Rural ghetto

Rural ghetto

The term rural ghetto was coined by Osha Gray Davidson in the book "Broken Heartland: The Rise of America's Rural Ghetto" and is used to describe the influx of poverty and neglect in the small towns of Midwestern United States that occurred in the 1980s and 1990s. [cite book
last = Davidson
first = Osha
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title = Broken Heartland: The Rise of America's Rural Ghetto
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publisher = University Of Iowa Press
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language = English
isbn = 0877455546]

According to an April, 1993 review of the book by Fred Magdoff, rural ghettos are often "omitted from most people's conception of poverty." For one thing, "rural poverty is less visually dramatic than urban poverty--poorly insulated mobile homes and weatherbeaten single family houses look almost quaint compared to urban tenements." Magdoff goes on to point out the reality of poverty in rural areas does not fit a common conception of idyllic farms. [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1132/is_n11_v44/ai_13693872 Broken Heartland: The Rise of America's Rural Ghetto. - book reviews | Monthly Review | Find Articles at BNET.com ] ]

Some of the trends driving the rural ghetto phenomenon:
* A speculation-driven bubble in land prices.
* A push by agricultural officials to have farmers produce as much grain as possible, the "fence row to fence row" mandate.
* The bank crisis, partially caused by banks pushing too-easy-to-get credit on both farm and non-farm businesses.
* The decline in the number of non-farm jobs and the increase of low-paying service-sector jobs.
* The opening of large malls on the outskirts of towns.
* Reagan-era reduction in farm aid to states, cities and towns when aid was most needed.

References

Further reading

[http://www.rakemag.com/stories/section_detail.aspx?itemID=14632&catID=146&SelectCatID=146 "No. 1 Hard: Notes on the Emptying Out of North Dakota" by Jennifer Vogel]

[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2008-01/emptied-north-dakota/bowden-text.html "National Geographic, The Emptied Prairie, about the slow painful death of North Dakota"]


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