5 years ago

[@JohnD-zh9st]

@@htm000 Damn, what made you sell? Were you living in it or was it an investment? I know a guy who had one in Daytona who bought it for 76k, and every NASCAR weekend they made enough AirBnB'ing it to pay the mortgage off for the YEAR. Can't imagine the mortgage was that much at that price, but still. I do know homeowner's insurance and property taxes are skyrocketing there, but it sure would be nice to have a beachside condo that I can run off to at a moment's notice

[@htm000]

@@JohnD-zh9st family member died, I didn't want to stay there anymore after that, and I was able to make a lot from the sale. Enough to get a nicer place in a different area

[@JohnD-zh9st]

@@htm000 sorry to hear that. hope wherever your at now is treating you well

[@pmannnn4]

Wow.Real history...Hear that All southern people

[@TylerDuke-nd6ns]

No.. your mother queefed and we missed the whole thing

[@DickyMorin]

I also consider the South to include all the states and territories that had slavery in 1860, not just the Confederacy. The map shows six non-Confederate states as part of the South. West Virginia broke away from Virginia in 1863, thus becoming a border state. Oklahoma was an unorganized entity called Indian Territory where Indians actually had slaves themselves and felt sympathy toward the Confederacy. The four other border states have always been considered so. Slavery and backwardness has always typified these regions. By the way, the cotton gin was not an exceptional southern invention because it was invented by a Connecticut Yankee.

[@graciel2313]

Dumb comment! Does anyone actually visit other places in the country? It seems like all the comments are stuck in a time warp from 70 years ago or in your case over 160 years ago. The South is not a monolith and neither are any of the other regions in the country. There is abject poverty in the rural South just like in any major metro area in the North. BTW, just in Alabama they build rockets, planes, cars and missiles so you can keep the cotton gin.

[@mr472010]

This video significantly needed more dates from when data is being pulled and have it clearly listed visually.

[@Hession0Drasha]

Too hot to live

[@Alpha-Cheeno]

Ubiquitous State of Absurdity (USA) : Home of the Craven, Land of the Free-for-All.

[@baronblitzer2125]

Arizona and Texas is hot the south east is humid

[@Alpha-Cheeno]

@ZaymiOoyoha Are you referring to me, the Original Usual Suspect? Keiser Sozè is at your service.

[@Canev821]

Texas is one of the best economies and is growing but sometimes Texas isn’t considered southern

[@major_kukri2430]

Some parts of it are like austin and dallas culturally aren't.

[@horsekfobster7823]

These are the most federally dependent states as well which is hilarious considering the states that pay the most federal tax are disrespected by the Poverty Belt

[@Rob337_aka_CancelProof]

Whatever that's laughable Newsome is so incompetent he couldn't find his own ass with both hands wanting to sign everybody on to the government's books take care of them from cradle to grave so they're beholden to government for everything but they have no clue how to be fiscally responsible and all the other traditionally blue states are flipping red

[@TylerDuke-nd6ns]

Alaska, Rhode Island, and New Mexico are the top federally dependent states in the USA. Your bigotry is showing

[@spursc10]

@@TylerDuke-nd6ns A report from MoneyGeek found that seven out of the 10 states most dependent on federal assistance were red states: West Virginia, Mississippi, Alaska, Kentucky, Montana, Arizona, and Alabama. Around 52 percent of U.S. states that provided more to the federal government than they received were blue states. The low-income states that receive a lot of federal spending per person are primarily in the Southeast and include Kentucky, West Virginia, Mississippi and Alabama. With lower-than-average income levels, residents in these states contribute less through income taxes. They also receive higher-than-average levels of spending from programs such as Social Security, Medicare, social assistance grants and contracts. Also, The lowest average life expectancies are seen in the states of the Southeast, according to 2020 figures from the CDC: South Carolina, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Louisiana, West Virginia and Mississippi all had average life expectancies from birth of less than 75 years. (The lone state from outside the region in the bottom 10 was New Mexico.)

[@antoniokadadu]

Harder to be homeless in cold weather…obviously

[@scorpiovenator_4736]

Imagine if the government cared more about its people and less about its own interests, america would truly be the best nation.

[@hawkname1234]

Imagine if Republicans cared more about America and her people, instead of trying to assassinate the government.

[@genkiferal7178]

and imagine if americans cared more about electing only good leaders. all of the choices we get are rotten to the core, on the take, in league with big biz

[@gordonallen9095]

Historically, the south has always had an agriculture based economy which limited its economical growth. The north especially in the mid 19th through 20th centuries was an industrial based economy with some agricultural production. This made the north the center of business and economic investment and growth for the country overall for over a century. That has changed in the 21st Century with people and industry moving south. This has made certain cities in the south thriving metropolitan areas.

[@innotech]

I love how my parish in Louisiana is surrounded on all sides by poor parishes. They all come here to shop and work so that is probably why

[@Zeppathy]

Answer, rich people. For every billionaire around 15k minimum wage workers were fired to pay them.

[@nguyenlamanh2919]

On average, billionaire created 20k new jobs, so worth it

[@C_H_Toons]

@zeppathy what hard evidence do you have of this claim?

[@KrustyKrabPizza22]

It seems like you're just really uneducated on this subject tbh

[@LlnusTechTips.]

Not true

[@adamoliver4094]

Even if that were true, and I don't think it is, firing 15k minimum wage workers would save less than $300 million per year in wages.

[@axidentlydead]

I live in central Ohio and including my own family, I know entire towns and suburban neighborhoods that all live in poverty. There only one town in my county where middle/upper class live. I drive back and forth there everyday to work as a cleaner for rich people then go home and struggle to pay for groceries. Most of my neighbors survive off of food pantries to feed their kids. There’s at least one in every neighborhood around here.

[@deleted-something]

Oh boy is Kentucky and West Virginia red

[@Alpha-Cheeno]

Ubiquitous State of Absurdity (USA) : Home of the Craven, Land of the Free-for-All.

[@Manwithaplan2021]

Heavy economic reliance on a single industry

[@ttssa2030]

Oil and gas is a major driver for economic growth in the South!

[@erueru2014]

Look at who they vote for in those states, and then tell me when the last time a majority of that party passed any legislation that benefittet the average working person and not just their super rich friends... If you vote for the same shit, then you get the same shit.

[@pain8117]

Look up any metric discussed in this video broken down by race. The problems in the south are not so much the fault of republicans as they are the fault of blacks

[@JohnD-zh9st]

Many of the Midwestern states vote the same way as the Deep South, yet they have better living standards, better education, and better incomes than the Deep South, and sometimes better than many Northern Blue states. What gives?

[@bloodshed102]

I live in the panhandle of West Virginia and a lot of the population is still very poor in this section as well but yet if you moved here and looked for renting or buying a home, you would think you essentially live in a big city with all the amenities that it comes with. It is more expensive now to live in the panhandle of West Virginia than when I lived in Richmond va and Raleigh nc. I feel that a portion are people wanting higher and higher rents while the residents don’t make enough to cover all their living cost.

[@yakov95000]

Florida?Texas?

[@shy404usernotfound]

California: Yes, Florida, Texas.

[@rebeccawinter472]

West Virginia didn’t cede from the United States. Virginia did. But West Virginia was created as it was where Union loyalists live. Also, Maryland and Virginia are two of the wealthiest states now, so including them in this doesn’t make total sense.

[@adamperdue3178]

It's always amusing to me, because West Virginia is theoretically the most loyal state in the country- during the Civil War, the states that stayed with the union simply didn't leave. Nothing had to be done on their part. But West Virginia cared so much about the US, that it seceded from secessionist Virginia in order to stay in the Union. And then me, living in Virginia within a few miles of the WV border, see more Confederate flags flying in West Virginia than I do flying in Virginia.