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A comment on The Despair of Poor White Americans. Parent comment

Re:The Despair of Poor White Americans by twblalock on Saturday August 06, 2016 @04:31PM (#12239759)
Your article does not explain why the infant mortality rate is so high there. I suspect that the behavior of people in that community, which the article states includes high rates of violence, including violence against children, is the primary cause of infant and non-infant mortality. You could build a world-class hospital in the middle of that community, and give away health care for free, and that community would still have high rates of mortality.

> I don't know if you've looked at how much gov't assistance is paying out, but it's not enough to live on.

Clearly it is, because these people don't have jobs and are able to afford housing, cars, TVs, Playstations, etc. How else are they paying for these things? Do you think they stole them? Clearly, the money they receive from the government is enough to live on. Maybe not enough to live comfortably, but enough.

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Re:The Despair of Poor White Americans by ajamesm on Saturday August 06, 2016 @04:45PM (#12239831)
Oh, you "suspect" that. How conclusive! Look at the data, and quit the horseshit about "these people" and their misguided priorities.

Food deserts. Lead paint poisoning. Lack of access to healthcare.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-hea...

"Take, for instance, Sharlene Adams who recently needed a blood pressure cuff. To buy one required no less than four bus rides, a stop at her doctor's office for his signature, a visit to two different pharmacies and a side trip to borrow money to make the required co-pay. The 55-year-old eventually got her hands on the $40 item in East Baltimore 5 1/2 hours after starting on her quest, the Maryland students documented."

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Re:The Despair of Poor White Americans by yummyfajitas on Saturday August 06, 2016 @04:53PM (#12239876)
Lack of access to healthcare actually probably has very little effect. See figure 8:

https://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2513561

Or see the Oregon experiment: https://www.nber.org/oregon/

Food deserts are actually the result of people's consumption choices - poor folks choose not to buy healthy food, so no one sells it to them. Making healthy food available does not change this behavior.

http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/giving-people-ac...

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Re:The Despair of Poor White Americans by ajamesm on Saturday August 06, 2016 @05:09PM (#12239949)
proximity to good food is necessary, but not sufficient, for healthy meals. People's consumption choices are also informed by (for example) whether they have the skills to cook the food that's available to them
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Re:The Despair of Poor White Americans by twblalock on Saturday August 06, 2016 @04:54PM (#12239882)
There is plenty of data, in the article you linked, demonstrating that the behavior and priorities of these people are indeed misguided and violent. That's not what I suspect, that's what I know, and there is no shortage of data to back this up.

The thing I suspect is that the violence these people visit on themselves contributes more to their situation than lack of access to government services. I didn't say that more government services wouldn't help at all.

By the way, the Baltimore Sun article you cited is not about poor white people. It is about poor urban blacks in West Baltimore. That's not really relevant to this discussion, because blacks have faced enslavement and discrimination for centuries in this country. Discrimination against blacks, especially in hiring practices, has helped the poor white people we are talking about. Having to now compete against non-whites for jobs is a significant component of the poor white anger in this country, although many don't want to admit that.

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