Handguns
Subscribe
Home› Off Topic
mindyabiness
Posts: 8,006 Admiral
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2016/0730/Rural-America-confronts-a-new-class-divide
Rural America confronts a new class divide
mindyabiness
Posts: 8,006 Admiral
The widening gulf between the haves and have nots is not limited to the Rust Belt’s cast-off manufacturing workers, working class suburbanites, or inner-city poor working on a stagnant minimum wage. The same trends have taken hold in farm country, though in different forms. The farms that once generated wealth for entire communities are now creating a new class of superfarmers.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2016/0730/Rural-America-confronts-a-new-class-divide
Arguing with idiots is like playing chess with a pigeon... No matter how good you are, the bird is going to crap on the board and strut around like it won anyway.
I AM NOT A RACIST
I AM NOT A RACIST
Replies
I don't believe that real good premium products like goats, pig and cattle will not survive mega farms, been there done it. I luv local shiken from a local farm near Kiel, just sayin.
And why in the world are you calling me Fingerhut, that is just odd, its FingerMullet
:rotflmao:rotflmao:rotflmao
I live in the city, but drive to my local farm gatherings and purchase veggies and fresh good meat, I like it and the local goat raised by some Haitian folks, just rocks. Ever had a good rack of goat, **** that is some good stuff.
I AM NOT A RACIST
The rise of niche farm markets for specialty items is encouraging. There is no doubt many of the organic & atypical products are appealing & fresh. However they only represent a small fraction of the former family farm activity & do not even begin to compete with the factory farming discussed in CSM article.
The county I grew up in was virtually all family farms, hardly any still exist. However in recent years the "local farm gatherings" you mention (farmer's markets) have been organized & become popular. And a number of small farms have popped up, but the acreage under cultivation is a fraction of what it had been & most of the land that is still worked is in the hands of the big farms that pasted several family farms together.
There's a 7 acre CSA run by women on one side of me & one of CSM's big farms, that stitched together parts of at least 4 family farms, on the other.
Most former farmland has gone residential, being converted into what citiots think of as "Rural America".
The "new class divide" is between those with roots here, who know the history, AND all the newbies, with more money than brains, who want to plasticize "Rural America".
I will have to agree, the income difference between rich and poor is growing faster than we might like. Lots of stuff contributes to it, like welfare, where you can sometimes make more money with welfare than working for Walmart or win dixie. Actually had a friend with a estranged daughter who he could not understand why she did not work with two kids no spouse. When he found the truth, is was shocking for him since he is very conservative, at least he is not back talking to his daughter.
:thumbsup
I cringe every time I see a subdivision going in
A developer recently attempted to further colonize our neighborhood with yet another Walgreens.
Part of their pitch was that it would bring "jobs".
They didn't mention the hourly wage that workers receive at Walgreens.
People working there, at the nearest store, for over a decade, have seen little benefit.
After 15 years on the job, their wages have increased a grand total of $3.00.
Without knowing their actual wages, it's hard to tell for certain, but it appears that when inflation is figured in ( 36.2% since 2001 ) those poor devils are making less than they were when they started.
So, lets all give a resounding cheer for Corporate Profits, and Poverty Wages!