The Challenge of Rural Poverty

I have just discovered from reading a friends Blog that Hilary Clinton was a republican but became a Democrat after seeing the poverty and deprivation of the inner cities. While poverty is distressing where ever it is, it was not until the industrial revolution and urbanisation that poverty became noticed.

Previously poverty was something that was hidden away, not because it didn’t exist but because it was a rural problem. With families disbursed around the country, and I am not just talking about the UK, it was something that politicians and the wealthy could ignore.

The difference between the poverty of the cities and that of rural areas was always about the ability of people, mainly men, to work. As in the past most men worked on the land in the countryside, anyone reasonably fit would always find work. Although wages were very poor and housing conditions could be bad, in the old rural economy it was rare for people to starve.

Even the first agricultural revolution, and improvements to farming and agriculture, the situation never altered for the poor labours. It was not until the start of the industrial revolution that real grinding poverty and destitution started to surface. This was caused in two ways primarily. The first being the small craft produces of goods that were put out of business by industrialisation and the second the poor itinerant workers who moved to industrial jobs with the promise of better wages that working on the land.

What industry and urbanisation brought was usually very poor housing and wages that were only high if you worked extremely long hours in dangerous conditions. In the countryside (and I know this is a generalisation) if a man had an accident he would be looked after by his kith and kin, the community, even the employer/landowner. This was never the case with industrialisation, as to the factory owners the labour force was just part of the economic cost of running the factory. Any man who could not work was useless.

Thus urbanisation brought us unemployment. In the countryside of old, even old men could be useful as rat catchers or would have valuable skills that ensured they were never totally economically inactive. Further, it was rare that anyone in the countryside was ever injured so badly while working that they could never work again. This was not so in the urban environment as a man could end up crippled or maimed for life in a factory or mine. That is without even thinking of the families that lost the breadwinner if someone was killed.

Then there were the effects of improvements to industry and industrial processes. Many businesses still close down today leaving people without work because someone else has found a new or cheaper way of making something.

Therefore, poverty always appears to be worse in the cities than in the countryside. However, we only need to look back to the dust bowl and depression years to see that poverty was just as bad in rural areas as it was in the city.

Now if we look at the situation in this century, in this country in the countryside there is extreme poverty, much worse than in any city. The greatest problem is that of housing. Because the countryside can be a nice place to live, people have bought second homes, or else they buy nice places to let out as holiday lets. Thus making it imposable for local people to buy in their own areas. Not only that but rents have become unrealistically high again preventing poorer people from being able to afford to live in their own villages. Add to that difficulty the lack of transport, public transport in many rural areas is a joke and often far to unreliable to allow people to travel to work. Therefore personal transport becomes an essential part of rural life, even for people who are in minimum wage jobs, just to keep the job.

The transport difficulties would not be such a problem if there were local jobs, but with fewer jobs on the land, and an increasing reliance upon the tourist pound, most jobs local to any rural community will be low paid seasonal ones.

The difference between rural and urban poverty is simply that it’s the urban poverty that gets noticed, while the poverty in the countryside no one even wants to think about it.