America is a sick society

[Bob Butler 54]

(12-20-2016, 01:30 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(12-20-2016, 11:51 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(12-17-2016, 10:28 AM)Odin Wrote: Technology is advancing too quickly for people to culturally adapt. A big reason for the angst in rural America and in the Rust Belt is people simply being unable to comprehend automation and it's ultimate end-game. Americans are raised to believe that one must earn one's money through hard work, and that ever since WW2 we have been raised to expect a good-paying job to be our birthright, even for those people who are not capable of higher education.

At the same time, a lot of these people are stuck where they are, their wealth is tied up in their houses and good luck trying to sell a house in a small rust belt town, nobody want to move to those places, which makes all the talking points about how they should just move downright tone-deaf and just increases the resentment against the "educated elites".

Then mix this together with people having chronic pain as a result of a lifetime of blue collar work, which then leads these people to end up addicted to opioid painkillers.

This is exaggerated by various parts of the country having traditions of and workforces trained for specific industries.  The new companies and jobs tend to be high tech.  If one is booting up a high tech start up, it would be silly not to locate in Silicon Valley, Route 128 or similar enclaves.  That's where you find workers with the skills you need to make it.  You can find such workers even though the cost of living would be a downer.

The Rust Belt towns are often built around one factory.  When that factory goes away, you get a slow death.  Wishful thinking suggests all one needs is some sort of replacement.  Not easy.

I agree.

I think there is no hope for these people unless they start voting Democratic. Then they can get government help to retrain, re-educate and/or re-locate; if not for themselves, then for their children who can support them. And failing that, guaranteed income from taxes on the robot and machine owners.

They voted, some of them, for better trade deals. If that happens, it might help in some cases. If they voted for immigration restriction, there's no hope for them.

The same applies, of course, to coal country nearby; part of the same Trump-belt.

A couple of problems.  If one votes Democratic, this does not change the basic nature of the Rust Belt work force and economy.  While I can sympathize with a lot of the blue initiatives as delaying tactics and bandaids, I don't know of any programs that will restart the abandoned Rust Belt factories.  If no new companies are brought in that provide meaningful goods and services to those outside the community, the community dwindles.  A town cannot thrive with people selling groceries, cars, haircuts and dancing lessons to one another.  The town has to produce something that outsiders are willing to pay for, something that brings money into the local economy.

I was also discouraged by Hillbilly Eulogy.  The Rust Belt and Coal Country Scotts Irish values make for poor workers, whether one is properly trained with desired skill sets or not.  The culture tends to blame anyone but one's self.  It seems better to vote for an autocrat and empty promises than take action on one's own behalf.