>tell me more about the western experience in mississippi or a burned out husk of a town outside of an urban center. the west isn't just what's on TV shows and the rich area of new york city

Answer this if you know so well how bad Mississippi had it

1 Do people there have food in stores? Because in communist times you might have money but could not buy food since the shelves were empty and there were rations.

2 Do neighbors there rat you out to the authorities if they did not like you with accusations like "my neighbor listens to illegal radio post" so you would get beaten and then send to gulag without any evidence?

3 were the border closed so people do not leave the state/country ? (do you wonder why if communist countries were a paradise there was a need to close the borders and shoot the people that try to ecape the paradise? and why so many wanted to escape ?

I lived in Romania in the 80s. I also visited Huntington, WV. At that time it was one of the poorest cities in the US. Believe me: quality of life in Huntington was in order of magnitude better than Romania in the 80s. I visited the most happening place in Huntington: an all you can eat buffet. Poor people in America eat all sorts of food from all over the world. In the 80s Romania we ate chicken feet (tacimuri) or pigs feet (adidasi). Poor people in America have electricity and heating. In 80s Romania we had neither.