If you ever want to feel depressed; of course no one would choose such an option; but just on the off hand you did, then all you need do is attend a medical clinic used by the denizens of Appalachia. Such has been my experience over the past eighteen years as I’ve lived on the edge of Appalachia, in the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains.
I can only address the people as poor souls. They exist on government subsidies and Medicaid. Many are crippled and either rail thin or obesely overweight. Few fit into what you would define as a “normal” body style. Many are without teeth or at least most of their teeth. Yet, they persist.
The upper Tennessee Valley is the home to part of the Manhattan project where the government came in and took, through eminent domain, large tracts of land. First it was for the Tennessee Valley Authority and the building of dams like the Norris dam which required 152,000 acres of what had been farm land and small towns. More than 2,800 families were dislocated through this federal government action but the TVA and its abundance of electricity was one of the reasons the government, in October 1942, requisitioned another 62,000 acres to build the Oak Ridge part of the Manhattan Project. This displaced another 3,000 subsistence farmers.
My point is, the government set up programs for the displaced people and there has been, since the early1930s a government dependence in this area that has only grown larger with the advent, in the 1960s, of the War Against Poverty and Great Society social programs of the Johnson administration. On the one hand you feel sorry for individuals who have been stripped of their self-worth through this dependence upon Big Brother’s generosity, and on the other you are angry that people have allowed this to happen to four generations who might, otherwise, have been contributors to the economic well-being of society.
I don’t have any answers since the Great Society programs essentially grew the Tennessee Valley experience exponentially and now we have, all across the U.S. a significant part of society who are dependent upon the government for their very subsistence. They not only lack the will to work but the social construct of why working within the society would provide them a totally different psychological experience and make them much more likely to be happy people. In fact, collective groups have come to fight against the very concept of work demanding it is the right of citizens to be paid a living wage by the government. One NY representative has stated that people who don’t want to work shouldn’t be forced into the labor market. Somehow she has construed that such people would turn their time to altruistic endeavors which, of course, is belied by the history of those groups currently not working. None of the people I see around me seem in the least bit inclined to the arts, unless it is fingernail art, tattoos or pieces of faux silver sticking out of various parts of their body, generally their faces. A little research informs me that a simple small uncolored tattoo runs $50 while full arms, legs and backs run $8,000 to $10,000 depending upon the artist. Acrylic nails run $60 to $100 at a nail salon. As for piercings, I don’t even want to guess. I wonder if tattoo artists, nails stylists and skin piercers accept EBT.
Having had a mobile meth lab dispensed of in the creek at my front gate and having some contacts in the sheriff’s office I know meth dealers don’t accept EBT cards but they will accept just about anything else of value. The average per gram for 80% pure meth is $100 in this area. There are 454 grams to the pound so that would be $45,400/lb. Then there are mobile phones; oh, forgot there are government programs that provide mobile phones. Of course, all the missing teeth could just be from a lack of dental hygiene and not meth addiction but our state socialized medical system provides for basic dental care.
All I’m saying is that it is distressing to sit in this waiting room and watch some of the people around me. All this human capital gone to naught and all because a group of idealists thought they were doing right. If true equality is the goal of the progressives they should be insisting on contributions of labor in exchange for a living wage. Somehow we’ve gone from the Work Programs Administration to the It’s all free to you but cost the taxpayers administration. Humans may believe they have intrinsic rights granted by a god but take one, put them alone in the wild and see how often god intervenes to see their rights to subsistence and housing is satisfied. Rights are granted by the society humans form for group and self protection. They are an agreed upon charter, and procedures are put in place to protect the rights granted under that charter. The charter of the United States of American is the U.S. Constitution. Nowhere in that charter does it mention a living wage, food stamps, free phones, or the other emoluments of race and economic status. When we talk about the death of the American Dream what we actually mean isn’t the ability to buy a house but the ability to make our own decisions, to work for what we want and to take pride in what we build and leave behind. That’s the true American Dream and these people I’m sitting with have had that taken away from them.