Economic Opportunity Is Lowest In the Republican Bible Belt, Major Study Finds

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/economic-opportunity-lowest-former-slave-states


The website Equality-Of-Opportunity.org was established this year by four leading economists from Harvard and Berkeley, and it now headlines their major findings, “Mobility in the 100 Largest Commuting Zones.” It ranks all 100 largest U.S. cities for the chances of a person born poor to rise from the bottom 20% to the top 20%.

Whereas all of the top 21 cities (NYC being ranked #21) are shown clustered there closely around 10% for the given place’s odds that a resident born in the bottom 20% will rise into the top 20%, all except just three of the bottom 21 cities are in Old Dixie. Here, the probabilities of rising from the bottom 20% to the top 20% range widely, between just 6.7% (one-third less than in the best locales) down to merely 2.6% (around one-quarter of the probability in the best locales), among these 21 bottom-ranked cities.

In other words: virtually all of this nation’s class-rigidity still remains in the U.S. South, even after the Civil War. New Dixie has replaced the aristocracy’s black slaves of Old Dixie, by the local (white) aristocracy’s institutionalized bigotry against poor people, now of all ethnic groups. What used to be their purely racist bigotry has, it seems, devolved into a crushing, pervasive, classist, bigotry in the South.

Explaining this would produce controversy, and unfortunately the researchers don’t even try. However, it is a striking finding, which demands an explanation.

[malaise]

1. Apparently Jebus does not save

Hopefully one day the sheeple will wake up

[HereSince1628]

3. The poor are beautiful in their tolerance, it's cruel to deny them that opportunity

to demonstrate grace.

[malaise]

4. You betcha

[hobbit709]

6. "The meek shall inherit the earth"

The part that isn't mentioned is that it's in six by two foot plots.

[malaise]

7. The really frightening part is

how many sheeple believe that shite - I swear that it is the greatest con in history.

[MisterP]

2. same with teen pregnancy--and it produces the same consequences

it's played off as a "moral crisis" and this calls for cuts to sex ed "because it causes this": the unstated premises are 1) the ultraconservative,

each swing to the right/militarization is coordinated and comprehensive--*Eleanor Roosevelt* announced that no Russkie would make Murka integrate, and McCarthy was expelled only for being an embarrassment to the purge of Reds and Lavenders; the late-70s reaction likewise covered soldiers, scientists, media moguls, TV presenters, clergy, professors, Big Business, Wall Street, the Dems, etc., etc.

the Powell Memo, the think tanks, the Team B, the Baptist Coup, the NRA's shift, "renegade thinkers," hippie-bashing professional scoffers--these are part of a big reaction that worked to pull politics to the right (no matter what the people wanted): whether by networking and plotting or by synchronicity, this is what ended Fordism and decoupled wages from productivity

[pampango]

5. And other studies have shown that it is highest in "socialist, 'free-trading'" Euopean

countries.

Not surprising that the conservative, nativist South would have less economic opportunity than the liberal, globalist countries in Europe.

[Romulox]

10. LOL. Keep looking for a place to hang that hat. You'll find it, one day. nt

[pampango]

11. If the hat fits, ...

[Brigid]

8. And until people in said Republican Bible Belt wake up,

Take a good look around, and start asking themselves why their lives are so damned hard, nothing will change.

[JaneyVee]

9. Top 10 poorest, least educated, and most religious states are all red states.

[socialist_n_TN]

12. Having lived here all of my life......

and having family that stretches back over 200 years in the south, I KNOW this is true. This is why southern politicians, especially the Dems, miss the boat when the don't play the "economic populist" card. Ignore as much as you can the God, gunz, and gays arguments and pound home the "rich are rich AT YOUR EXPENSE" arguments.

It worked for Huey P. Long, it'll work today.