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Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Poor Like PA, Poor Like NC

What makes poverty in one state worse than in another?
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Continuing the discussion about class, Trump, Sanders, and the unwinding of America — see here and here to get caught up, a reader e-mailed this, which I post with his permission:

I’ve been reading your blog for years, and I’m not much for commenting or emailing, but your post today about Mayberry has finally prompted me to respond. My mom is from Mount Airy, my grandma and an aunt and uncle still live there, and the family has lived in that area of for hundreds of years. Deep roots and all. Until my generation, though the family was always poor. They barely scratched out a living as tobacco farmers and after that worked in the textile mills in the area.

As far as it goes for my family, Mount Airy never had a golden age. When my mom was a kid, everyone had to work in the textile mills to make ends meet. For example, my mom never learned how to cook (literally, I grew up eating lots of frozen food and McDonalds) because everyone was so tired at the end of the day that they usually ate KFC. In other words, even during the golden years of industry, it was a place that didn’t pay well enough to provide for a family. The more I hear about how my mom grew up, the more it sounds like what we would think of as third world.

What’s interesting is comparing this to where my dad grew up, the Altoona PA area (luckily for him I guess, not in a Catholic family). My grandpa worked in heavy industry, and the family had a small farm that my grandma took care of. When my grandpa ended up having a debilitating illness (and eventually death) from his work, they got a big settlement and coverage of medical bills because of a strong Union.

Both central PA and the North Carolina Piedmont are Trump country for good reason, they’re suffering from deindustrialization and downright hatred from people on the coasts,  but they’re not the same. Central PA had its problems but my dad’s side were able to live really decent lives during the golden age or whatever we’re calling the middle of the 20th century. My mom’s side in North Carolina barely made it and that has a lot to do with the history and culture of the South. When it did industrialize, business leaders in North Carolina were able to keep out unions and exploit the labor of an area that was already pretty poor. They weren’t looking to promote family or solidarity, they were looking to get away from the unionized north.

Anyway, I’m working on a Ph.D. in political theory and it seems like these two places would be perfect for a case study. They look similar on the surface, deindustrialized, Appalachian, hopeless, etc. One was always that way, the other wasn’t. I’m a lefty so the presence of unions in the one appeals to me as an explanation, but it would take a sustained project to find out.

Anyway, thanks for your blog. I think I couldn’t disagree with you more on sexual politics or the evils of liberalism, but when it comes to place and solidarity, I’m with you 100%.

Readers, any thoughts?

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