A Tale of Two Counties

From Bluegrass-State Blues by Anne Lowrey in the New York Times today.  Coal country is the most disadvantaged part of the United States - - even after periodic attempts to flood persistently poor counties with federal dollars in an effort to jump start the region into higher growth rates.  Geography still matters - - sometimes being poor in rural areas is because you are poor in rural areas.  The global economy is all about population density and synergy.  Small and spread out is a really, really bad combination in the knowledge economy - - and federal spending on the local wastewater treatment plant doesn't fix spread out or small.  It doesn't fix 7.4% of the population has a college degree.  It doesn't fix 11.7% receive Social Security disability payments.  It doesn't fix geography - - Ph.D.s next to the nuclear weapons program in New Mexico receive more opportunities directly supported by the federal government.  A tale of two counties was never going to be fair.  It will never be fair.

	Education	Median Household Income	Jobless Rate	Disability Rate	Life Expectancy	Obesity Rate
Clay	7.4%	$22.296	12.7%	11.7%	71.4	45.5%
Los Alamos	63.2	106,462	3.5	0.3	82.4	22.6
U.S.	11.9	43,810	7.5	1.3	77.4	38.0