ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the relationship between natural resource-dependence and persistent poverty in communities or regions within the United States. Poverty has been increasing in the United States since the end of the Great Society programs in the late 1970s. Poverty can be defined as both a relative and an absolute state. In absolute terms it is material deprivation to such an extent that one's physical well-being is at risk. Extreme material deprivation leads not only to physical degradation but mental despair. Material deprivation is first a consequence and subsequently a cause of malnutrition, high infant mortality, and, often, violent crime. In some instances, even large resource-extraction firms may be pre-empted from access to public lands and resources because of growing interest in environmental preservation in the United States. Unions, while ostensibly the countervailing power to and antagonist of large firms, have similar incentive systems.
