The Simple Life Ain't So Simple After All

Poverty is a defining issue for many Americans these days, since more of them are vulnerable to sliding down the economic ladder any time now. The media has seared images of fallen former members of the middle class and abandoned subdivisions in our minds. As a result, poverty in metropolitan areas has become increasingly well-publicized over the past several years. There is a whole other side to poverty, however, that is much more complicated and obscure than life in the city.

At least one in five Americans lives in a rural area, and about 15 percent of those people live in poverty, higher than the national average. A Population Reference Bureau survey showed that child poverty rates are "higher in rural areas for every racial and ethnic group except for Asian Americans." This is a decades or centuries-old problem, not a result of the recession. Partially as a result of that, you won't be hearing much about it on the evening news. It's difficult to speak up when you are at the bottom rung of the ladder.

Rural areas in general lack the basic systems that keep any metropolitan area alive. Poor educational resources and underemployment are characteristic of remote areas, simply due to geographic location. Access to public transportation is virtually nonexistent, which limits employment opportunities since the majority of jobs are located in cities. Medical specialists like obstetricians and pediatricians are few in remote areas, forcing people to travel long distances for adequate care. Single parents are hit especially hard by the lack of child care and the difficulty of applying for public assistance. The more rural the area, the more impoverished the population will be.

Many of the poorest of the poor live in areas such as the Southern Highlands or Mississippi Delta, and chronic poverty is generally measured by county, such as Crosby County, Texas, or Todd County, South Dakota. These four locations in particular represent, respectively, white, African American, Hispanic and Native American populations. They all share the same circumstances, although they live in separate areas of the United States and have disparate ethnic backgrounds. Without government assistance for transportation, education and medical care, these people aren't able to create successful communities with a stable infrastructure, and as a result cannot attract longstanding, worthwhile commercial opportunities for themselves. It's necessary to acknowledge the damage caused by our own willingness to ignore entire communities of impoverished Americans, and do our best to make sure they stay in the headlines.

Photo Credit: Rachel Mulroy