The 10 POOREST STATES in AMERICA

it's a hard-knock life for us it's a hard-knock life for us instead of treated we get tricked steada kisses we get kicked it's the hard-knock life being poor in America isn't fun that's for sure with people all around us humble bragging on Facebook and the negative stigma that comes with taking a handout not having a lot of money is the pits if you look at average incomes per resident per country Americans are sixth wealthiest Switzerland is mr. moneybags around these parts the poorest place on earth believe it or not there's five countries in Africa where folks make less than $1,000 a year still feel poor now mister here in the US the average poverty rate for a state is 13% down a full 1% since the Trump administration began most of us are fairly comfortable I'd say however today we're going to look at the poorest states in America put some perspective on income levels and try to understand why they're poor then we'll give many of them a little motivation and help them feel a little bit better about their situation and all of this for free thanks YouTube hooking up poor people across America who can't afford cable does anyone actually still watch cable anywhere so try to follow along do your cracked screens as we pour through America's poorest states our first stop along our poor pilgrimage across the US starts in North Carolina what that's where I live I'm certainly not poor though I make like a jillion dollars every month entertaining y'all here in my home state the poverty rate is a full 16 percent which is 3% higher than the national average folks bring in about 50,000 annually good for the eighth lowest amount in the u.s. for perspective people in the richest State Maryland earn about twenty five thousand more each year than in North Carolina now I live here and I know where the rich and poor pockets are located much of the wealth is in the Charlotte area in the Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill region called the triangle and along the coast there's large areas in the Tar Heel State where folks are down on their luck calling many of them rednecks wouldn't be a stretch North Carolina is a purple state pretty much a 50/50 split between those with good jobs and those with lousy ones or no jobs at all things are looking up here though North Carolina's the nation's 10th fastest growing state many wealthier families are moving here because of the large number of technology and health care jobs sprouting up so I can imagine this state won't be on this list much longer now times are tough and we're not able to drive so we're gonna take the bus to our next port of state in America Georgia does your bank account look like this does your car look like this if so you might live in Georgia here in the Peach State 17% of residents live in poverty and families earn about 52 thousand dollars a year that's the husband and wife combined not a lot of wiggle room each month fella most of the poor problems are in pockets like Savannah Macon in Atlanta where there are a ton of people who not only don't have jobs they get welfare too now to be fair Atlanta is really booming when it comes to job growth and innovation and the growth seems to be outpacing the chronically poor population but as people in Georgia will tell you Georgia's two states Atlanta and everywhere else and everywhere else is struggling it's expensive to be poor in Georgia more than half of Georgia's poor households spend more than half of their income on rent and childcare and Georgia's nearly at the bottom when it comes to number of residents with health insurance there is hope Georgian the state has added more than 60,000 jobs in the last year and the unemployment rate continues to head down that's great let's continue to look on the bright side poor Georgia guy what did Charlie Bucket do when he was faced with the lifetime of being penniless he stuffed his face with chocolate and won the lottery did you know Georgia ranks 5th and erricka for lottery spending wow you're right nappy look at the map I just found there's a few states on our list today that spend a lot on lottery tickets now while it might be easy to judge and say maybe Georgia guys should stop throwing his money away on gambling I guess you can't blame people for playing the lottery here for many of them it's the only real shot they have at a comfortable life we have to borrow a friend's car to get to our next poorest state in America Arkansas I'll bet he won't mind if we bring the car back on empty here in Arkansas a lot of bank accounts are empty the natural state has an 18% poverty rate and families bring in about 43,000 years now here in Arkansas small paychecks can be stretched a lot further than they can in other states but it's still tough times here Arkansas used to pretty much be the poorest place in the country but they're not as poor as before though back in the 1940s nearly half of all our keys lived in poverty so that's good economically slowly things are improving here of course not everyone grows up poor here the Clintons are from Arkansas and they're certainly not broke they made a hundred and fifty three million in speaking fees what the brick Sam Walton's also totally loaded he's the founder of Walmart and he's from Arkansas here's your typical Arkansas Walmart today where many poor people shop there's nothing wrong with shopping a Walmart I go there too but only because they have cheap t-shirts don't worry Arkansas guy Cinderella was broke as all get-out until she found her way out of the poorhouse Popo pitiful me the bus was late so we got here after midnight dammit we've arrived in South Carolina the seventh poorest state in America we're gonna grab something off the dollar menu because that's all we can afford tonight South Carolina's peeps are straight struggling they have a poverty rate of 17% households bring in less than 50,000 annually and 90% of working adults here live paycheck to paycheck in America 75% of full-time workers live paycheck to paycheck that's a real big difference many of the problems in South Carolina stem from a lack of good genes now that's mean the real issue here in South Carolina's complex for instance rural South Carolina communities that rely heavily on agriculture are so broke that locals have dubbed the area the corridor of shame as we'll see as we continue to move through this list there's a lot of theories as to why the south is so poor but many economists agree that going back to the Civil War days the northern states invested in infrastructure and technology while the South remained committed to farming as a result education fell behind as did the southern economy now if you ask people in places like South Carolina if they think they're poor many will likely tell you no on paper they don't have a lot but a simple life with God friends and family nearby is all they need we began to make our way north one more time on our straps stroll of America where we take a quick stop in the pretty state of Kentucky Kentucky residents earn the fifth lowest salaries in the nation at 46 ka and one in five Kentucky peeps lives in poverty if there's a bright side here at least the unemployment rate is about average just about every state has its haves and have-nots here in Kentucky the bluegrass area that consists of Louisville Lexington and Cincinnati suburbs are all doing just fine several large companies make their headquarters here but the rest are Kentucky's pretty broke the coal mines of Eastern and Western Kentucky are in decline as is the tobacco industry the small towns outside of Kentucky's urban areas are fading from importance and two and three people in Kentucky lives in these boonies there's ways you can get out of the poorhouse Kentucky guy people make like $50 a week giving blood but you have to donate good blood and I don't know if there's more meth or Mountain Dew running through a Kentucky man's veins if you're living in section 8 or section 4 keep your head up Kentucky after all this guy was poor and he ended up saving a whole kingdom and he was broke as hell but wound up being a star on a kids television show yeah I'm proud to be a Coal Miner's Daughter as we begin to tire of riding the bus around all the damn time we come to our next port estate West Virginia which is right next door to Kentucky the poverty rate is 18% in West Virginia and families bringing in about forty four K air both very low numbers however a couple bright spots keep West Virginians from ranking even poorer the unemployment rate isn't so bad here so that's good and the cost of living is so low here that low salaries mean more families can get by and remain out of poverty however when Walmart is your state's biggest employer that's indicative of a struggling worker base West Virginia is in a tough spot it's a beautiful state but all those rolling hills means it's hard to build big cities and industry and prescription meds and booths have taken a toll on a large part of the population West Virginia ranks first in the nation for overdoses my Gration studies have shown that 60% more people moved out of West Virginia than moved in and West Virginia is the only state where death rates exceed birth rates but hey West Virginia do you have a roof over your head and a car that runs running water then you're not that poor sure I know you want a new car and to own your own home but you know what more bills means more stress it's like the more money we come across the more problems we see we're heading back down the south where we'll remain for most of the rest of our unwell thei excursion the next stop takes us to Louisiana too bad we don't have enough money to buy booze they look like they're having so much fun here more than 19 percent of residents live in poverty and Families command a yearly paycheck of around forty six thousand dollars that's not enough for many people here to climb this success letter other stats that are eye-opening Louisiana is last in the nation for income gap by gener Louisiana's our third worst for food insecurity and third worst for education the last stop proves it's tough to entice job growth since the state here doesn't have the educated population to support it corporate subsidies aren't helping things in Louisiana either look at this graph that depicts how much taxpayer money goes from public to private coffers in the Pelican state Louisiana's abundant natural resources are a blessing and a curse while the state enjoys the windfalls that come with oil and natural gas action a lot of people here to become dependent on the energy sector for a paycheck and it won't last forever there's a sense of fatalism in Louisiana too poor people just remain poor here it is what it is they say all we can do is pray they say there's little urgency here to see change now even though you're poor in Louisiana there's still plenty to do on a budget though like actually know all these things kind of suck being brung means you can't do fun stuff never mind we scrounged up enough change to get us to our next poorest state Alabama lots of people in Alabama are broke to the oak Dan Lee's here bring in about 46,000 dollars as a household annually earning about a thousand dollars less than the average American each month and about one in five residents lives in poverty here why is Alabama so poor like other states we talked about so far one side will say unregulated capitalism has created severe poverty here other sides will say Alabamans aren't working hard enough and can control their own financial fate we're not going to take sides on this but the poverty is alarming nonetheless in many Alabama counties it looks third world where poverty rates reach 40 percent meaning of the poorest counties are also the fattest counties in the state proof that cheap food is bad for us you know who isn't poor in Alabama their head coach he made like 11 million last year more than any other public figure in the state I guess you get what you pay for Alabama's been winning national titles left and right lately our next poorest state is all the way across the country in New Mexico we can't afford that true so we're gonna just research New Mexico from home in New Mexico 20 percent of residents live in poverty and Families bring in about 46,000 dollars a year that's about 10,000 less than the national average one in three kids lives in poverty here which is a big reason New Mexico ranked last in the nation for places to raise a family Native American reservations illegal immigrants pad the poverty numbers here too when you look at the nation's most federally dependent states New Mexico is at the top that means New Mexico can't collect enough from income taxes and has to rely on federal subsidies to help pay for schools roads health care and welfare programs apparently things are getting worse in New Mexico not better more young working age adults are leaving the state than coming into it which means more and more federal assistance will be needed down the road there's hope though it's not like there aren't success stories coming out of New Mexico Microsoft was founded in Albuquerque and Jeff Bezos grew up in Albuquerque this guy took matters into his own hands too he began a successful business from scratch out of his New Mexico garage - we've come to the end of the line where we get off this stinky bus for good we're in Mississippi the nation's poorest state in Mississippi 22 percent of people live in poverty meaning nearly one in four families earns about $25,000 annually that's the same poverty rate as the African nation of Namibia that's poor factors that contribute to the very poor atmosphere here are a five percent unemployment rate and up until a couple years ago one in four Mississippians wasn't finishing high school hard to get ahead when you don't study pal when you google Mississippi the first autosuggest is why is Mississippi so poor so why is Mississippi so poor for many of the reasons we've already talked about before it's just worse here than anywhere else poor education and limited job opportunities are a big factor high incarceration rates and a history of racial segregation has held back a large percentage of the population - for many Mississippians it's a generational problem and for quite a few of them a government safety net of welfare and unemployment makes being poor a lifetime goal ultimately it comes down to a desire to succeed there are limitless opportunities here in Mississippi as there are in other states we talked about being poor is not a life sentence while these states have large populations that have been poor for ages it doesn't have to be so if you're poor in America there's heartwarming rags to riches stories all over the place that you can use inspiration Slumdog Millionaire pretty woman heck even Annie most people are probably not going to get adopted by somebody but I'd be willing to bet that if many of America's poorest just changed their mindset their situation would follow suit tomorrow tomorrow I love you tomorrow you're only a day away subscribe to my videos hey guys if you learn something new or you just like this video make sure to like it and if you really like this video make sure you hit that subscribe button so you get all of our videos about what it's like to live in different places in America peace

Channel: Nick Johnson

Views: 2,201,900

Rating: 4.4982381 out of 5

Keywords: geography, geography (field of study), geography hub, where I live, where to live, facts about the world, cities in the world, us cities, america, rankings, United states, states, poorest states, which states are poor, money, usa, mississippi, arkansas, louisiana, new mexico, west virginia, kentucky, alabama, north carolina, south carolina, poor, poor in america, no job, unemployment, broke, poorest states in america, poorest states in the us, poor states in america, poor states

Id: e4HcI3Efijo

Length: 15min 19sec (919 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 14 2019