Understanding our Divisions
Socio-Economic Reform
America is divided politically, racially, geographically, and moreover unequally. You can figure it out from the Maps of 2020 election results and also from how Covid’s first Wave affected the American people. They both look the same. The Democratic votes for Biden to Win the 2020 election came overwhelmingly from the Cities and suburbs which are Densely populated. Please check this USA today Article below, the second map that shows how America voted in the 2020 election for Biden. Quoting USA Today “The map below shows circles sized according to the number of votes separating the candidates in each county, colored red or blue depending on the candidate who won there. Trump won by small numbers of votes in many counties, while Biden won by much larger vote margins in fewer counties.”
USA Today 2020 Election Map
People who live in and around big cities outnumber the rest of the country when it comes to population. That means 80% of the United States usable land is owned or used by the Red republican electorate whereas the Blue Democratic electorate gets cramped into the rest of the 20% land, which is in and around the cities. In other words, 20% of the Americans have 80% of the available land, and the other 80% of Americans get cramped in the rest of the 20% available land.
You can see the graph showing the Urban land percentage and graph in the usda.gov link below.
https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2012/march/data-feature-how-is-land-used/
US Land Usage USDA web site
if you say this in numbers, 250 million people in the US live in urban areas and the other 60 million people live in rural areas. Please see the Census.gov link below. Please check the census.gov link below.
https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/guidance/geo-areas/urban-rural/ua-facts.html
43% of the total 250 million urban population is people of color especially African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities. That is a total of 107 million people. A good portion of them constitutes the Democratic base. Please check the usda.gov link below to see the graphs of the racial makeup of America’s Urban and Rural Population.
https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=99538
Percentage of Rural and Urban Population By Race
Now please look at the 2020 Georgia State Election result map, a couple of small blue spots in and around the Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, and Savana areas were more than enough to turn that big Ruby Red Republican state into a Democratic Victory. Those little blue spots are so crowded that they could outnumber the people in the rest of the state. When George Floyd screamed “I cannot Breathe”, African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities should interpret that as the social outcry of their community with a knee on their neck, choking them as a community. When I look at the USA Today 2020 election map, I could see the entire united states as a big plantation where there are still crowded cabin-like structures in and around cities. The only difference is that the “Cabins” in the 1800s are now replaced with multi-storied high rises where people get cramped in with no quality of life. They rely on the unhealthy fast-food chains for food and they breathe the most polluted City air. They work two-three jobs to make ends meet. To those who complain about high crime rates in Cities, what do you expect when people get cluttered to live in a small area? Of course, there will be crimes. Crime has nothing to do with any race. It has everything to do with poverty, bad living conditions, and how desperate the people are. They cannot even send their kids to good schools so that their next generation will have a better future. This is because their assigned schools are also marginalized based on their neighborhood. If there is only very little hope for them to become successful in life with a poor quality of life around, it’s quite normal to turn towards drugs, alcohol, or any other means so that they can forget their miseries at least for some time.
When Someone talks about the Socio-Economic Reforms to get people out of this cramped in miserable modern-day cabin-like housing in the 1800s and provide them a better life and better healthcare, the republican party will call that as distribution of Wealth. People even take out their confederate flag to protest. This is for them to Understand, As per a Brooking Institute research, I am quoting them “In 2016, the 2,584 counties that Trump won generated just 36% of the country’s economic output, whereas the 472 counties Hillary Clinton carried equated to almost two-thirds of the nation’s aggregate economy. In 2020, Biden’s winning base in 509 counties encompasses fully 71% of America’s economic activity, while Trump’s losing base of 2,547 counties represents just 29% of the economy.”
I am including the link to the Brookings Institute article here for you to check out these statistics.
When Covid struck the United States, The map of the first wave of cases and deaths were in and around big Cities and it looked exactly like the Democratic electorate map, That’s no brainer. In the first wave, Coronavirus disproportionally affected the minorities and people of color who had a lot of undelaying health conditions. Please check the USA Today article below which shows the Fall peak of Covid in 2020
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/graphics/2020/12/02/covid-19-hotspots-animated-map/6476091002/
USA Today Map showing Covid Hotspots in the 2020 Fall peak
From this map, You can see how severely it affected the Metro areas in the United States and caused deaths. It was mostly minorities especially African Americans who disproportionately died in that wave and their bad health was attributed to the bad quality of life, food, and other stressful living conditions in polluted metro areas. These are the people from the areas which contributed to 70% of America’s economy. Do you think it’s fair to them?. And these are the people who elected President Biden hoping that he will continue Obama’s Crusade to bring change to their lives. A good Majority of the Red states which are complaining about welfare are dependent on the economies of the blue states and counties. So please stop that nonsense of distribution of wealth. When you wave that confederate flag, Please remember that the slavery that the confederate flag represents still exists in our country to your advantage but in a new form and in a new norm supported by your own old politicians. The electoral college system and the Senate make up of 2 senators per state will make sure that the control of the government will not be based on what people choose in our elections.
At Present, what’s left in Manufacturing in the united states is around these Metros and most of these are very high-tech manufacturing jobs. Please check the link below to see the Brookings Institute map on locating the Manufacturing Jobs in the United States,
https://www.brookings.edu/interactives/interactive-locating-american-manufacturing/
Brookings Institute Interactive Map showing the clusters of manufacturing Jobs
The Manufacturing jobs that existed in the Red states have got mostly outsourced to Other countries with the help of our own Ultra wealthy who donates to both sides of the political spectrum, like the Bezos, the Koch’s and the Walton’s and that’s why the Red state GDP is shrunk below 30%. The Red States which were dependent on the Coal industry saw a steady decline in coal demand especially during Trump years who promised them that he will bring back the Coal sector. As per the US Energy Information and Administration, “In 2020, US had the lowest coal consumption which equals only around 10% of the total US energy consumption. This was the lowest amount and lowest percentage share of total US annual energy consumption since at least 1949”. Please check the US Energy Information Administration article in the link below to see how Coal usage declined over years.
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/coal/use-of-coal.php
Coal Usage Graph on US Energy Information and Administration web site
Coal is not that used anymore in In Industrial, Transportation, residential and commercial sectors. Just think, have you seen any trains running off of Coal recently, Have you seen any Coal powered factories or homes? The only place where we use Coal is to generate electricity which declined sharply over the years because of the awareness people have on the environmental impact it causes like sulfur dioxide and Co2 emissions and Mercury pollution. Nowadays Everyone knows that these cause Major health issues to people. The only people who use Coal nowadays are people like Trump to get your votes promising you that he can revitalize the coal sector. But you can see here that it was during his administration, the coal sector saw the highest decline.
Similarly, the Automobile, Steel, Chemical, and Aluminum sectors outsourced most of the plants from Red and rust belt states to other countries by the ultra-wealthy because of the fewer regulations and Cheap labor exists in those countries. They have invested billions to set up factories there to make more profit using cheap labor. Please don’t think that the guy who sits on the Velociraptor with a machine gun had changed anything. During his presidency, not only the red state GDP dropped 7%, the trade balance with China has increased too. This is not Fake news, this is based on Census.gov. Please see the link below to see the trade deficit between 2016-2020. It only increased compared to Obama years.
https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html
But Trump Tariffs caused an increase in prices on the imported goods from China. When Trump increased the Tariff on Chinese imports, Stores like Walmart increased the cost of the Chinese imported goods, and now you are paying the additional cost to buy them. Tariffs have not affected China or the American companies that import them. Tariffs affected American People.
by Hari Ramachandran