[!@#$%!]

@ suchfriends - your reply is quite extensive and my lunch just ended, and i have to get back to work, but yes to the (partially) self-inflicted part, voting against their interests and not pursuing education, etc.

sounds like the basic argument of "hilbilly elegy" which i've seen reviewed everywhere.

politicians however have part of the responsibility here. the educational opportunities aren't there or are too costly, or are left to the "free market" of for-profit universities that prey on the misguided, the health care system is a still a burden on businesses, unions were demolished, growing inequality and citizens united, etc.

germany with its consensus model is faring better under the same challenges. here, workers at the VW plant voted to NOT have a union so management doesn't know how to get worker feedback they way they do in their homebase.

anyway, part self-inflicted part failure of government policies but a decline anyway. and after trump university fleeced some hopefuls, the trump candidacy wants to fleece the rest.