I just finished reading "Hillbilly Elegy".

[llmart]

10. This is where he posed a dichotomy, at least to me.

He praised some assistance programs, was angry about how legislation tightened the reins on payday advance loans saying congresspeople didn't understand how important they were to low income people, then denigrated those who worked the system and had no incentive to do what was required to pull themselves out of poverty. On the one hand I agreed with him about what I've seen in my experience in the small rural town where I grew up. I left as soon as I graduated from high school. Many refuse to leave a town where there are no jobs and then complain that the jobs should come to them. They don't heed the warnings of changes in the economy. The warnings were there in the early 80's about computers and automation, etc. yet they still clung to the notion that manufacturing and farming were coming back. Magical thinking I guess.

I rarely go back to my home town. Last year I went to visit two of my best friends from high school and then we met up with two others I was friends with and hadn't seen in almost 50 years. I was dismayed by the number of Trump signs in yards. I was also dismayed by how stuck in the past they all were. After three days I went back home and realized that I had nothing in common with these people any longer. One even asked me if I'd ever consider moving back and I'm afraid I blurted out rather harshly, "not for a minute".