Louisiana Voice

Donald Trump proclaimed at a campaign rally in Wisconsin in November 2015 that, “THE AMERICAN DREAM IS DEAD.” Some areas of the nation, particularly in the south, would find it difficult to argue with that assertion.

Of 50 American counties where the “American Dream” is said to be dead, 36 (72 percent) are located in the Deep South, according to 24/7 Wall Street, the survey company that tracks statistics on poverty, obesity, health, corruption, and myriad other subjects.

Three of those are in Louisiana, including Orleans Parish, rated the sixth most hopeless place to live in the U.S., East Baton Rouge Parish (44^th worst), and East Carroll Parish 35^th worst).

But Louisiana fared well compared to Mississippi with 13 counties, Georgia with seven, and North Carolina with five. Combined, the three states accounted for half of American counties where hopes of a better life have been all but extinguished by crushing poverty, unemployment and lagging earnings.

To identify the counties where the American dream is dead, 24/7 Wall Street reviewed the effect on household income earned in adulthood for every year of childhood spent in nearly 3,000 U.S. counties and county equivalents.

Population figures, poverty rates, educational attainment, income inequality for each county came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018 American Community Survey and are 5-year averages.

“The American Dream is the idea that through sacrifice and hard work, a person from any background can attain success — typically characterized by upward economic mobility,” the report said. “While millions of Americans are a living testimony that the American Dream is still alive, there are parts of the country that tell a very different story.

“Conceptually, the American Dream is based on the assumption that success depends on one’s choices. However, broader conditions related to the community and environment — particularly during one’s childhood — can also play a considerable role.

A 26-year-old who grew up in a low-income household in one of these counties earns an annual income of anywhere from $201 to $484 less for each year of childhood spent there than the national income per capita among 26-year-olds. Depending on how many years and the average annual loss, this can amount to thousands of dollars in lost income every year.

Statistically, the worst county in America was Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota where the average annual income loss per year of childhood residence was $484, where per capita household income was $13,647, where the poverty was a staggering 49.3 percent the unemployment rate for December 2019 was 10.0 percent.

Orleans Parish, by comparison, had an average income loss per year of $276, a per capita household income of $31,246, a poverty rate of 24.6 percent and an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent.

For East Baton Rouge Parish, the average annual income loss per year was $203 while the per capita household income was $35,064. The EBR poverty rate is 18.3 percent and the unemployment rate in December was 4.4 percent.

It’s uncertain how East Carroll Parish ranked 35^th worst in the country to Orleans Parish’s 6^th worst ranking. The only statistic that was worse than Orleans was the average income loss per year of childhood residence ($210). Otherwise, the house per capita income of $18,062, the 48.6 percent poverty rate and the 11.7 percent unemployment rate were all considerably worse than Orleans.

East Carroll also is one of the worst, statistically speaking, for the percentage of children living with single parents (73.3 percent, compared the national share of 33.0 percent).

Mississippi counties and their rankings included Grenada County (31^st worst), Washington County (28^th), Oktibbeha County (26^th), Bolivar County (25^th), Sunflower County (24^th), Tallahatchie County (22^nd), Hinds County (17^th), Leflore County (16^th), Claiborne County (13^th), Tunica County (10^th), and Humphreys County (9^th worst).