The Money Compass: Where Your Money Went and How to Get It Back

Chapter 9

Staying Poor in America

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.

—Aristotle

1960: It was a warm Saturday night in Kirkland, Texas. Saturday night in summer brought everyone into town. Farmers and their families came to town to shop in the local shops. U.S.-made products were displayed behind bright store windows. The downtown brick stores, built in the 1930s and 1940s, were busy, and shoppers were going from one store to another. The stores were family run, and their proprietors lived in Kirkland. On the sidewalk, some people stood in small groups laughing and talking with friends. Outside lights started to turn on as the evening sun sank down. High school students who owned cars “cruised the main” and showed off their cars. Occasionally, they drove into the local gas station on Highway 287. With a $2 fill-up, they got their oil checked and windshield cleaned. As night came, the streets cleared and the shoppers returned to their homes. It was another quiet but busy Saturday night in Kirkland.

2013: On any day, the main street in Kirkland is deserted. All the shoppers left long ago. Sidewalks are dusty, and weeds grow in the cracks. All the products have been taken out of the stores, and when a passer-by looks through the dirty store windows all he sees is emptiness. There are still a few stores and gas stations along Highway 287 that serve passing cars. But the downtown is silent and the stores look broken. There is no friendly laughter, and there are no people ...