Stagnation in the Countryside
Duncan, Cynthia M.
Over the last decade poor young adults in rural areas have not been finding enough work to support themselves. Federal social programs are an important buffer: food stamps, Medicaid, Aid to...
...In Appalachia it is certain families who are known to "deliver" certain hollers or families for the politicians, in the Delta it's those blacks who go along with the system, "the Toms...
...Those who are poor in communities with more diverse economies are not as likely to be assigned permanent places at the bottom of the social structure, and they benefit when there is a middle class that invests in public goods like schools, parks, youth programs, local transportation, and child care...
...2. You can leave a specific percentage of your estate...
...Public-sector jobs are often part of an entrenched patronage system, doled out to political supporters...
...Service industries that offer steady employment require workers with more education, and they tend to be located in growing suburban areas, not remote rural or dense urban communities...
...Depressed rural communities face many of the same problems...
...Jobs for those with limited skills and education are no longer available...
...280 • DISSENT Stagnation in the Countryside Even as the local elite depends on these programs to keep the work force going, it criticizes the poor for accepting public assistance...
...We ask you to consider one of the following options: 1. You can leave a specific amount or a particular asset...
...I bequeath % of my estate to the Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas...
...Federal social programs, especially in education and training, have made a difference in the past and would make a difference now for these poor young adults...
...They need skills and work...
...The national welfare system and unemployment programs protect poor people living on the margin in these communities, but they also subsidize rural industries and employers...
...Wages can be too low to live on, hours too few to count on, and jobs expanding and contracting with the volatile movement of markets far from these communities...
...In contrast, poor young people in more diverse communities tend to use public programs and networks to pave their way into the work force, making up for their family's inability to help them do so...
...For more specifics on this or other information on gift planning, feel free to phone or write Dissent, 521 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y...
...As William J. Wilson has pointed out, when a community's economy declines and middle-income workers begin to SPRING • 1991 • 279 Stagnation in the Countryside ARE YOU MOVING...
...Finding good, steady work in remote rural areas has been hard for decades...
...But they also represent another source of social control for local elites...
...This appears to confirm findings of researchers that those poor who can escape poverty areas are more likely to escape poverty itself...
...I bequeath $ to the Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas...
...Those determined to stay in these communities would piece together a livelihood through a combination of seasonal employment, small businesses, odd jobs, and often some public assistance...
...It blames the families and the "culture" for social problems, not the economy, and the stigma is one more source of tension for those receiving assistance...
...High unemployment, poverty and dependency, out-of-wedlock births, and crime in the inner cities have received much attention...
...Young people who do not have the resources to adjust to the new labor market become trapped in declining communities...
...Manufacturing industries—the chief source of rural jobs in the 1960s and 1970s —laid off workers, closed shop, or moved overseas...
...Hundreds of thousands of migrants left Appalachia and the rural South during this period...
...The goods-producing industries that offered unskilled, high-school-educated young workers stable jobs and upward mobility in past decades are no longer a source of employment growth...
...After World War II an increased exodus to city jobs brought a dramatic decline in rural poverty, from 22 million in 1950 to 12 million hi 1970...
...The brief period of revitalization was stimulated by several factors: prices for farm products rose, the OPEC oil embargo spurred growth in domestic energy industries, and manufacturing concerns moved to rural areas, where labor costs were lower...
...The rural downturn that began in the early 1980s is now widely accepted as a structural, rather than cyclical, change in the national economy...
...q SPRING • 1991 • 281...
...Expectations, like class boundaries, are less rigid, and those from poor families can improve themselves...
...Those who wanted economic security or mobility moved to the city to find jobs...
...Farm-dependent communities suffered as farmers' debt increased and income dropped...
...The elites and uppermiddle class look out for themselves, while those dependent on their largess make do with poorly funded schools and a lack of public goods...
...Rigid distinctions on the basis of class and ethnic background have oppressed many rural people for generations...
...But we have those potential workers here in our depressed communities and need to commit resources for their sake, the sake of their children, and for the country's future...
...10017 (212) 595-3084...
...Running unsuccessfully against a corrupt school board in Appalachia to bring about reforms means your daughter and nephew are likely to lose their jobs in the kitchen or classroom...
...These rural migrants went to jobs in the expanding automobile and steel factories or to construction jobs in growing cities...
...We know that changes in the structure of the economy have had powerful negative effects on young people in the inner cities...
...Poor young people who move from the depressed inner-city neighborhoods to communities with more workers and better schools do better in school and work...
...This power that comes with control over jobs means that you cannot challenge the local elite or their policies without risking the loss of your own job...
...International competition in goods-producing industries hit rural areas hard in the early 1980s...
...When these urban industrial areas began to decline in the late 1970s, rural economies experienced surprising growth for a few years, and there were new employment opportunities...
...Second-class publications are not forwarded by your Post Office, but returned (at senders' expense) to be repackaged and reshipped: . . . Three postage payments, for us, plus weeks of delay...
...Send both old and new address to: DISSENT, 521 Fifth Ave...
...When times are hard in the national economy, poor people in remote areas become even more isolated as the social fabric unravels, undermining both the will and the means to provide the public goods on which the poor depend...
...Federal social programs are an important buffer: food stamps, Medicaid, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), Head Start, and job training programs are critical to their survival...
...To avoid this, and help DISSENT, please notify us one month in advance of your change of address...
...3. You can leave the remainder of your estate...
...Employers can select those known to be reliable and docile and reject those who have sought change in the community...
...The farm population declined from 17.7 million in 1950 to 5.4 million in 1985...
...It is harder to be poor in poor communities...
...In both areas young people have been hit the hardest...
...10017 move away, institutions that shape the future, like schools, libraries, and local papers, also deteriorate...
...Between the late 1940s and the early 1970s, a period of national expansion, urban economies could absorb the unemployed and underemployed from rural areas...
...Economists forecast labor shortages in the future, and many argue for increased immigration of skilled workers...
...New York, N.Y...
...Their children get the summer jobs, the special training a new program offers, a special scholarship...
...Social welfare programs play a large role in these poor communities, providing support for the poor and subsidizing industries that depend on low wages and seasonal labor...
...Poor rural communities tend to have two social classes— those who have control and those who are vulnerable to that control, the haves and the have-nots...
...With no middle class to act as a bridge between the wealthy and the poor, the community is sharply divided and the poor are left isolated in a world of tension, failure, and dependency...
...Without a steadily working blue-collar middle class, remote rural communities become fiefdoms of small, powerful elites...
...When everything necessary for a good life is scarce—jobs, housing, clothing, transportation— individual anxiety eats away at civic generosity...
...This rural turnaround was short-lived...
...Rural areas, like inner cities, appear to have intractable high unemployment and high poverty...
...The poverty rate for young people in rural areas has more than doubled over the last decade, from 17 percent in 1978 to 36 percent in 1987...
...The local politics and rigid stratification in chronically depressed places undermine even those public-sector opportunities...
...But people can stay and survive and be available as workers because of food stamps, AFDC, Medicaid, and unemployment benefits...
...The same is true in remote rural areas...
...In poor rural communities this is not the case, and those from poor families move up only by moving out...
...Powerful elites often have control over jobs in the private sector as well...
...This means that we need to provide more comprehensive federal programs to make up for the lack of private opportunities and to overcome the oppression of the local "public" sector or political structure...
...In small communities where the labor market is tight, getting a job generally depends on family members' reputations for being "good workers" and "not making trouble...
...The rigid stratification system means there is no public-sector investment that buffers the inequalities...
...A LEGACY OF IDEAS A bequest of any size can be of lasting benefit to Dissent and help ensure that the ideas and beliefs you hold dear will continue to have a public forum...
...Our legal name is the Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas...
...The rural poor are living in concentrated poverty, much like that of the inner cities...
...After distributing the specific bequests listed above (to others in your will), I leave the remainder of my estate to the Foundation for the Study of Independent Social Ideas...
Vol. 38 • April 1991 • No. 2
