Hillbilly Elegy Ch. 15, Conclusion, Afterword

Vance is at a sleazy hotel at the beginning of the chapter because...

• the hotel staff wouldn't take his credit card info over the phone.

• he has to pick up his mother and take her to rehab.

• he is buying Oxycontin for his mother.

• he's sleazy.

What limit does Vance put on his willingness to help his mother?

• He will stop if he doesn't have money and patience left for the people in his life that matter most.

• He will stop if his mother cannot stay clean for at least three weeks.

• He will stop if his mother gets arrested again.

What three places in the U.S. have trouble achieving the "American Dream"?

• The South, the Rust Belt, and Appalachia

• Utah, Oklahoma, and Massachusetts

• The South, the Steel Belt, and Appalachia

• The South, the Seat Belt, and Appalachia

What two factors do Chetty et al. identify as having the biggest impact on opportunity?

• The prevalence of single parents and income segregation.

• A strong work ethic and national pride.

• Prenatal medical care for expectant mothers and welfare programs.

Why does Vance think that there is a problem with how "family" is defined?

• Some people's "family" includes people other than their siblings and parents.

• Some people exploit the definition of "family" to cheat the welfare system.

• It allows gay couples the right to adopt children.

How many children spend at least some time in foster care in a given year?

• 640,000

• 6,400,000

• 64,000

• 6,400

According to Vance, what do social policy programs need to recognize in order to be successful?

• The real problem for at-risk kids is what happens (and doesn't happen) at home.

• Democrats consistently fail the most vulnerable Americans.

• That "social justice" is just a polite way of saying "anti-America"

What is the problem with the survival traits he learned as a child?

• He now either runs from conflict or prepares for battle.

• He now responds aggressively to opposing lawyers, and he was close to being fired for it.

• They ended up causing Usha to divorce him.

What makes it difficult for Vance to shop for presents for low-income kids?

• He imagines all of the reasons that each present wouldn't be right for a poor kid.

• He resents the children who will get the presents that he never got as a kid.

• He knows that the parents of the kids will just return the gifts for drug money.

What was the problem with planning on tax refund money to afford Christmas gifts?

• The tax return might be kept by the IRS for not having paid taxes the previous year.

• Using tax refund money in Ohio was illegal at the time, but people rarely got caught.

• The tax return might get delayed until after Christmas.