today we've got a deep dive into a topic that's been in the news lately and many of you have been
curious about welfare welfare is an essential safety net for many individuals and families in
the United States some people think it's a big waste of money and it's just a bunch of people
too lazy to work now that does happen but not nearly as much as you've been led to believe
anything that involves money and human beings has waste Fraud and Abuse that's just what happens it
is estimated that between 11 and 13 percent of people on any form of Public Assistance don't
need it and are gaming the system or committing outright fraud in the grand scheme of things that
isn't a bad rate compared to other government programs and stop typing it is an essential
program whether you believe it or not 70 percent of the U.S population is just two or three missed
paychecks from needing some form of welfare or public assistance have you ever wondered which
state has the highest percentage of residents on welfare well buckle up because today work
down the top 10 states with the highest welfare rate whether it is to better
understand the socio-economic factors or just gain some smarts stick around
as we unravel these states one by one got it get it good let's take a look
number 10 Georgia Georgia like many other states in the U.S grapple with significant pockets of
poverty and hopelessness especially in the rural and inner city areas that should be no surprise to
anyone if it was a surprise to you I'm sure you're the type of person that at age 16 you're a little
surprised to find out that the whole Tooth Fairy thing was a frog despite being home to amazing
cities like Atlanta and Savannah Georgia has poverty issues that still persist historically
parts of Georgia particularly the southern region have struggled with limited access to Quality
Education Health Care and job opportunities economic challenges have been aggravated by
the decline of Industries such as Agriculture and Manufacturing now in recent years the state's done
quite a lot to address those issues they still run into some poverty issues which of course
puts people on welfare and different types of government assistance currently the rate
of welfare in Georgia is 13 247 residents for every 100 are on some form of welfare
number nine Oregon and this isn't really a surprise to anyone I'm sure Oregon has some
serious poverty issues they have some serious homeless issues and a lot of the Eastern section
of the state has a lot of poverty in the rural areas if you don't know Oregon is located in the
Pacific Northwest region of the United States while it boasts a rich natural landscape in
vibrant cities like Portland many residents grapple with you know different economic
hardships and it's not just people living on the streets in Portland it's there's a lot
of people in this area that are like that for most of Oregon's existence Industries
related to the timber industry were Central to Oregon's economy but as these industries
have faced decline some communities have been left struggling in both urban and rural areas
of the state affordable housing is like the king of all of Oregon's problems now Oregon has done
different things like raise the minimum wage but it still can't keep Pace with the rising
cost of living especially actually Portland but anywhere you got humans that's what's going on in
this country right now in reality people have said that since forever I mean it's not like
cost of living being high has ever been anything new in the United States it's not like all these
you know CEOs got together and you know what I think we're charging the American people too much
maybe we should slash everything in half start fresh from there but with all the homeless and
all the affordable housing issues Oregon has a welfare rate that is 13 775 for every 100
000 residents number eight Florida so this one to anyone outside of Florida or that part of the
country is probably surprised by this because most of us only see these wonderful pictures
of Florida like Disneyland the wonderful beaches Manatee old dudes and Speedos you know a modern
day Garden of Eden but that's not really what's going on in Florida while the state's economy
has grown in various sectors a notable percentage of the population still struggles with financial
hardships factors like high housing costs limited access to Quality Health Care and wage disparities
have left many residents below the poverty line a lot of those dudes are wearing mullets to this
day the effect of poverty can be seen in the urban areas rural regions and even among the communities
that one might assume are thriving now I've read about all these different programs they've done to
address these issues over the years and I've noticed in the last two years a lot of those
programs have been canceled which has kind of aggravated the situation in the next few years
I think you're going to see a bigger problem in Florida now let's talk about their rate thirteen
thousand eight hundred fifty two Floridians for every 100 000 are on some form of welfare
number seven Illinois now I know there's a certain part of the population there oh
yep I knew it I knew it right there Illinois along with Florida are the only two cities on
this list that are both on the top ten here for rate of people on welfare and just the overall
amount of people on welfare and that has to do with their population size the king of all of
it with the absolute most obviously is going to be California because they have far more people
than any other state I mean California has almost as many people as the entire country
of Canada but back to Illinois in the state of Illinois poverty has long been a multi-faceted
issue affecting a significant portion of its residents obviously a lot of that's coming
from Chicago Chicago has some downright scary neighborhoods that are extremely poor you know
it's really bad when those solar panel guys won't even come to your door God they come to
my door like once a week they're not as bad as those people trying to get me to refinance my
home though they actually come to your door here or they like to send a letter to me and
they put a picture of my house in it like like they're stalking me we know where you
lib you need to refinance Illinois's welfare rate is 13 908 for every 100 000 residents
number six Alabama there are three things that are very important to the people of Alabama sweet tea
poverty and following the cinnamon tide that's their football team from their college and stop
typing I know it's called The Crimson Tide I'm messing with you actually was talking to a guy
from Mississippi and he kept calling him the cinnamon tide I don't know if that's a common
insult but it was the first time I ever heard it I will tell you one thing in my experience
of all the college football games I've ever been to an Alabama football game is insane those people
love that team more than a triathlete loves oxygen there's a little bit of a discussion
on one of these videos I did about the regions the Deep South is Louisiana Alabama Mississippi
Georgia and yes even though Florida is lower than that that's not where it comes from the
Deep South is something totally different it's not really about where they sit on a
map but Alabama is a wonderful state with great people they just have a whole lot of poverty they
have for decades and decades Alabama's poverty rate is consistently ranked among the highest
in the nation and that's even though they've gotten better over the last few years in 2021
it was around 16 of their population lived below the poverty line while the
rest of the country was about 10.5 right now the poverty rate in the United States
is still 10.5 and Alabama's got it down to 15.2 so a little progress they still got a
bunch of people on welfare their rate of welfare recipients is 14 358 for every 100 000 residents
number five Oklahoma Oklahoma is located in the heart of the United States and it's
grappled with poverty for many many years even though it has one of the best farming sectors
in the nation they still have a significant percentage of their population that struggles
financially several factors contribute to this issue including economic downturns and dominant
Industries limited access to Quality education in certain areas and the disparity in employment
opportunities you know everything's got a food chain when it comes to just about anything in
the world one thing affects the next thing if someone kills all the insects in an area all the
birds go away if all the birds go away then all the Hawks go away and it's just this cycle that
cycle when it comes to cities is like this if you don't have quality education new companies
don't come into your area because you don't have enough people with enough education to do these
high-tech jobs if those high-tech jobs are just any jobs don't come to a certain area you have
more people in poverty more people in poverty means you have to pay more in into welfare and
your crime rate goes up the downside for most politicians it usually takes 10 20 years to
really see a significant difference once you start having better education in your
state or your city or whatever so they rarely do anything about it they want to see results this
week additionally rural parts of Oklahoma face unique challenges such as less access to health
care and public services which can further exasperate poverty rates Oklahoma isn't the
worst state in the nation but I think if they don't address some of the issues that they face
they're just going to go downhill over the next couple decades I don't care how much oil they're
pulling out of the ground the welfare rate in Oklahoma is 14 648 per every 100 000 residents
number four Mississippi our old friend Mississippi I mean I'm sure most of you thought they were
going to be the top of the list but here they are at number four for Most states that's embarrassing
for Mississippi that's quite an accomplishment congratulations I'll give a golf clap to you
I had someone email me said I've never you've never been to Mississippi you don't know what
you're talking about so I sent him a few pictures of me in Mississippi emailed to
him I got one of them back he had drawn a part of the male anatomy on it pointing towards my face
so now not only will I not send you feet pics quit asking I'm not even sending any pictures
to anyone like Oklahoma a lot of Mississippi's problems start with poor education now I will
tell you this they're gonna change a little bit because I I don't know maybe about five
or ten years ago they really started focusing on the education of Mississippi they've always
had pretty decent universities it's just a lot of the rural schools and even the inner city schools
they they weren't good they've addressed that and it's going to take it a while but I think
they're moving in the right direction when it comes that for right now they still don't have
any big Industries moving in there that are really helping the people they do have some Pockets here
or there but overall they're falling behind the curve or they had been but more and more
people are moving there because it's so cheap so this will give them more tax dollars and they'll
address these issues but right now it's not great Mississippi always has one of the highest rates
of poverty in the nation and their rate of people on welfare is 14 873 for every 100 000 residents
number three West Virginia one of my favorite States West Virginia is nestled within the
rugged Landscapes of the Appalachian Mountains it is known for its Rich history and cultural
significance however beneath that Scenic beauty lies oppressing socioeconomic concern poverty
since forever West Virginia has grappled with a high poverty rate now this can be attributed to
a range of factors including the decline in the coal industry limited access to education and
health care and a lack of Diversified economic opportunities I mean they were doing pretty good
with coal mining why Branch out they're still pulling coal out of the ground just not what
they used to and a lot of the communities have really suffered and then like I've said on this
channel before they got a one-two punch as the coal industry was going down the opioid
addiction was going up in West Virginia this just created more and more problems more and
more people slipped into poverty and then everyone depended on welfare of some sort not everyone but
a lot remember Mississippi was in the 14 000 range almost fifteen thousand West Virginia took a giant
leap forward on this list West Virginia's welfare rate is 17 144 residents for every 100 000.
number two Louisiana or Louisiana Louisiana's nestled in the heart of the American South like
I said before this is a deep south state they're rural areas like Mississippi are just wrecked
with poverty and they have been since I don't know the great depressions like they never got out of
the Great Depression in some parts of Louisiana and Mississippi thing is this is really strange
there's this great documentary called happy and they went around for this documentary and
researched what makes people happy and where are the happiest people in the United States
they found it to be in Louisiana in the poorer areas and they kind of tracked what was making
these people happy and they went to other parts of the world and found out the same thing in
these different communities and it's family and friends how close were they how often did they
have Gatherings were they around their friends and family not what they owned not how much they
made how often did they you know have dinner with their family and friends how often were
their festivals I mean that that's common sense the things you own shouldn't make you happy but
we're humans we don't do what's logical but the people in the Backwoods of Louisiana have figured
it out but Louisiana has consistently ranked among the states with the highest poverty rate
factors contributing to this issue range from the history of economic inequality to limited
access to Quality education two challenges that face the rural areas additionally they've added
a lot of really solid disasters like Hurricane Katrina seventeen thousand three hundred and forty
Louisiana residents for every 100 000 are on some form of welfare all right before we get to number
one don't forget we have another Channel called on this day there's a link for that down below and I
want to give another shout out to uh where might I live it's a really good website that I use all
the time in a video I did like a week ago I called it where might I move which it was kind of rude
I didn't do it on purpose I'm only human and the plate in my head does not make me a cyborg alright
number one and number one New Mexico New Mexico struggled with poverty for a very long time a lot
of it has to do with the smaller communities that are in very remote locations this state
consistently ranks among the highest in the nation in terms of poverty rate a complex web of factors
contribute to this issue economic dependence on just a few Industries limited access to Quality
education in certain regions and they got this history of socioeconomic disparities among its
diverse population now they have addressed this in recent years I've seen a lot of changes just
in the stats for New Mexico they used to be much worse they're pretty bad right now but they got
a little bit better now this is how much of a jump they had remember Louisiana was 17 340 for
every 100 000 residents in New Mexico it's 21 292 for every 100 000 residents almost a quarter of
their population is on some form of welfare all right that's today's video hope you guys enjoyed
it hope you got some information of it now go out have a great day and be nice to each other