A proposal to honor vice president-elect J.D. Vance at a city council meeting in tiny Middleton, Ohio, was disrupted when a dispute broke out this week after his mother made a plea to the city fathers to acknowledge his part in Donald Trump’s 2024 election win.
Middletown is in rough shape and has been for years. It’s part of the Rust Belt and has long been neglected by failed economic policies. Nearby towns now use it as a dumping ground for their homeless population. It was hit particularly hard by the opioid epidemic.
Middletown has enough problems to deal with. They sure as hell don’t need to add Trump’s vice-cuck to that list.
Yeah its about as rust as rust belt gets. It’s probably the worst off town in the Dayton area and that’s really saying something. That’s a region where I’ve known a mail carrier who got offered drugs on his route in a different town. Dayton has been used as a prime example of the vicious cycle of dollar general. Growing up in the Dayton area I didn’t even realize how bad it was there, but Dayton was at one point one of the worst hit cities in the opiate epidemic. And back then Middletown was the sad town nearby.
What is the vicious cycle of dollar general? I haven’t heard that phrase before.
Not OP, but it’s a great/horribly depressing rabbit hole to dive into.
Dollar tree and other megachain dollar-store type stores selectively open in places with very few grocery stores (food desserts) and then undercut pricing on bread and essentials, which drives mom and pop grocery stores our of business. Then they can raise prices as the grocery monopoly in the area.
Hit up YouTube, there’s plenty of deep or shallow dives that go into the finer details about how this works.
Ah, yeah, so it’s what Walmart does. I knew about it but hadn’t heard it called that. Thanks!
Yeah it’s basically what Walmart does, but if Walmart employed like a tenth of the people for worse wages and provided worse value for the dollar.
Walmart at least has fresh fruit and vegetables if someone wants to buy them. You’ll never get an apple or carrot fresh at a dollar store.