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Hillbilly Elegy - Truth of the white working class
Hillbilly Elegy - Gonna get this book and read it... Looks great by the interview on CNN...
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438426/hillbilly-elegy-jd-vances-new-book-reveals-much-about-trump-america
Tells of the white working class in Southern Ohio and lower states. Honestly, all of us on this site know of the people in this book either through friends or relatives.. I have many relatives just like this, including my mom in the 70s... It is how I was brought into this world... Sad but true... White working class has fallin off into a dismal place.
the book is far deeper than an explanation of the Trump phenomenon (which it doesn’t, by the way, claim to be). It’s a harrowing portrait of much that has gone wrong in America over the past two generations. It’s Charles Murray’s “Fishtown” told in the first person. The community into which Vance was born — working-class whites from Kentucky (though transplanted to Ohio) — is more given over to drug abuse, welfare dependency, indifference to work, and utter hopelessness than statistics can fully convey. Vance’s mother was an addict who discarded husbands and boyfriends like Dixie cups, dragging her two children through endless screaming matches, bone-chilling threats, thrown plates and worse violence, and dizzying disorder. Every lapse was followed by abject apologies — and then the pattern repeated. His father gave him up for adoption (though that story is complicated), and social services would have removed him from his family entirely if he had not lied to a judge to avoid being parted from his grandmother, who provided the only stable presence in his life. Vance writes of his family and friends: “Nearly every person you will read about is deeply flawed. Some have tried to murder other people, and a few were successful. Some have abused their children, physically or emotionally.” His grandmother, the most vivid character in his tale (and, despite everything, a heroine) is as foul-mouthed as Tony Soprano and nearly as dangerous. She was the sort of woman who threatened to shoot strangers who placed a foot on her porch and meant it.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438426/hillbilly-elegy-jd-vances-new-book-reveals-much-about-trump-america
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438426/hillbilly-elegy-jd-vances-new-book-reveals-much-about-trump-america
Tells of the white working class in Southern Ohio and lower states. Honestly, all of us on this site know of the people in this book either through friends or relatives.. I have many relatives just like this, including my mom in the 70s... It is how I was brought into this world... Sad but true... White working class has fallin off into a dismal place.
the book is far deeper than an explanation of the Trump phenomenon (which it doesn’t, by the way, claim to be). It’s a harrowing portrait of much that has gone wrong in America over the past two generations. It’s Charles Murray’s “Fishtown” told in the first person. The community into which Vance was born — working-class whites from Kentucky (though transplanted to Ohio) — is more given over to drug abuse, welfare dependency, indifference to work, and utter hopelessness than statistics can fully convey. Vance’s mother was an addict who discarded husbands and boyfriends like Dixie cups, dragging her two children through endless screaming matches, bone-chilling threats, thrown plates and worse violence, and dizzying disorder. Every lapse was followed by abject apologies — and then the pattern repeated. His father gave him up for adoption (though that story is complicated), and social services would have removed him from his family entirely if he had not lied to a judge to avoid being parted from his grandmother, who provided the only stable presence in his life. Vance writes of his family and friends: “Nearly every person you will read about is deeply flawed. Some have tried to murder other people, and a few were successful. Some have abused their children, physically or emotionally.” His grandmother, the most vivid character in his tale (and, despite everything, a heroine) is as foul-mouthed as Tony Soprano and nearly as dangerous. She was the sort of woman who threatened to shoot strangers who placed a foot on her porch and meant it.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438426/hillbilly-elegy-jd-vances-new-book-reveals-much-about-trump-america
Replies
This all within the Global Economy that dictates there are few places for uneducated unskilled workers to make a decent living.
All those factories equaled a lot of jobs. I imagine a lot of the folks who would be doing that work are now working part time low wage jobs with few too benefits. More money for the upper class
Where are the other guys ? Probably eating sushi on their Yacht....
I've been screaming buy American forever but it seems to fall on deaf ears
Reducing the use fossil fuel is not a bad idea. There has been a good bit done to reduce emissions from our fossil fuel plants
No where near the amount we used to.
True story...
The problem is we need the imported unskilled labor because Americans will not do the jobs they will for the pay that is offered. We are not willing to pay for an orange that an American worker picks. Politicians rail against the illegals to fire folks up, but they know **** well their business doners want and need them. You and I need them because we want cheap food and other services. You want to cut back on the illegals, really start hammering the businesses that hire them. Fat chance.
Yes, we should go after the businesses and their owners who bribe politicians
http://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/03/26/share-of-unauthorized-immigrant-workers-in-production-construction-jobs-falls-since-2007/
The new Pew Research Center analysis also shows that in most states—39, plus the District of Columbia—the largest number of unauthorized immigrant workers are found in service occupations, which include maids, cooks or groundskeepers.1 Construction and production occupations also have large representation of unauthorized immigrant workers in many states, according to the new Pew Research analysis. However, when looking at the occupation in which unauthorized immigrant employees are the highest share of the workforce, in most states, it is farming.2
There is more variation among states in the industries that employ the most unauthorized immigrants. Leisure and hospitality is the largest industry among unauthorized immigrant workers in 14 states and the District of Columbia, generally in the West or Northeast, as well as Florida. In 11 states, which tend to be in the South, the construction industry employs more unauthorized immigrants than any other. Manufacturing is the dominant employer of this group in 11 states, largely in the Midwest.
See the appendix for tables that show the top occupations (Table A1) and industries (Table A3) for unauthorized immigrants in each state.
In 2012, unauthorized immigrants accounted for 3.5% of the U.S. population and 26% of all immigrants. Unauthorized immigrants make up a larger share of the labor force than of the overall population. A key reason for that is that they are more likely than the overall U.S. population to be of working age, and less likely to be young or older (Passel and Cohn, 2009).
Not true in the power generation industry, shoot we are slammed and they still ask for my help. Everyone is a skilled certified welder that we slam or an engineer, we got some admin girls too, even a couple girls that are certified welders. All make good coin and have families. My job even thou retired is sales and basic design, Im good at it and I luv to travel and can be quite fun. In my opinion things are better now than a decade or two ago.
Absolutely if you have a skilled trade. Could not agree more with your assessment if you are in the right cohort. I truly glad for your success! The problem in the folks who have not had your initiative to learn a viable trade or otherwise prepare for a future.
Power generation is always on the rise and always will be. And it's one of the few things that has to be produced locally (relatively). You don't see it coming from overseas in cargo ships. After working on nuclear reactors in the Navy, I considered going into commercial power. Somehow would up in pre-stressed concrete instead. No worry, we won't be importing that anytime either.
"the Department of State, who issues worker visas, reports figures for all 16 different types of work-eligible visas, showing that 70 million have been issued since 2007."
70 million? that'll leave a mark.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judy-frankel/insourcing-american-lose-_b_11173074.html
At least we got a good childhood. My folks screwed it up by divorcing and both turned into the poor white trash. Neither ever saved past a month's wages, never !
My Dad is 73, gets money from post office retirement and SS and I still have to send him money once in a while... Amazing... I lived the same life up until I was 32 - 33... Now 17 years later, kind of set and things are good. Hard to learn that it takes money to make money... Or, that if you want a LENOX hacksaw, wait and buy it for 5 bucks at a pawn shop... Need a pipe bender ? Go to Home Depot and pay 39.95 or yard sale and pay 4.000 (thank you)...
But why couldn't those same workers come from the US? Is there a lack of American welders or are foreign imports just cheaper?
the differential between 65,000 H1b's a year to 70mil in work visas in a decade is a factor.
technology is the driver behind it.
Most second and third generations do well when coming from an impoverished background. It is the later generations that grow up with the goods and expect it to an extent... That is where the difference in good and bad families kick in, good parenting, etc... My family traces back to the Calverts "Maryland" that came over from England in the late 1600s ...
Bought a brand new looking 1/2"-2" slug buster set w/ratchet at a pawn shop for 75 bucks. You can get some **** good deals if you don't mind haggling a bit.
Please explain...
Making 60K to 80K
cant quit or else they get deported.
spouse can't work if the spouse isn't a citizen.
so there is VERY little leverage for wage increases.
this is why we're hearing loud cries that US companies can't fill positions - yet compensation is only creeping up.
But it looks like you've gotten everything fingered out...