No way out: Many poor stuck in Houston

No way out: Many poor stuck in Houston -- Page 1 -- TimesUnion.com

The title says it all. Even people who have vehicles and money didn't get very far.

Why is the Gulf Coast, which apparently has a large part of the industrial base of the country, also the leader when it comes to poverty? Could it be because that IS where the industrial complex rules so much? Is it because of religious fundamentalism holding sway? Racism? What happened here? We may owe the re-awakening of social consciousness to the storms of 2005, at a great cost to the victims of American aristocracy. That's assuming that there really is some sort of re-awakening going on here. If not, then I can't see any hope for this nation traveling a path any different from that of ancient Rome or any other empire, for that is what we have become.