# So apparently rural America (modern hunter gatherers) think city folk look down on them **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 17, 2016, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221 "2016-11-17T02:34:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/101 "2016-11-21T11:56:16Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > “Elites”, who exist and are easy to spot btw, is “over general”, but claiming that entire states are “providers” or “takers” is not. I broke it down to specific elites and their usual sources of income. > > Individuals are either takers or providers, not states. Any elite liberal who works for or majorly depends on government funding is a taker. This makes up the majority of elites I am familiar with. For example, the counties surrounding D.C. in MD and VA are very wealthy taker counties, yet your analysis doesn’t account for this phenomenon. In fact, when I see the lists most people put forward that make facile claims like you make about red and blue states, they claim MD is a “provider”. Sorry. If a wealthy govt employee pays a lot of taxes, that person is still a taker, big time. He would dwarf those that receive modest transfer payments in his ability to extract loot from net taxpayers. If you provide the methodology for the Facebook meme you’re talking about, we can get into it more deeply, but he warned that any list that includes D.C., MD, and VA as net taxpayers is highly suspect. > > I’ve had to dispel this argument before, because people have trouble with arithmetic. It is possible for Republicans to be net taxpayers and Democrats to be net takers and still allow for your Facebook meme to be correct. This seems to be neglecting the fact that government jobs are still jobs that need doing, and often high-skill jobs that require much prior training and experience (apparently POTUS notwithstanding) and thus we should be reimbursing. Doing a job for the government that needs doing and getting paid by taxes is not the same thing as getting a handout. ---
**Author:** ![burrunderthe\_saddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@burrunderthe\_saddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burrunderthe_saddle)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/102 "2016-11-21T12:17:29Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > This seems to be neglecting the fact that government jobs are still jobs that need doing. You are way over budget on the facts cadet! No, government jobs do not need doing! There are about 10 million more government employees than there are people employed in manufacturing real products in the US for consumption and export. The government employees are governing whats left, employees of fast food joints in the service sector I guess, and that’s about their speed. And the wages paid those 10 million government employees is borrowed and the income tax they pay is therefore also borrowed! High rates of employment in government positions is Obama’s form of the 1930’s WPA and CCC. [http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/government-workers-now-outnumber-manufacturing-workers-9977000](http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/government-workers-now-outnumber-manufacturing-workers-9977000) Make America Great Again! ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/103 "2016-11-21T12:59:35Z")
> [@burrunderthe\_saddle](#): > > High rates of employment in government positions is Obama’s form of the 1930’s WPA and CCC. > > [http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/government-workers-now-outnumber-manufacturing-workers-9977000](http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/government-workers-now-outnumber-manufacturing-workers-9977000) > > Make America Great Again! You might want to take a closer look at the graph at the top of your cite. It shows government jobs declining, and manufacturing jobs increasing, right around 2009. The greatest disparity of government jobs over manufacturing jobs seems to have been at the end of the Bush 43 administration. Strangely, the article doesn’t mention that there are fewer government jobs and more manufacturing jobs since Obama was elected. But it _does_ compare current figures to 1979, when manufacturing was its peak, to show how bad they are now. Awkwardly, that 1979 peak was at the end of the Carter administration, which they also don’t mention. But hey, at least it tells us that there are more government workers than Floridians, because that’s a very relevant fact. Oh, and one more thing. If you have the attention span required to read all the way to the end of that very short article, you will see that of the 22.2 million government workers it’s counting, only 2.8 million are federal employees, who can be blamed on Obama. The other 19.4 million are state and local workers. And guess which party controls most of the governorships and state legislatures in the US? To be fair, they did do their best to cut employment at polling places this month. Sheesh, no wonder Trump won. You can show people X, tell them it’s actually Y, and they’ll believe they have a great cite for Y. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/104 "2016-11-21T13:28:14Z")
> [@burrunderthe\_saddle](#): > > I claim BS and disparagement! > > In fiscal year 2011, the federal government provided $607 billion in grants to state and local governments which was borrowed (not sourced in a blue state) increasing the national debt. > > Further roughly 48 percent was for health programs (medicaid) which the people had paid into over their working life and it was their money to receive and if those people chose to migrate to red states well it just adds to the disparity of grants-in-aid and was in no way a hand-out from blue states. > > We also note that those states receiving the highest grants-in-aid also have the highest non-US born populations. Typically illegal immigrants without a job. > \*\* > Blue states did not provide a thing! Git off that high horse!\*\* > > [https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/113th-congress-2013-2014/reports/03-05-13federalgrantsonecol.pdf](https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/113th-congress-2013-2014/reports/03-05-13federalgrantsonecol.pdf) > > [http://taxfoundation.org/blog/which-states-rely-most-federal-aid-0](http://taxfoundation.org/blog/which-states-rely-most-federal-aid-0) > > [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/upshot/mapping-migration-in-the-united-states-since-1900.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/upshot/mapping-migration-in-the-united-states-since-1900.html) That’s not how Medicaid works. You’re confusing it with Medicare. Medicaid is need based charity. Your second link has a good map. While the correlation isn’t perfect and I haven’t run the numbers, it sure looks like more of the States that went GOP get higher levels of federal aid. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/105 "2016-11-21T14:06:05Z")
> [@burrunderthe\_saddle](#): > > You are way over budget on the facts cadet! > No, government jobs do not need doing! So you don’t need police officers? Firefighters? Schoolteachers? Someone to issue your driver’s license? People to make the roads? Health inspectors to ensure restaurants aren’t full of roaches? Air traffic controllers? None of those jobs are necessary? ---
**Author:** ![burrunderthe\_saddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@burrunderthe\_saddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burrunderthe_saddle)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/106 "2016-11-21T15:50:15Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > The greatest disparity of government jobs over manufacturing jobs seems to have been at the end of the Bush 43 administration. The greatest disparity of government jobs over manufacturing jobs Seems to be at the end of Obama admin! > [@TonySinclair](#): > > that 1979 peak was at the end of the Carter administration It was late in the Carter Admin when the tariff on textiles was removed by the democrats and those manufacturing jobs began leaving the US. > [@TonySinclair](#): > > The other 19.4 million are state and local workers. And guess which party controls most of the governorship’s and state legislatures in the US? 8 of the top 10 states having state and local full-time equivalent (FTE) employees per 10,000 residents were controlled by or had shared control by democrats! > **[States With Most Government Employees: Totals and Per Capita Rates](https://www.governing.com/archive/states-most-government-workers-public-employees-by-job-type.html)** > > Data shows concentrations of public employees for each state. > **[Gubernatorial and legislative party control of state government](https://ballotpedia.org/Gubernatorial_and_legislative_party_control_of_state_government)** > > Ballotpedia: The Encyclopedia of American Politics Sheesh, suffering from myopia much! ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/107 "2016-11-21T16:02:26Z")
> [@DinoR](#): > > It’s not just a rural vs city thing in the midwest. They only places I’ve lived for more than a year have been what some call flyover country but I prefer to call “we have water” country. I grew up in the Toledo area of NW Ohio. Lived the longest part of my adult life in mid Michigan. I’m currently in central Indiana. Where I’m at now is the most rural I’ve been, about 30 minutes outside Indy. > > Except for my current district I’ve always been in blue leaning to blue dominated, mid sized metro areas. Even now I’m more in an exburb than true rural area. I’ve worked in manufacturing, with most of the labor from urban/suburban areas, including for a logistics company that supported a GM plant. Those lifelong Democrats, till Trump, just aren’t like what you expect them to be. The strength of the correlation for the national urban vs rural divide is much weaker among them IME. > > Debbie Dingell, represents Michigan’s 12th district. It’s a predominantly urban/suburban not rural district. It includes the countries biggest concentration of muslims and a progressive island around Ann Arbor thanks to the university of Michigan. It’s heavily blue; she’s won just shy of 2/3 of the vote as a Democrat both times she’s run. It was a problem for Hillary Clinton both in the primary and the general election. You might want to read Rep. Dingell’s WashPo editorial about her district and the past election cycle. They aren’t the Democrats you are expecting. They are why the state was viewed as part of the blue firewall. They are part of why Trump won. > > [I said Clinton was in trouble with the voters I represent. Democrats didn’t listen.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-said-clinton-was-in-trouble-with-the-voters-i-represent-democrats-didnt-listen/2016/11/10/0e9521a6-a796-11e6-ba59-a7d93165c6d4_story.html?utm_term=.7db5e641a8ce) > > Clinton struggled with Democrats in that district not because they were rural. In the midwest there are urban Democrats fucking with your preferences…because they view you as fucking with their preferences. What I got from that article is that it was the white voters in the Downriver areas that jumped ship to Trump - They value economic security and what they think is national security over the safety and acceptance of their own non-white, non-christian, and non-heterosexual neighbors. At the end of the day this is still the bottom line and the factor that cannot be ignored. ---
**Author:** ![burrunderthe\_saddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@burrunderthe\_saddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burrunderthe_saddle)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/108 "2016-11-21T16:06:34Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > it sure looks like more of the States that went GOP get higher levels of federal aid. The thread is about disparagement and was in response to > [@drad\_dog](#): > > Sorry but the way it works is that Blue states are the net providers and Red states are the net takers. Not smugness, just reality. drad dog is smug. Blue states are NOT the net providers the US borrowed money to provide federal aid. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/109 "2016-11-21T16:23:18Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > So you don’t need police officers? Firefighters? Schoolteachers? Someone to issue your driver’s license? People to make the roads? Health inspectors to ensure restaurants aren’t full of roaches? Air traffic controllers? None of those jobs are necessary? All those services can be privatized. Profitable businesses always do a job better and more efficiently that the government. And once you privatize and deregulate, then it becomes possible to make sure that protection, education and the ability to move around only goes to those good hard-working citizens who deserve those things. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/110 "2016-11-21T16:24:30Z")
> [@burrunderthe\_saddle](#): > > You are way over budget on the facts cadet! > No, government jobs do not need doing! > > There are about 10 million more government employees than there are people employed in manufacturing real products in the US for consumption and export. The government employees are governing whats left, employees of fast food joints in the service sector I guess, and that’s about their speed. I’m doing some consulting work for a government agency right now. In a few years most of their jobs can be replaced by computers. Or I could replace them tomorrow by drawing some faces on a carton of cantaloupes for all the actual work they do. ---
**Author:** ![burrunderthe\_saddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@burrunderthe\_saddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burrunderthe_saddle)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/111 "2016-11-21T16:29:50Z")
What we don’t need is bloated parks and Rec departments, school staff that aren’t educators (MAP testing and Common Core), sewer/water inspectors/departments forced to comply with pointless and over bearing regulations from the federal government, IT staffs that produce needless websites, full color brochures to introduce city services, recycling programs which cost more than the benefit they provide, expenditures on solar panels and other green projects that have zero ROI, and the list of boondoggles goes on and on! These are the 9 million jobs that don’t need doing! ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/112 "2016-11-21T16:30:38Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > we can get into it more deeply Sorry, but no matter how much you try to torture the data it won’t confess that your nonsense is correct. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/113 "2016-11-21T16:40:06Z")
> [@burrunderthe\_saddle](#): > > What we don’t need is bloated parks and Rec departments, school staff that aren’t educators (MAP testing and Common Core), sewer/water inspectors/departments forced to comply with pointless and over bearing regulations from the federal government, IT staffs that produce needless websites, full color brochures to introduce city services, recycling programs which cost more than the benefit they provide, expenditures on solar panels and other green projects that have zero ROI, and the list of boondoggles goes on and on! > > These are the 9 million jobs that don’t need doing! If it weren’t for those damn government inspectors, the people of Flint would be free to drink lead in their water! May I suggest a good saddle blanket? ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/114 "2016-11-21T16:40:40Z")
> [@Dorjan](#): > > What I got from that article is that it was the white voters in the Downriver areas that jumped ship to Trump - They value economic security and what they think is national security over the safety and acceptance of their own non-white, non-christian, and non-heterosexual neighbors. At the end of the day this is still the bottom line and the factor that cannot be ignored. that’s kind of a weaselly way to cling to the “bigots and racists” narrative. ---
**Author:** ![burrunderthe\_saddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@burrunderthe\_saddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burrunderthe_saddle)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/115 "2016-11-21T16:41:36Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > So you don’t need police officers? Firefighters? Schoolteachers? Someone to issue your driver’s license? People to make the roads? Health inspectors to ensure restaurants aren’t full of roaches? Air traffic controllers? None of those jobs are necessary? What we don’t need is bloated parks and Rec departments, school staff that aren’t educators (MAP testing and Common Core), sewer/water inspectors/departments forced to comply with pointless and over bearing regulations from the federal government, IT staffs that produce needless websites, full color brochures to introduce city services, recycling programs which cost more than the benefit they provide, expenditures on solar panels and other green projects that have zero ROI, state departments of energy that pander to the treehuggers, and the list of boondoggles and government waste goes on and on! These are the 9 million jobs that don’t need doing! ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/116 "2016-11-21T16:45:02Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > If it weren’t for those damn government inspectors, the people of Flint would be free to drink lead in their water! Actually, the Flint water problem was caused by an emergency financial manager who spent more money getting acidic water that corroded the lead fittings than it would have cost to keep getting water from Detroit. That looked like the governor was trying to kneecap Detroit Water by taking away customers, so that he could sell it off to a crony for a handful of magic beans. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/117 "2016-11-21T16:48:19Z")
> [@burrunderthe\_saddle](#): > > What we don’t need is bloated parks and Rec departments, school staff that aren’t educators (MAP testing and Common Core), sewer/water inspectors/departments forced to comply with pointless and over bearing regulations from the federal government, IT staffs that produce needless websites, full color brochures to introduce city services, recycling programs which cost more than the benefit they provide, expenditures on solar panels and other green projects that have zero ROI, state departments of energy that pander to the treehuggers, and the list of boondoggles and government waste goes on and on! > > These are the 9 million jobs that don’t need doing! That’s good money that can be spent on drones for monitoring our allies, billion dollar jets for fighting Toyota truck with a Ma Deuce welded to the roll cage “technical” and militarizing police around the country to bust the skulls of anyone who talks back to our esteemed elected officials! ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/118 "2016-11-21T16:57:04Z")
> [@burrunderthe\_saddle](#): > > What we don’t need is bloated parks and Rec departments, school staff that aren’t educators (MAP testing and Common Core), sewer/water inspectors/departments forced to comply with pointless and over bearing regulations from the federal government, IT staffs that produce needless websites, full color brochures to introduce city services, recycling programs which cost more than the benefit they provide, expenditures on solar panels and other green projects that have zero ROI, state departments of energy that pander to the treehuggers, and the list of boondoggles and government waste goes on and on! > > These are the 9 million jobs that don’t need doing! “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs” - John Rogers Ah, isn’t Libertopia a wonderful place? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/119 "2016-11-21T16:58:11Z")
Who really lives in a “bubble”? New York, San Francisco and other major coastal cities are major population centers full of diversity, commerce innovation, and culture. These rural areas of which people speak tend to be culturally homogenous regions that are extremely resistant to change or any sort of outside ideas breaking in. ---
**Author:** ![burrunderthe\_saddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@burrunderthe\_saddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burrunderthe_saddle)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221/120 "2016-11-21T17:04:15Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > If it weren’t for those damn government inspectors, the people of Flint would be free to drink lead in their water! > > May I suggest a good saddle blanket? Four government officials—one from the City of Flint, two from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), and one from the Environmental Protection Agency—resigned over the mishandling of the crisis, and one additional MDEQ staff member was fired. > [@](#): > > On April 1, 2013, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) sent out a press release demanding the state should block Flint’s request as it would hurt DWSD and start a water war. The regulation of maximum lead concentration was not at fault nor the inspectors. It was Democrat infighting that brought on the disaster. Just like the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster the managers/politicians did not listen to the solid booster engineers or in this case the water treatment inspectors. The inspectors raised the red flag early on but it took a year for the politicians to admit their mistake and fix the problem. > **[Flint water crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis#Switching_water_source)** > > The Flint water crisis was a public health crisis that started in 2014 after the drinking water for the city of Flint, Michigan was contaminated with lead and possibly Legionella bacteria. In April 2014, during a financial crisis, state-appointed emergency manager Darnell Earley changed Flint's water source from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (sourced from Lake Huron and the Detroit River) to the Flint River. Residents complained about the taste, smell, and appearance of the wate On... **LibDem created disaster pure and simple!** May I suggest a good security blanket? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-apparently-rural-america-modern-hunter-gatherers-think-city-folk-look-down-on-them/772221.md?page=7)