sd'sker Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 A composite ranking of where Americans are healthy and wealthy, or struggling. Link to comment
walksalone Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 without even looking, I'm gonna say Jersey is top 5... Link to comment
sd'sker Posted June 28, 2014 Author Share Posted June 28, 2014 without even looking, I'm gonna say Jersey is top 5... you will be doubly disappointed. Link to comment
tschu Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 Todd County and Shannon County - Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations. I grew up just miles from them...it's very true, the poverty, despair, addiction, hopelessness...really really sad. Reservations are simply cesspools of cyclical poverty that nobody seems to want to do anything about Link to comment
sd'sker Posted June 28, 2014 Author Share Posted June 28, 2014 you didn't grow up in whiteclay, did you? Link to comment
tschu Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 No, and f#*k the liquor store owners who prey on the reservation population. I hope they sleep well at night. Link to comment
sd'sker Posted June 28, 2014 Author Share Posted June 28, 2014 No, and f#*k the liquor store owners who prey on the reservation population. I hope they sleep well at night. that's why i asked. that town is interesting. Link to comment
tschu Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 Yeah...they do business in the order of millions of dollars each year in beer alone. It's crazy. Meanwhile Pine Ridge has 90+% unemployment and like a 50% alcoholism rate or something...good work, capitalism, good work. Link to comment
sd'sker Posted June 28, 2014 Author Share Posted June 28, 2014 Yeah...they do business in the order of millions of dollars each year in beer alone. It's crazy. Meanwhile Pine Ridge has 90+% unemployment and like a 50% alcoholism rate or something...good work, capitalism, good work. i agree with you. but at the same time (and i literally just had this thought, because before i was all f#*k 'em, as well), should whiteclay not sell alcohol? i agree it is exploitative. but if they did not sell it, the people buying it would just travel further to get it. i think the issue (or at least most practical solution) is that the reservation does not allow alcohol sales. at least then they could keep the revenue and tax it. it could go to treatment facilities and law enforcement. alcoholism is a major issue and whiteclay is a predator, but what do you think should be the solution? Link to comment
tschu Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 The problem runs a lot deeper than the availability of alcohol...undoubtedly many of them turn to alcohol because there is nothing of value to turn to in their lives. More money for schools, for community outreach, for food stamps, for scholarships, any way to help kids work towards a better life and get out would really really help. And I know that there are already some programs in place, but not nearly enough. As it stands, most kids know nothing but the reservation life and turn to drugs/alcohol/gangs (Pine Ridge is home to one of the world's most deadly gangs). I would be open to anything. Since it's Friday night and I'm drunk, I'm not at my full mental capacity, but maybe a study has already been done? If it hasn't a study into the sort of socioeconomic factors that go into the cyclical poverty of this area should be done. I'm sure one has been done for reservations in general. You can't really point the finger at any one thing in particular...it's just a collection of a whole bunch of very sad factors that combine to create the end result that we see manifesting itself today. Link to comment
sd'sker Posted June 28, 2014 Author Share Posted June 28, 2014 The problem runs a lot deeper than the availability of alcohol...undoubtedly many of them turn to alcohol because there is nothing of value to turn to in their lives. More money for schools, for community outreach, for food stamps, for scholarships, any way to help kids work towards a better life and get out would really really help. And I know that there are already some programs in place, but not nearly enough. As it stands, most kids know nothing but the reservation life and turn to drugs/alcohol/gangs (Pine Ridge is home to one of the world's most deadly gangs). I would be open to anything. Since it's Friday night and I'm drunk, I'm not at my full mental capacity, but maybe a study has already been done? If it hasn't a study into the sort of socioeconomic factors that go into the cyclical poverty of this area should be done. I'm sure one has been done for reservations in general. You can't really point the finger at any one thing in particular...it's just a collection of a whole bunch of very sad factors that combine to create the end result that we see manifesting itself today. i agree, and have been drinking as well. i was just wondering about whiteclay specifically. on one hand, they are predatory fu#*$. on the other, why should they not sell alcohol? i would not want to live someplace that did not sell alcohol. and if they are selling to residents, but the demand is that high, what are they to do? it is just an ugly situation that is vulnerable and easy to exploit. but the reservations need a lot of help. they are in just abject conditions. Link to comment
tschu Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 It's really an interesting ethical question...one one hand there's nothing at all legally wrong with opening a liquor store and selling alcoholic products in Whiteclay, NE. On the other hand, you're directly preying on the fact that 8 in 10 households in the Pine Ridge Reservation are affected by alcoholism, and you're playing an active role in the self-destruction of an entire community - and sucking money out of those people for your own personal gain in the process. There are no easy answers. Link to comment
sd'sker Posted June 28, 2014 Author Share Posted June 28, 2014 It's really an interesting ethical question...one one hand there's nothing at all legally wrong with opening a liquor store and selling alcoholic products in Whiteclay, NE. On the other hand, you're directly preying on the fact that 8 in 10 households in the Pine Ridge Reservation are affected by alcoholism, and you're playing an active role in the self-destruction of an entire community - and sucking money out of those people for your own personal gain in the process. There are no easy answers. i feel like you are being sarcastic. but if you closed the liquor stores in whiteclay (all four of them that netted like 3 million in alcohol sales), alcoholism in pine ridge doesn't just disappear. that is what i am saying. how do you fix that. but maybe you weren't? Link to comment
tschu Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 I wasn't being sarcastic The liquor sales and alcoholism problem is not a zero-sum equation But when you open a store right on the border in Whiteclay, you know exactly what you're doing. But the alcohol-dependent residents might not be deterred by having to drive 20 more miles to X town nearby. The problem can be discussed from both angles, and the problem should be discussed from both angles. Link to comment
sd'sker Posted June 28, 2014 Author Share Posted June 28, 2014 I wasn't being sarcastic The liquor sales and alcoholism problem is not a zero-sum equation i was just thrown off, because ultimately you made a pretty convincing argument on the ethical side. i think i would find it hard to be the owner of one of those liquor stores. but, the normative/practical side of the problem is much more nuanced and nebulous. Link to comment
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