In the decades since, the federal government has poured more than $3.6 billion into trying to ease the hardship in McDowell County, according to estimates from the Economic Innovation Group, using current dollars. That doesn’t include the roughly $13 billion more in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid payments.It hasn’t worked.Here in the heart of America’s War on Poverty, some two-thirds of households with children still get food stamps, among the nation’s highest rates, and the estimated median household income hovers around $35,000. Nonfarm employment has plummeted 78% since 1975, according to data compiled by West Virginia University economist John Deskins, as the coal that once powered this rugged place is now mostly mined with machines, if at all, and no other industry has replaced it. The county has lost 67% of its residents over those years, the largest drop in West Virginia, its population dwindling from just over 51,000 to roughly 17,000.With little faith left in government to break the cycle of poverty, those who remain say it’s up to them to forge a brighter economic path.“We’re on our own,” said Jason Tartt. “Nobody’s coming down here to save us.”
I reckon we'll see more and more of this as government ineptitude reaches critical levels. My neighborhood already hired a private patrol car because the police are inept. We're going to see more and more communities take their lives into their own hands instead of relying on government bureaucracy, which is a beautiful thing.