The following is a quote from Rights of Man by Thomas Paine first published in 1791. This is from Chapter 5 titled "Ways And Means of Improving the Condition of Europe, Intersped with Miscellaneous Observations".
"Cases are continually occurring in metropolis, different from those which occur in the country,and for which a different, or rather an additional, mode of relief is necessary. In the country, even the large towns, people have a knowledge of each other, and distress never rises to the extreme height that it sometimes does in a metropolis. There is no such thing in the country, as persons, in the literal sense of the word, starved to death, or dying with cold fro, the want of a lodging. Yet such cases, and others equally miserable happen in London."
The world's population has increasingly moved to urban areas especially in the time after Paine's writings in the late eighteenth century due to industrialization. Urban poverty is still a major issue and the welfare system has only made it worse. Part of the reason for the breakdown of culture in America is the rise of mega cities. There are so many people crammed in together that there is no sense of community or neighborliness. This trend is accelerating as mega cities such as New York City continue to grow. It is important to note that most of the Yellow Jacket movement protesters are from suburbs and the country side. The Yellow Jacket protesters are protesting against Emmanuel Macron's technocratic policies that have left French culture to decay. A few months ago Macron said that there is no such thing as French culture. France makes a great deal of money from French culture. France is a popular tourist destination as it has many great medieval cathedrals and castles. Being a part of the European Union and the currency union means that the currency the French use, the Euro, is heavily influenced by the actions of the European Central Bank. The European Central Bank lowered interest rates in the wake of the 2012 European debt crises. At that time many European such as Greece, France, and Portugal were burdened by high public debt. In such public debt often came to close to 100% of GDP and many of the same countries are still just as indebted. In other words, some European countries have public debt that is equal to the total final goods and services produced within a country.
Since the 1950's urban sprawl has led to the creation of many suburbs around cities. During the 2008 recession we saw this trend reverse as people moved to the inner city closer to work. This trend led to the inner part of many cities being revitalized as wealthier people eventually moved in. Rent went up in many areas forcing low income families out of some neighborhoods. There are a couple of ways to prevent this from happening. One is rent controls or preventing landlords from raising the rent on low income families beyond a certain point. Also, development could be limited to certain parts of the city. Thus, preventing rent from going up in certain areas while other parts of the city are revitalized. Another consequence of this trend is that in many U.S cities the Suburban poor outnumber the urban poor as people leave suburbs for the growing inner city and low income families are forced out of certain parts of the inner city. Also, suburbs typically offer fewer services such as public transportation than large cities. As I've mentioned in my blog on immigration, one the possible ways to help the urban poor find good jobs is to match them with jobs in areas with labor shortages such as North Dakota. Also, there are high skilled industries in the U.S that face labor shortages and some of these industries offer blue collar jobs that do not require a college degree. So, another possibility is to offer training for blue collar jobs to low income workers. It may be more practical since many families may not be willing to move, especially out of state, for a job. In the long run if labor shortages in the U.S are filled by domestic workers especially workers that were previously performed low skill work than poverty would be significantly reduced.
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