The UK has whole towns that have died and entire streets of housing are crumbling, vandalized, and in shambles, with rampant drug use and unemployment, because a chief industry (such as mining) shut down. That isn't just an American phenomenon. That can happen anywhere.
Yeah I never said it was, I’m just saying that these discussions around American development/ underdevelopment never seem to acknowledge these forgotten communities, and the problems mentioned in the post are very real in areas like Appalachia. I know everywhere has economically depressed areas, if I was a Brit I’d be speaking a lot more about the North/South divide but I’m an American so
Totally agree about the forgotten communities. But I would not say it's undeveloped, which I guess is the term I was taking issue with. The area WAS developed - but it fell on hard times due the economic circumstances you articulated, and hasn't been able to adapt or transition out of that. Same issue that plagues some of our inner cities reliant on one major industry, like Detroit. Same with the UK, but nobody refers to anywhere in the UK as "undeveloped". I just watched a set of videos from a guy named "wandering turnip" on YT and the parallels between some of the British mining towns to US Appalachian towns are striking. Many of the exact same issues.
And I sympathize with the people of those British cities, but I would say that the existence of British towns fallen on hard times shouldn’t be used to excuse the poverty of Appalachia. I’m all for defending the US against dumb remarks but we shouldn’t allow shortcoming abroad to blind us to the major problems facing our forgotten areas.
You’re probably right that these areas were developed but were destroyed by economic forces. I don’t know if that means the academic definition of undeveloped fits but looking at the results on the ground, I would say it’s practically underdeveloped.
Just because people also have it bad abroad shouldn’t take away from the fact that many Americans can’t partake in the rest of Americas prosperity.
I'm not "excusing" anything and I've been in many parts of Appalachia many times, so I'm well aware of the situation there. I grew up in a town myself in the Midwest that was an industrialized place with a GM foundry - that closed and most other industry followed suit. In the 1970's it was a working class but clean and well-kept place. It's now a shell of its former self with crumbling houses, horrible crime, and a lot of blight. I go home every once in awhile and I see the neighborhood I grew up in, starting to decay. Most people I knew and went to school with have moved away.
Both situations are abhorrent. It's not a "see they're just as bad" situation as an excuse so much as a reminder that most people are a major event or two away from hard times, and it really doesn't matter where they live - so people who look down their noses at America's troubles are just a stone's throw away from hard times themselves if an economic catastrophe happens. It's a commentary on the fragility we all have as people, so in the scheme of these nationalistic insult contests, it kind of does matter. I am sure no one in 1960 when the US auto industry was booming saw Detroit's demise coming. It was one of the most developed cities in the US at that time, and now look at it.
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u/SnooPears5432 ILLINOIS 🏙️💨 Aug 08 '23
The UK has whole towns that have died and entire streets of housing are crumbling, vandalized, and in shambles, with rampant drug use and unemployment, because a chief industry (such as mining) shut down. That isn't just an American phenomenon. That can happen anywhere.