The hidden issue poverty in the appalachian region

Its truly amazing just how many people are living in poverty in the Appalachian region and the sad part you don't hear anyone taking about it!

Yahoo Voices

Poverty in Appalachia: The Broken Homes
By "broken homes" I do not mean divorce and infidelity (though the residents of Appalachia informed me that both are very prevalent in the region). The homes that I refer to as being broken are the Appalachian residents' physical homes.While in Appalachia, those I was traveling with and I worked on repairing homes and other structures.

Third world living conditions hidden by mountains and forest right in our own backyard here are some of the statistics

•More than 40% of Appalachia residents are living in poverty, and of the 60% who are not, a large number are living on the border line of poverty.
Appalachian residents are more prone to chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, diabetes, and high cholesterol.
The poverty rate in the Appalachian Mountains is about three times the poverty rate for all of America.

Sorry if this turned into a rant it just upsets me that America is supposed to be this mighty first world nation yet we can't even feed or help our own people!

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It's been that way forever I think.
My mom grew up in extreme poverty in the mountains. She had 9 brothers and sisters.
My grandma looked after kids and farmed - wasn't anything else to do.
My granddad made moonshine and would take it to the small cities to sell and be gone for a while. Sometimes he'd party a bit too long with the money and hardly any would come home.

My mother and older uncle told stories of one time they were starving in the winter, so they stole chickens from the neighbors. She said she was pretty sure one neighbor knew that it was the kids stealing chickens but didn't say anything.

She only got an 8th grade education. They had it pretty bad.

This is bad. The Applachians were poor even during the boom times of the 80s. They have no real representation to promote changes just a bunch of useless politicians...

America is poor. Detroit, Oakland, New Orleans, DC, Baltimore, Houston, Port Arthur, Mobile, Atlanta, Griffin, Rock Hill, Charlotte, St. Louis, Chicago, Peoria, NYC...... These are just some places where people live in broken homes. Ones poverty isn't worse than the other.

We have a lot of work to do.

S&F Thank you for posting this.

When the issue of poverty is raised in the media, the majority of the stories are in reference to countries outside of the US.

When poverty in the US is raised, the issue is primarily raised as a causal factor triggering urban crime and violence.

Whenever I see articles regarding that second example, I often think about the fact that we don't hear about the same level's of crime and violence in the Appalachians, yet a person living in an urban environment generally is able to walk a few blocks and apply for a job at a fast food joint or retail outlet to at least earn something. Many of the poor living in the Appalachians must walk miles to reach the prospect of any employment or even to apply for assistance such as food stamps and such.

It is such a beautiful and yet at the same time a hostile place.

What makes me sick is that there are organizations who only help people in other countries (with USA contributions). A friend of mine called on me about a month ago to ask for a donation for a house in Mexico she and others were going to raise donations to pay people to build. She called all her professional contacts that day and raised $80k, all of which went to Mexico. Why aren't we helping our own first???

But with the impending collapse will these places notice the change? Will they be better off than the rest of us? Some people don't even know how to get through the day without a phone or facebook while others just try to make it through the day filling their stomach and keeping a dry head. They have a show coming soon about the Appalachian mountain men which looks interesting.

reply to post by Tiger5


I'm in my 50's..
when I was young, they used to have commercials on tv, kind of like the "Save The Children" commericials you see now, but it was for poor in the appalachian region. I think those commericials still have an impact on me.

One reason you don't hear about it is that these folks are too proud to ask for help. It can be a sad place, but they're better at surviving than most. This is not an area that takes kindly to strangers, unless they settle down and become part of the community or can quickly establish who they know and are related to. The government screwed a lot of families over by taking their land ages ago with imminent domain (and then did nothing with it). They don't want outsiders and their brand of help- especially government help.

LeSigh (has family in Appalachia)