Visiting the Poorest County in America

how much do you survive off of a month I can make it off a hundred dollars a month how easy is it to buy math here which direction you want to go I always think about white privilege what's up folks I'm Tommy G welcome to Kentucky [Music] because it don't offer nothing here she's just like banging around I think the United States has long been known as one of their world's Financial superpowers but here in 2023 a lot of Americans are struggling 61 of the countries living paycheck to paycheck leaving many to question if the American dream still exists how many Americans have been feeling is encapsulated the number one song in the country the rich men of North Richmond working all day overtime hours pays today we head to the poorest county in America Mccreary County went to McCreary County where leaders say they're down thousands of dollars to see what life is like and how people are living this is a place with extreme poverty high unemployment and many people struggling to survive as prices continue to rise first we touch down with local resident Landon who greets us bearing arms [Music] part of the mission of the channel is to explore and get the stories of people from every walk alike we're here one of the poorest counties in America according to USA Today the poorest in America ports in Kentucky we want to see how people live the purpose of this channel is to platform people's stories that maybe don't get to tell it too much or whether it's going to the hood or underground Las Vegas or to the poorest county in America when I speak to people see what they have to say first stop meeting with our contact Landon this is the area that showing up to the wrong door can get someone shot how you doing I'm doing all right where are we right now middle of nowhere oh that's really good that's the gun I thought you were handing me a peer a pair of jeans well you can wear the jeans too is it known in the town like the reputation of being the poorest county in America everybody knows we're poor I don't know if like everybody knows where the top but I've heard people talk about being in the teleports what goes through your mind when you hear that I don't really care okay I mean this is what it is I don't want to live here my whole life like these folks so it ain't my problem what do you do by day well I'm working at Walmart until I go back to college okay but other than that not much what's minimum wage around here 7 25 7 25 but I make like 14 just going to Walmart nice but it's like 30 minutes away where's some lingo in the area you ain't lying man after sentences is Big too come on man look at that like man come on what are you doing man should we go shooting yeah we're gonna go shoot hold on you want to talk to the dude I'm filming the YouTube video with he's a neck what's up brother we're just about to shoot and I think we're coming by how far are you from the shooting range should we just go to his backyard then damn you want to just come to your backyard right now let's do it [Music] I'm telling me we're promoting Twisted tease oh yeah drink is big around here too yeah it's not safety is on can you go first yeah yeah boy what do you guys think about white privilege there are some people that say like oh if you're white life is just easy no matter what basically I will say it is a little easier cops and is probably easier what's the most common job around here man what happened to The Sawmill Lumber yeah cut Lumber is it easy to get a job around here it's fairly easy as long as you know like you show up to work every day and you're you know you dress like you're somebody you got to know people down here to get a job I just tell you if you don't know nobody and you move down here it would be tougher on you especially compared to City people it seems like people here would be self-sufficient if goes down people know how to fend for themselves right yeah they do they really do would you say you feel proud to be an American yeah what do people need to survive around here like how much money to survive a month so what could be done to help people are living paycheck to paycheck bigger patty cake do you think people can live off a 7.25 an hour hell no hell no what does rent go for around here 350 to 400 a month that's your average and what's Rich to you man I don't care about being wealthy or Rich before I die you know what I mean as long as you had fun are you proud of being American yeah man and do you feel like this country's going in a good direction yeah it seemed pretty fair to me maybe besides all the China everything you buy has got a part that come from China or Japan so if you were mayor of the Town what would you do to make things better jobs would help and slinging meth and slanging heroin and like that they need to be shot I just say what do you want us to do you want to go drifting [Music] yeah you're like a NASCAR guy a little frightening but it's good that was an A plus drift right there now what we're looking to explore is how the rising prices of groceries have impacted people in their daily life a lot of Americans been talking about food prices raising all around the country has that impacted you and your family yes a lot tell me about it it makes it harder for for the working people so 60 of Americans are paycheck to paycheck do you think that hits a lot of people in this town yes we don't get food s or anything like that you know what items have gone up the most that you've noticed everything that's healthy what does it cost to feed your family a month we have a family of five and at least around 1200 for the whole month this is one of the primary places that people come to get their supplies Yep this Kroger in Earl Andersons so what's gone up the most that you've noticed meat more than anything so 419 a pound even just three years ago at all the I could get beef for 199. this is five pounds of ham yeah and this is not even fully hand this is fats and all kinds of other stuff [Music] next Landon takes us to his friend Logan's house what's life like around here oh man it's awesome I mean there's not around here you can do what you want you know what I mean like if we raise hell on the road you know as long as you're not hurting nobody a lot of people like to keep like a lot of stuff like here it's like people can have like 15 cars and they're wrong if they want to yeah well I mean you can see me up there I like I quit cars you want to show us yeah but we just think around with this with JDM Cars a little Japanese car that's my old lady's cars that's why I went out a lot yeah do you feel like there's a lot of opportunities for young people in this town no as far as school system you know they do have a lot of opportunities you have like auto mechanics class Carpenter class you can come out of there with certifications and stuff and so as far as our high school setting people up yeah as far as in the county I feel like it's a young person if you're going to have an opportunity you got to make it you got to be self-sufficient if you see the people that are that are here that are rich and they've got all this stuff you know they're self-made everything they got they worked for that's kind of what it is if the opportunity Rises you got to create it what's Rich to you well if you're rich you you've got what you want man if your ideal goal in life is to be happy and have family and go fishing every weekend then you're rich you know what I mean whether you've got a hundred thousand you might count or a million you're rich if you if you're just happy rich is having the lifestyle you want yeah physically I'm rich I got stuff to work I've got good people around me you know we're going in the middle of the woods going riding we come here we party we work on cars when we fix the cars we break them in a week you know what I mean so people in the hood say like oh we got to get out of the hood do people have that mentality heroes or hey we want to make this our home base and stay here and raise a family here Mark obviously this is like a high poverty area but it is a beautiful place and it's peaceful people I feel like want to retire here and then you've got some kids that want to stay here forever you know they don't want to leave and you've got some that want to get out and come back or you've got some that just want to go out and never come back at all if you guys want to go back here we can go look at that view [Music] good what do you fellas think about white privilege I've called a financial privilege depending on if you're born in a different economic class because right here everybody's equally poor if we were to meet about and I was old you know if I was like 50 years old who's your dad they base you off of who your parents were you know I don't know that white privilege is going to necessarily get you something more here I feel like a black man here would have just as much opportunity because there's just no opportunities you know what I mean I've only seen one consider flag since I've been here you ain't drove around enough got word from the locals that some of the people really struggling right now are people living at the motels barely making ends meet so we decided to go to a motel and get someone's stored so tell people a little bit about yourself or your story well I grew up here lived here most of my life I've met my wife in Tennessee got three beautiful daughters it used to be a beautiful County and now it's just not I had to keep my kids at a friend's house last night because where we live there's a crazy woman lives next door and I have to go Monday and get her for trying to kidnap one of my daughters what I don't even think she not all there mentally or what's going on I'm pretty sure meth has took over this County what percent of the town would you guys does math probably at least 80. can you tell people more about like the housing opportunities in the area or even job opportunities in the area well there's not a whole lot of job opportunities like me and my wife both have to work from home because in order to even make good money in this community I mean that's pretty much what you have to do if you don't work from home you don't get paid very well what kind of job from homes you got my life works for the Department of Defense she does Military Insurance she makes good money I do tech support for Fairly Dickinson University I love my job if you get a job here it's like at a gas station or something or you've got people that just don't want to work anymore before I got this job I worked at KFC about every other person that you would meet in this county is probably you know either on some kind of drug or something how easy is it to buy magic which direction you want to go it's that easy so I know exactly which direction to go yeah and how much money do people need to get started with some math ten dollars really yeah this has been called one of the poorest counties in America is that something that people in the town like they're aware of or they talk about yes they understand that it's the poorest county in America and they literally are just like well you know it's the poorest county in America so why even try what do you think about white privilege what do you mean white privilege means you have an advantage in life and your Life's a little bit easier if you're white I feel that way too you are a white man in America you have your rights and that's about it there's a lot of tough living out here I mean a lot of really nice kind good-hearted people but also a lot of tough living and drug addiction and poverty and so what are we about to see I'm gonna do a little burnout [Music] next Logan wanted to take us to the place where he had grown up that is now abandoned except for one tenant I grew up right here man I used to dropped off the bus yeah people actually living here right now there's one person why do they tear this place down oh dude it's crazy but like look at the way that this is there's three more labels below this and they literally just keep getting worse and worse and worse as you go down that's where I lived at right there uh it feels like it's about to collapse oh bro this is the best level I want to be careful walk around but like I know who these apartments I know there's no like needles in here why is it just left like this and they're just trash like they're they're rude man like you know what I mean there's nothing they were they weren't never even good when I was a kid you know what I mean but you know when you're a kid you don't care about stuff like that these places are 200 a month that's my brother's sister brother yeah wait your brother's sister my dad is with her mom she's in the far building and she's the only one that's here only one left because the room fell on her so she got to live there for free none of this used to be like this chair right here used to be right here man she's just like banging around working on something we noticed people were squatting in the abandoned places across the street so we interviewed one of those guys this is what he said tell me about where we're at right now before we found in Kentucky how would you describe it uh it's a small town you don't have much in it but you know it goes off a lot where's all that pain going on I've been working on this place for a long time I'm gonna try to rehab it no it looks like it's beyond hope it is beyond help do people live in that place right there that place yes place is all right what do you do for money around here well there's nothing much to do around here so how much do you survive off a month I can make it off a hundred dollars a month this has been known to be one of the poorest counties in America it is it's the poorest county in the whole state now it could be one of the richest in this whole in this place man but you don't offer nothing so if you were mayor what would you do I'll be putting me jobs and opportunities everybody's leaving mechanic because they don't offer nothing the state's got the money to put it in here they just don't want it here this place has been hit real hard by the opioid epidemic by mass by a lot of different drugs how have you seen that impact the community yeah people get sick they're not feeling good and and to spread all over the place did you grow up in this town how have you seen it change over time yeah the people that's in it do you have any hope that this time's gonna get better I really do I hope it does what percent of people you think here are unemployed how about seven tens what percent of people in this town you think are on some sort of uh addicted to some sort of drug about 17 says another church going people or dopeys well folks you've got an inside looking in Macquarie County the poorest county in America I think there's always hope there's always something that can rejuvenate or regrow any final thoughts Brothers oh wow it's a lot of fun it's been a good day man hell yeah all right well yeah and have a good day guys peace folks hope you enjoyed this episode if you want to watch another here you want to subscribe over here see you next week foreign

Channel: Tommy G

Views: 3,391,348

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Id: JQb1G5TjnWk

Length: 15min 51sec (951 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 29 2023