I'm from Tennessee. My sister read it and liked it and is supposed to send it to me.

The author has some good points, but fails to acknowledge how programs and scholarships helped him to get the education that enables him to succeed. His current conservatism is puzzling

I was put off by the fact that he had the GI Bill to help him through college but went on to castigate other sorts of government assistance that help people from his socioeconomic class who don't have the benefits a veteran does. He also didn't have any real solutions, just the premise that we shouldn't rely on the government.

He gives an awful lot of credit to his grandparents, but does he realize that there are some people who don't have even that? I didn't. I didn't have grandparents and my parents were both dead before I turned 22. He also doesn't delve into how much fortitude is just a part of your personality/constitution when you're born.

and have seen a bit about it.

It is typical of conservatives to completely not get that they benefit from various programs. So they look down on any and all who benefit from various other programs. It's one of the reasons I have so little patience with conservatives.

He praised some assistance programs, was angry about how legislation tightened the reins on payday advance loans saying congresspeople didn't understand how important they were to low income people, then denigrated those who worked the system and had no incentive to do what was required to pull themselves out of poverty. On the one hand I agreed with him about what I've seen in my experience in the small rural town where I grew up. I left as soon as I graduated from high school. Many refuse to leave a town where there are no jobs and then complain that the jobs should come to them. They don't heed the warnings of changes in the economy. The warnings were there in the early 80's about computers and automation, etc. yet they still clung to the notion that manufacturing and farming were coming back. Magical thinking I guess.

I rarely go back to my home town. Last year I went to visit two of my best friends from high school and then we met up with two others I was friends with and hadn't seen in almost 50 years. I was dismayed by the number of Trump signs in yards. I was also dismayed by how stuck in the past they all were. After three days I went back home and realized that I had nothing in common with these people any longer. One even asked me if I'd ever consider moving back and I'm afraid I blurted out rather harshly, "not for a minute".

I lived in northern NY state (Utica, and then a bit north) until I was 14. My mom moved the five kids still at home to Tucson, AZ, to leave an abusive, alcoholic husband/father. The change was profound. Not only to a different climate and different part of the country, but from a very small town to a much bigger, far more sophisticated city.

I have had some intermittent contact with my NYS classmates. I am incredibly sorry that I was not able to attend the 50th reunion back there thanks to a genuine conflict of schedules. (I'd committed to attending a science fiction thing, World Con, in Kansas City, before I knew that dates for the 50th, and it was simply impossible to make it to both) But I was able to get updates on various class members, and I was struck by how many of them, including many of the best and brightest of that class, had never left that part of northern New York. The class valedictorian did get away and seems to have had a terrific life. I'd love to talk with him, but that probably won't happen.

And so back to Tucson. In a high school class of over 400 (oh, and I claim membership in two different classes at that school, the one I originally started with and the one I graduated with since I graduated in 3 years instead of for -- long story, but I attend reunions for both classes.) at least a quarter never left the state, many never left Tucson, and up to half returned to the state or the city in the years since. Weird. I moved away to the east coast when I was 20, lived in several more parts of the country, and count myself very fortunate to have done so.

Even though I've been quite poor, especially early on, and got dental work thanks to a charity clinic, I've been enormously fortunate most of my life. If welfare as we now know it had been around when I was young, we'd have been more than eligible. But we scraped by. My mother was a nurse, so she knew she could always find work, which was a strong factor in finding the courage to leave my father. Many years later, when I had two small children, I finally understood on a visceral level how much courage it must have taken her to move us across the country. And I was in an intact marriage to a man who did not drink, did not abuse us, who provided quite well.

What I've carried with me through the years (and there are many more stories to tell about financial hardships in those years) was that I was lucky. First of all, and I actually understood this very early on, I was white. I didn't carry the burden of being black or Hispanic. As bad as things were at times, we'd come out ahead. Second was that I was in a good place demographically. My earning potential grew steadily, because I benefitted from the Baby Boom (of which I'm obviously a member) and the growth of the economy during the 1960's and 1970's. Don't get me wrong. Money was always tight. But I also benefitted from the lack of credit cards. I remember applying for my first Visa (BankAmericard back then) and being in awe of the power it gave me. Not that I used it much. I knew better.

Young people today get credit cards more or less along with their first driver's license. Or cell phone. They don't learn to manage debt. They don't really learn to live on their income. I'm both astonished and dismayed at the young people who pay for everything with a debit card and then blithely assure us that it is simply NOT POSSIBLE to save money.

I'm not sure how many of my former classmates, either in Tucson or New York, are Trump supporters. I do know that to every single person who voted for Trump, if this godawful tax bill passes, I will tell them that they are responsible, this is EXACTLY what they voted for.

More to the point, I understand the point of welfare and of various social programs. I've benefitted from some, and understand pretty clearly how important they are. It's long been my belief that if there is any point to our lives, it is to help each other out. And that's what I can do through my taxes (and through personal commitments such as volunteer work) and I absolutely do not begrudge that money. Because I know all too well what it's like to be in need. Which is what too many people don't seem to understand.

My parents had seven children and my mother felt trapped in an awful marriage to an extremely controlling, angry man. Her only way out was by dying of cancer when I was a teenager. I was able to break the cycle when I married and had children, but I am an introspective/reflective person by nature which helped me to deal with my past and plan ways to have a better life. I do give the author credit for his perseverence.

There have been so many times I thought I should write all of the memories down, but I have made it a priority that my two children heard the stories many, many times growing up. They had a comfortable life and I wanted them to realize how fortunate they were.
If I had to pick one or two adjectives to describe me it would be resourceful and tenacious. I don't see much of that in today's young people. I guess growing up poor I always felt you had two choices - sink or swim.

Very good qualities to have. And yeah, growing up poor does shape a person profoundly.

of the family to be kind of ridiculous, and I didn't care to continue.

Just don't do that shit, hillbillies!! Your life will be lots happier!

"Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis" is a memoir by J. D. Vance

Vance describes his upbringing and family background. He writes about a family history of poverty and low-paying, physical jobs that have since disappeared or worsened in their guarantees, and compares this life with his perspective after leaving that area and life.

Vance was raised in Middletown, Ohio, though his ancestors were from Breathitt County, Kentucky.
Their Appalachian values include traits like loyalty, love of country, and tendency towards violence and verbal abuse.

He recounts his grandparents' alcoholism and abuse, and his unstable mother's history of drug addictions and failed relationships. V
ance's grandparents eventually reconcile and become his de facto guardians, particularly spurred by his tough but loving grandmother,
such that Vance was able to leave his town and ascend social ladders to attend Ohio State University and Yale Law School.[1]

Alongside his personal history, Vance raises questions such as the responsibility of his family and people for their own misfortune.

More at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillbilly_Elegy#Summary

(Vance worked as the principal in a venture capital firm owned by Peter Thiel, known as Mithril Capital Management LLC.
In December 2016,Vance indicated that he plans to move to Ohio to start a nonprofit and potentially run for office)

He must travel frequently for book interviews, etc.

His appearance on CSPAN's book talk, with Brian Lamb, from Sept. 2016 and rebroadcast a month or so ago was most interesting.

Middletown is about 100 miles from Columbus.

I'll have to see if I can find his interview somewhere online.

govt BAD! socialism BAD! crapitalism GOOD! WELFARE BAD! feed the racists.

He had points but I do feel that some points were quite off the mark. I was in a book group and the group ended up arguing how to fix the issues he put forth and I was the only southerner in the room that could give more information. Whether he knows it or not, he’s giving the south a new stereotype. A stereotype being one story about a particular place in the world without shedding light on other types of stories.

However, after I finished the book I realized that he really didn't have any solutions or suggestions for solutions. He also made a lot of broad-brush statements without backing them up with facts and statistics. If I remember correctly, there was one point where he said, "a large minority of people live like that" (maybe with regards to living on charity and not trying to get a job). What the heck is a large minority? Isn't that an oxymoron?

I also cringed at the use of the term "hillbillies". I think it has a derogatory connotation and I'll bet most of the group he was examining would take great offense by being called that.

My childhood had many similarities but no one would ever call my family "hillbillies". We didn't hail from Kentucky or W. Virginia. Our roots ran deep in northeast Ohio.

Aka. A hillbilly that reads. I don’t consider that a compliment.

Never heard that term before.

I moved from the North to the South and was called a "damn Yankee" behind my back

My old preacher came up to my mom and said loudly (I was sitting next to her, and my husband was on the other side of me.) “I heard -Neoma- married a yankee!” And she turned to him and said, “I was born up north and so were all my siblings.” That shut him up right quick. He looked at her bizarrely and went somewhere else.