vox--2020-11-30--11 films to watch if you loved — or hated — Hillbilly Elegy

Let ’ s not mince words : Netflix ’ s new Oscar-bait Hillbilly Elegy is not the ode to vanishing rural American life it seems to want to be .
In the name of presenting an empathetic view of the Appalachian community where it ’ s set , Ron Howard ’ s film , based on the bestselling memoir by lawyer J.D .
Vance , dredges up a litany of cringe-y tropes and stereotypes about poverty , drug use , classism , and fading small-town America .
Outside of a few pointed shots of bricked-up buildings and storefronts with peeling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to say about either the hillbilly life of its title or hillbillies themselves and their struggle to survive .
What ’ s odd is that it ’ s not like there ’ s a shortage of films that Howard and his production team could have cribbed .
There are so many better films that tackle the subject matter of rural American identity that we felt compelled to round them up for anyone who wants cinematic insight into hillbillies , rednecks , and rural life generally .
( And no , Deliverance is not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ present 11 films , a mix of dramas and documentaries , that are far better elegies for the rural Americans they depict than the one currently getting all the buzz .
First Language : The Race to Save Cherokee ( 2014 ) This short documentary film tells the story of a dwindling community of Native Americans in mountainous North Carolina as they fight to keep knowledge of the Cherokee language alive and thriving .
Featuring both Cherokee and English subtitles , the film uses the fight to teach the Cherokee language as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and grim realities of indigenous life in the US .
Most stories about Native Americans inevitably focus on reservation life in the West .
It ’ s rare to get such a frank look at the communities who remain in the South , especially Appalachia .
With its lovely lingering shots of the Carolina blue hills juxtaposed against glimpses of contemporary modern Cherokee life , First Language is not only a revealing portrait of Smoky Mountain culture , but it ’ s also a reminder that forced assimilation always comes at a cost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being felt centuries later .
RaMell Ross ’ s tremendous , Oscar-nominated film Hale County might best be thought of as a tone poem rather than a traditional documentary .
Through assembled footage of a rural Alabama county and stunning cinematography , Ross provides a close read of everyday Black life powerful enough to rival anything since Charles Burnett ’ s Killer of Sheep .
The result : a film that transforms the mundanity of normal American life into a beautiful , Tarkovsky-esque epic .
It ’ s incredibly rare to find any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that ’ s not using racism as the central conflict .
( Consider : Mississippi Burning , Beloved , The Color Purple , and a film chosen for this list , Mudbound . )
The weight of racial injustice does loom large over Hale County , but its primary work is to poeticize its subjects rather than frame them as victims .
Through Ross ’ s delicate , soft lens , it ’ s kept at bay , at least for a while — much like the oncoming thunderstorm that serves as the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1976 Oscar winner for Best Documentary , Harlan County , USA , documents the tense strike of unionized Eastern Kentucky miners to win higher wages in the face of institutional corruption , violent intimidation , and even murder .
Documentarian Barbara Kopple became far more than an observant bystander on the production , often using her camera crew ’ s presence to quell intimidation tactics against the striking miners .
Even so , the reality of life in the mining community and anti-union violence as she captures it on film is eye-opening and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a heated union meeting , one woman pulls a gun out of her cleavage and gleefully waves it around .
“ I ain ’ t here for a man , I ’ m here for a contract !
” another union woman declares .
She ’ s later voted president of the association .
Rock on .
Gritty and infused with desperation , Hell or High Water is a modern heist Western that churns around a broader , relatable economic anxiety .
It ’ s a post-recession No Country For Young Men , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ towns , and the internal conflict between a Texan ’ s DIY wherewithal and an economic system that ’ s failed to protect him .
It ’ s kind of astonishing that Scottish filmmaker David McKenzie hopped across the pond to deliver this sensitive , sumptuous look at two brothers whose determination to save the family from destitution drives them to embark on a modern-day bank-robbing spree .
Hell or High Water could have easily been cliched and over the top , but its solid cast , deep reliance on setting , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ muting its melodramatics and turning it instead into a meditation on the thwarted hopes and dreams of the American heartland .
Peter Bogdanovich ’ s 1971 film about a dying southwestern town is a beautiful , devastating masterpiece — a film ostensibly about slow rural decay and the boredom of small-town life that seethes with tension and repressed emotion .
Set in a fading Texas hamlet just before the Korean War , the film follows a group of high schoolers — including real-life siblings Timothy and Sam Bottoms — as they teeter between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taste of sex , love , and disappointment as the war looms over them all .
The Last Picture Show is probably most famous for Bogdanovich ’ s decision to film in black and white in order to capture the feeling of a bygone era .
But also memorable is its all-star ensemble cast , which includes a young Beau Bridges , unforgettable turns from Ellen Burstyn and Eileen Brennan , Oscar-winning performances from Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman , and a head-turning screen debut from a teenage Cybill Shepard .
Its characters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ play that have grown too worn out from dust and despair to perform their typical dramatic Tennessee Williams bullshit .
Instead , the film suggests that its epic conflicts have all been forgotten , repressed , and laid aside as its community focuses on just getting by .
Never you mind , never you mind .
Mudbound , Dee Rees ’ s stunning look at the legacy of sharecropping and racial tensions in 1940s Mississippi , garnered Netflix four Oscar nominations , including a groundbreaking nod for cinematographer Rachel Morrison .
Though it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its story of neighboring families struggling to make peace and survive off the land could almost take place at any time during the last 200 years : Neither the land nor the turbulent racial tensions that divide Mudbound ’ s poor farmers are any easier to master today than they were in the post-war-era South .
Mudbound eschews the lush hills of the Ozarks or Appalachia for the flat , fertile , but unforgiving Mississippi Delta .
Part of what makes this film so good is how tactile it is : The emphasis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ obvious metaphor for the drudgery and impossible cycle of poverty that besieges rural America , but it ’ s also an equally trenchant metaphor for plain old world-weary exhaustion ; this is a film that looks and feels heavy .
That Mudbound somehow manages to turn that feeling into something kinetic rather than boring is a testament to Rees ’ s astonishing direction , its superb ensemble cast , and a fantastic screenplay from Rees and Virgil Williams .
The Coens ' marvelous tribute to the Depression-era South and old-timey folk culture is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about .
I grew up as a rural Southerner in a community still steeped in the legacy of the ’ 30 and ’ 40s , and no other film has ever captured that sensibility for me as vividly as this retelling of Homer 's The Odyssey .
We follow escaped convict George Clooney and his two sidekicks ( John Turturro and Tim Blake-Nelson , both sublime ) across a daguerreotype-toned landscape of folk symbols .
His goal ?
Make his way back to his wife and kids before she remarries — and , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ floodings overseen by the Tennessee Valley Authority .
This film was completely overshadowed by its tremendously successful , critically acclaimed soundtrack , which was ubiquitous in my bluegrass town ( and everywhere else ) for about a year after its release .
Easily one of the best compilation soundtracks ever assembled , it 's a must-hear , and a cultural journey in its own right — but don ’ t sleep on the movie itself .
What a delight .
Another film based on the true memoir of a small-town Appalachian boy who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ engineer Homer Hickam ’ s life , with wide-eyed Jake Gyllenhaal playing the rocket-obsessed son of a coal miner .
Like other biopics in its vein — Coal Miner ’ s Daughter comes to mind — October Sky runs on optimism in the face of hardship .
But it also counters its up-by-your-bootstraps mantra with the reminder that life in the coal mines is often hopeless , with regional poverty leading to a generational cycle that forces many people to follow in their parents ’ footsteps and become miners themselves .
In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s unrelenting positivity is almost daffy .
But Gyllenhaal , for whom this was a breakout role , sells this unlikely success story by lacing his performance with sheer desperation — a grim determination to escape being trapped between a mountain and a hard place .
Yet another historical Appalachian folk tale , Songcatcher is loosely based on the real-life work of folklorists and linguists — not something you hear every day as the basis for a plot .
Janet McTeer 's fictional linguistic anthropologist , a proper Edwardian Englishwoman , arrives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ study the unique regional folk dialects , only to find herself a stranger in a strange land , far out of her depth .
Though the storyline is sometimes cheesy , Songcatcher benefits from having a singular and compelling subject , as well as from a unique and often thrilling soundtrack .
The ensemble cast features performances from actual folk singers , like Iris Dement , whose hypnotic twang must be heard to be believed .
Songcatcher is worth watching just to hear Dement ’ s rich voice encapsulate a nation 's worth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about a boy and his two prized coon hounds growing up in the Ozarks will never be on any best-of lists unless they involve movies about dogs .
But you ’ d be hard-pressed to find a more influential film for a certain subset of conservative , rural America .
For a good period of my life growing up , I was subjected to Where The Red Fern Grows multiple times a week : at pre-school , at church , at grade school .
Something about its mix of folksy Americana and nostalgia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , its overtly Christian themes , and cute dogs made this 1974 film ( not to be confused with its 2003 remake or its odd 1992 sequel ) a go-to form of indoctrination for countless ’ 80s and ’ 90s children across the region .
The fact that it ’ s also a notoriously sad film may have even made it more bitterly endearing .
This is , perhaps , a film that embodied a familiar cycle : one of rural American dreams set alight , then smothered , only to smolder again @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , resilience , and ideology .
Before Ozark put the idea of “ Ozark noir ” into our heads , Debra Granik ’ s 2008 film Winter ’ s Bone did it first .
It ’ s still the best version of it , too .
It ’ s a bleak , beautiful , terrifying film that drew a Best Picture Oscar nod and launched its star Jennifer Lawrence ’ s entire career .
Winter ’ s Bone tells the story of a determined 17-year-old named Ree who embarks on the darkest hero @ @ @ @ @ @ @ find her missing father in order to keep her family ’ s house and keep her family together .
To do that , she must navigate a world of drug lords and secrets and somehow uncover the truth without winding up dead herself .
And she has to manage it almost entirely alone .
The general public mainly knows Lawrence through her goofy celeb persona and later career choices , but in Winter ’ s Bone , she turns in a performance that ’ s just about perfect .
Co-star John Hawkes also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decrepit but well-meaning uncle , the only adult who has Ree ’ s back , to whatever degree he can .
Filmed in the poverty-ridden Ozark community where it ’ s set , the landscape we see in Winter ’ s Bone is squalid but refreshingly authentic .
Granik ’ s camera frames it unrelentingly and without judgment , allowing us to confront Ree ’ s everyday reality , and inevitably to see the humanity of everyone who endures it .
As a statement on rural American life , it ’ s unique @ @ @ @ @ @ @

Let’s not mince words: Netflix’s new Oscar-bait Hillbilly Elegy is not the ode to vanishing rural American life it seems to want to be. In the name of presenting an empathetic view of the Appalachian community where it’s set, Ron Howard’s film, based on the bestselling memoir by lawyer J.D. Vance, dredges up a litany of cringe-y tropes and stereotypes about poverty, drug use, classism, and fading small-town America. Outside of a few pointed shots of bricked-up buildings and storefronts with peeling paint, the film has remarkably little to say about either the hillbilly life of its title or hillbillies themselves and their struggle to survive.
What’s odd is that it’s not like there’s a shortage of films that Howard and his production team could have cribbed. There are so many better films that tackle the subject matter of rural American identity that we felt compelled to round them up for anyone who wants cinematic insight into hillbillies, rednecks, and rural life generally. (And no, Deliverance is not one of them.)
Below we present 11 films, a mix of dramas and documentaries, that are far better elegies for the rural Americans they depict than the one currently getting all the buzz.
Winter’s Bone (2008)
Before Ozark put the idea of “Ozark noir” into our heads, Debra Granik’s 2008 film Winter’s Bone did it first. It’s still the best version of it, too. It’s a bleak, beautiful, terrifying film that drew a Best Picture Oscar nod and launched its star Jennifer Lawrence’s entire career.
Winter’s Bone tells the story of a determined 17-year-old named Ree who embarks on the darkest hero’s quest: She has to find her missing father in order to keep her family’s house and keep her family together. To do that, she must navigate a world of drug lords and secrets and somehow uncover the truth without winding up dead herself. And she has to manage it almost entirely alone.
The general public mainly knows Lawrence through her goofy celeb persona and later career choices, but in Winter’s Bone, she turns in a performance that’s just about perfect. Co-star John Hawkes also got an Oscar nomination for playing her decrepit but well-meaning uncle, the only adult who has Ree’s back, to whatever degree he can. Filmed in the poverty-ridden Ozark community where it’s set, the landscape we see in Winter’s Bone is squalid but refreshingly authentic. Granik’s camera frames it unrelentingly and without judgment, allowing us to confront Ree’s everyday reality, and inevitably to see the humanity of everyone who endures it. As a statement on rural American life, it’s unique, unforgettable, and deeply empathetic.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Hulu, YouTube
Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018)
RaMell Ross’s tremendous, Oscar-nominated film Hale County might best be thought of as a tone poem rather than a traditional documentary. Through assembled footage of a rural Alabama county and stunning cinematography, Ross provides a close read of everyday Black life powerful enough to rival anything since Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep. The result: a film that transforms the mundanity of normal American life into a beautiful, Tarkovsky-esque epic.
It’s incredibly rare to find any film about Black communities in rural America that’s not using racism as the central conflict. (Consider: Mississippi Burning, Beloved, The Color Purple, and a film chosen for this list, Mudbound.) The weight of racial injustice does loom large over Hale County, but its primary work is to poeticize its subjects rather than frame them as victims. Through Ross’s delicate, soft lens, it’s kept at bay, at least for a while — much like the oncoming thunderstorm that serves as the film’s evening backdrop.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, YouTube
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 film about a dying southwestern town is a beautiful, devastating masterpiece — a film ostensibly about slow rural decay and the boredom of small-town life that seethes with tension and repressed emotion. Set in a fading Texas hamlet just before the Korean War, the film follows a group of high schoolers — including real-life siblings Timothy and Sam Bottoms — as they teeter between adolescence and adulthood, each getting a taste of sex, love, and disappointment as the war looms over them all.
The Last Picture Show is probably most famous for Bogdanovich’s decision to film in black and white in order to capture the feeling of a bygone era. But also memorable is its all-star ensemble cast, which includes a young Jeff Bridges, unforgettable turns from Ellen Burstyn and Eileen Brennan, Oscar-winning performances from Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman, and a head-turning screen debut from a teenage Cybill Shepard. Its characters feel like transplants from a Tennessee Williams play that have grown too worn out from dust and despair to perform their typical dramatic Tennessee Williams bullshit. Instead, the film suggests that its epic conflicts have all been forgotten, repressed, and laid aside as its community focuses on just getting by. Never you mind, never you mind.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, YouTube
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
The Coens’ marvelous tribute to the Depression-era South and old-timey folk culture is one movie I can’t be objective about. I grew up as a rural Southerner in a community still steeped in the legacy of the ’30 and ’40s, and no other film has ever captured that sensibility for me as vividly as this retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey. We follow escaped convict George Clooney and his two sidekicks (John Turturro and Tim Blake-Nelson, both sublime) across a daguerreotype-toned landscape of folk symbols. His goal? Make his way back to his wife and kids before she remarries — and, incidentally, before one of the historic floodings overseen by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
This film was completely overshadowed by its tremendously successful, critically acclaimed soundtrack, which was ubiquitous in my bluegrass town (and everywhere else) for about a year after its release. Easily one of the best compilation soundtracks ever assembled, it’s a must-hear, and a cultural journey in its own right — but don’t sleep on the movie itself. What a delight.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, YouTube
First Language: The Race to Save Cherokee (2014)
This short documentary film tells the story of a dwindling community of Native Americans in mountainous North Carolina as they fight to keep knowledge of the Cherokee language alive and thriving. Featuring both Cherokee and English subtitles, the film uses the fight to teach the Cherokee language as a gateway to discussing the many larger challenges and grim realities of indigenous life in the US.
Most stories about Native Americans inevitably focus on reservation life in the West. It’s rare to get such a frank look at the communities who remain in the South, especially Appalachia. With its lovely lingering shots of the Carolina blue hills juxtaposed against glimpses of contemporary modern Cherokee life, First Language is not only a revealing portrait of Smoky Mountain culture, but it’s also a reminder that forced assimilation always comes at a cost — in this case, one still being felt centuries later.
Where to watch: YouTube
Songcatcher (2000)
Yet another historical Appalachian folk tale, Songcatcher is loosely based on the real-life work of folklorists and linguists — not something you hear every day as the basis for a plot. Janet McTeer’s fictional linguistic anthropologist, a proper Edwardian Englishwoman, arrives in the backwoods of North Carolina to study the unique regional folk dialects, only to find herself a stranger in a strange land, far out of her depth.
Though the storyline is sometimes cheesy, Songcatcher benefits from having a singular and compelling subject, as well as from a unique and often thrilling soundtrack. The ensemble cast features performances from actual folk singers, like Iris Dement, whose hypnotic twang must be heard to be believed. Songcatcher is worth watching just to hear Dement’s rich voice encapsulate a nation’s worth of hope and despair.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, YouTube
Harlan County, USA (1976)
The 1976 Oscar winner for Best Documentary, Harlan County, USA, documents the tense strike of unionized Eastern Kentucky miners to win higher wages in the face of institutional corruption, violent intimidation, and even murder.
Documentarian Barbara Kopple became far more than an observant bystander on the production, often using her camera crew’s presence to quell intimidation tactics against the striking miners. Even so, the reality of life in the mining community and anti-union violence as she captures it on film is eye-opening and utterly engrossing. In the middle of a heated union meeting, one woman pulls a gun out of her cleavage and gleefully waves it around. “I ain’t here for a man, I’m here for a contract!” another union woman declares. She’s later voted president of the association. Rock on.
Where to watch: YouTube
October Sky (1999)
Another film based on the true memoir of a small-town Appalachian boy who made good, October Sky adapts NASA engineer Homer Hickam’s life, with wide-eyed Jake Gyllenhaal playing the rocket-obsessed son of a coal miner. Like other biopics in its vein — Coal Miner’s Daughter comes to mind — October Sky runs on optimism in the face of hardship. But it also counters its up-by-your-bootstraps mantra with the reminder that life in the coal mines is often hopeless, with regional poverty leading to a generational cycle that forces many people to follow in their parents’ footsteps and become miners themselves.
In the face of that bleak reality, Hickam’s unrelenting positivity is almost daffy. But Gyllenhaal, for whom this was a breakout role, sells this unlikely success story by lacing his performance with sheer desperation — a grim determination to escape being trapped between a mountain and a hard place.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Hulu, YouTube
Hell or High Water (2016)
Gritty and infused with desperation, Hell or High Water is a modern heist Western that churns around a broader, relatable economic anxiety. It’s a post-recession No Country For Young Men, fueled by the housing crisis, fading towns, and the internal conflict between a Texan’s DIY wherewithal and an economic system that’s failed to protect him.
It’s kind of astonishing that Scottish filmmaker David McKenzie hopped across the pond to deliver this sensitive, sumptuous look at two brothers whose determination to save the family from destitution drives them to embark on a modern-day bank-robbing spree. Hell or High Water could have easily been cliched and over the top, but its solid cast, deep reliance on setting, and well-worn sense of place save it, muting its melodramatics and turning it instead into a meditation on the thwarted hopes and dreams of the American heartland.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, YouTube
Mudbound (2017)
Mudbound, Dee Rees’s stunning look at the legacy of sharecropping and racial tensions in 1940s Mississippi, garnered Netflix four Oscar nominations, including a groundbreaking nod for cinematographer Rachel Morrison. Though it’s packed with historic detail, its story of neighboring families struggling to make peace and survive off the land could almost take place at any time during the last 200 years: Neither the land nor the turbulent racial tensions that divide Mudbound’s poor farmers are any easier to master today than they were in the post-war-era South.
Mudbound eschews the lush hills of the Ozarks or Appalachia for the flat, fertile, but unforgiving Mississippi Delta. Part of what makes this film so good is how tactile it is: The emphasis on all that mud doubles as an obvious metaphor for the drudgery and impossible cycle of poverty that besieges rural America, but it’s also an equally trenchant metaphor for plain old world-weary exhaustion; this is a film that looks and feels heavy. That Mudbound somehow manages to turn that feeling into something kinetic rather than boring is a testament to Rees’s astonishing direction, its superb ensemble cast, and a fantastic screenplay from Rees and Virgil Williams.
Where to watch: Netflix
Where the Red Fern Grows (1974)
This film about a boy and his two prized coon hounds growing up in the Ozarks will never be on any best-of lists unless they involve movies about dogs. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a more influential film for a certain subset of conservative, rural America.
For a good period of my life growing up, I was subjected to Where The Red Fern Grows multiple times a week: at pre-school, at church, at grade school. Something about its mix of folksy Americana and nostalgia for a bygone vision of wilderness conquest, its overtly Christian themes, and cute dogs made this 1974 film (not to be confused with its 2003 remake or its odd 1992 sequel) a go-to form of indoctrination for countless ’80s and ’90s children across the region.
The fact that it’s also a notoriously sad film may have even made it more bitterly endearing. This is, perhaps, a film that embodied a familiar cycle: one of rural American dreams set alight, then smothered, only to smolder again thanks to a heady cocktail of faith, resilience, and ideology.
Where to watch: YouTube


vox--2020-11-30--It’s easy to assume pawnshops are doing great in the pandemic. It’s also wrong.

Perry Lewin has been in the pawn industry for 28 years , but he ’ s never quite seen a year like this one .
Sales have skyrocketed at his store , Decatur Jewelry and Antiques , in central Illinois .
Early on in the pandemic , people were scooping up TVs , guitars , gaming systems , laptops , whatever they could to stay occupied and educated at home .
“ We couldn ’ t keep a bicycle in the stock to save our life , ” Lewin said .
Tools were flying off the shelves , as many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time for a honey-do list.
” He estimates his gun and ammunition sales are up by 500 percent .
“ You know what it was like back in March and April , scared as hell , ” he said .
But that doesn ’ t mean the pawn business has been good in 2020 .
Even the Pawn Stars pawn stars are struggling .
This , at its core , is a money business , not a stuff business .
The bread and butter is in loans .
“ What happened is our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was the result of consumers not needing the services of a pawnshop , ” Lewin said , explaining that his central loan operation has been way down for much of 2020 .
“ They were not bringing items in to us either to sell or get a loan on , but they were mining everything from us.
” Pawnshops are a longtime fixture in the capitalist economy — one pawnbroker told me pawning is the second-oldest industry in the world .
( He asked me if I knew what the oldest was ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But they remain relatively misunderstood by much of the public , especially those who don ’ t use their services .
I spoke with pawnbrokers across the country about what the business has been like in this unprecedented year , and the picture that emerged was a microcosm of the economy that flies under the radar for many .
Pawnshops , which were deemed essential during the pandemic , experienced panic-buying trends — guitars , guns , and gold — in real time .
They also felt the impact the CARES Act had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pockets and small businesses ’ cash registers because it meant people didn ’ t need their loans .
“ We have loans where customers who have been with us for a very long time — 10 years , 20 years even — are now redeeming stuff completely , which they ’ ve never done before , ” said Eric Modell , president of Modell Financial , which owns a chain of jewelry stores and pawnshops in New York .
“ And they don ’ t say , ‘ I have money from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but 20 years you ’ ve been paying interest.
” But now that much of that support has ended , loans are ticking up again .
People are heading back to the pawnshop .
When the pandemic hit , a lot of people had similar ideas on how to pass the time at home and what they needed to buy to do it .
They turned to Amazon , sure , but also pawnshops .
Brokers say they couldn ’ t keep at-home entertainment items , musical instruments , laptops , and tablets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t just been making their purchases to stay entertained and educated .
They ’ re also buying to ease their panic .
“ I don ’ t know why they wanted a gun for a virus that was spreading , but I didn ’ t ask them ” Gun sales have been through the roof in 2020 , and some of the pawnbrokers I spoke to said they ’ ve truly never seen such a sustained boom in gun and ammunition sales as they have now , especially among first-time buyers .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ & Jewelry outside of Austin , recalled going to one of his stores on a Saturday during the spring to see how things were going and discovered 42 guns had been sold , “ which is a lot for a pawnshop.
” Forty-one of them had been to new gun owners .
“ I don ’ t know why they wanted a gun for a virus that was spreading , but I didn ’ t ask them , ” he said .
Supply chain problems in the pandemic have complicated what gun sellers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ increase in firearms sales , especially when it comes to ammunition .
Rob Barnett worked at his family ’ s pawn operation in Huntsville , Alabama , before starting up his own shop in Fayetteville , Tennessee , and he has spent decades in the firearms business .
He says he ’ s never seen supply in worse shape , and perceived hoarding has only made the situation worse .
“ Once people start perceiving there ’ s a shortage in the industry , people start to worry and start buying things they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
Guns aren ’ t the only thing people buy when they ’ re nervous — they ’ re also buying gold , the price of which has increased fairly steadily for much of the year .
“ Even though the prices of gold had gone up on account of Covid , people still felt the stability of gold and were investing in gold , ” said Jordan Tabach-Bank , the owner and CEO of the Loans Companies , a high-end pawn brand that operates in New York , California , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ might be going to hell — and 2020 has given them plenty of reasons to think that — they buy gold .
“ That is a trend that has happened since the beginning of time , ” he said .
Loans are a much bigger part of the pawnshop business than you probably realize Everybody knows the Hollywood pawnshop tropes — the creepy guy smoking behind the counter in a seedy corner store , taking a stolen television off someone ’ s hands , probably so they can go buy drugs .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ For one thing , it ’ s easier to sell stolen items online because pawnshops are pretty heavily regulated .
But in recent decades , the industry has also made an effort to remake its image .
Pawnshops are a collateral , non-recourse lender , which basically means loans are made not on someone ’ s credit history but on the value of an item — a TV , a ring , a hammer , whatever .
The length of a loan and the interest rate on it often depends on the state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , shops have to hold on to pawned items for four months and can ’ t charge more than 4 percent interest per month ; in Texas , it ’ s one month at a 15 to 20 percent rate for most items .
People can sell their items to pawnbrokers directly as well , but that ’ s generally not the business model and not what most people do .
“ Absolute worst-case scenario with us , you lose your ring , you lose your watch .
We do not garnish your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ credit , we don ’ t prevent you from owning a home.
” Basically , you bring in your watch , get a loan on it , get a ticket for it , and come back to redeem your watch at some point in the future , paying off the loan plus interest .
If you don ’ t come back to pay off your loan — or at least keep paying the interest payments ( some people leave items with the pawnshop for years ) — the pawnbroker gets to keep your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Absolute worst-case scenario with us , you lose your ring , you lose your watch .
We do not garnish your wages , we do not ding your credit , we don ’ t prevent you from owning a home , ” Tabach-Bank said .
According to the National Pawnbrokers Association , there are about 10,000 pawn stores nationwide that employ about 35,000 people and serve about 30 million customers annually .
The stores run the gamut from publicly traded pawn companies , such as EZCorp and FirstCash , to small mom-and-pop operations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only in ownership but in customers .
Pawn loans are “ like clockwork for a lot of our customers , ” Modell said .
“ There are people who live and breathe with the pawnshop.
” The NPA estimates that pawn loans average $ 150 for 30 days and that about 85 percent of loans are redeemed .
That can vary , depending on the item — people are likelier to retrieve a family heirloom than they are a buzzsaw .
“ There are people who live and breathe with the pawnshop ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with bad credit , though there are exceptions .
They get compared to payday lenders , which are often predatory and suck people into cycles of debt .
Are the interest rates pawnshops charge great ?
No .
But on the scale of options for people without a lot of options , they ’ re not the worst , either .
“ Pawn loans are , of course , one of the more expensive forms of credit , but they are often less costly than a payday or car title loan and are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ long cycles of debt , ” said Charla Rios , a researcher at the Center for Responsible Lending .
“ You do have instances where people are bringing in items , and they ’ re on loan for quite some time.
” She also noted the industry hasn ’ t really been growing .
“ Prior to Covid-19 , the revenues for pawn loans were kind of flat , ” she said .
Financially underserved consumers spent an estimated $ 189 billion in fees and interest on financial products in America in 2018 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to pawnshops .
By comparison , $ 25.4 billion went to overdraft fees .
“ It ’ s a mixed story , ” said John Caskey , an economist at Swarthmore College and the author of Fringe Banking : Check-Cashing Outlets , Pawnshops , and the Poor .
“ It ’ s not a complicated transaction where people are being swindled.
” Covid-19 has not been great for pawnshops Whenever Tabach-Bank , the high-end pawnbroker , runs into people lately , they ask him about what they assume must be a boom in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like , ‘ Business must be amazing , you must be crushing.
’ But for most pawnbrokers across the nation , it ’ s been quite the contrary , ” he said .
According to Cyndee Harrison , director of marketing and public relations at the National Pawnbrokers Association , members have reported loans falling by as much as 40 percent this year , and some shops have been forced to close down altogether .
“ When you have a 40 percent decrease in the core area of your business , that ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
There ’ s no single answer for what ’ s going on , but most pawnbrokers and experts have a two-pronged explanation .
One is that people are staying home and spending less — they ’ re not going out to restaurants and bars , they ’ re skipping vacation , etc .
The other is that the CARES Act , the $ 2.2 trillion stimulus package signed into law in March , got money to a lot of people by way of stimulus checks , expanded unemployment benefits , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Eviction moratoriums and forbearance on mortgages and student loan payments are also factored in .
In other words , people and businesses had more money , and they didn ’ t need to resort to the pawnshop to pay rent , float their payrolls , or even just go to the bar on Friday night .
And it ’ s not just that they weren ’ t taking out new loans ; they were also able to pay off their existing loans and redeem their stuff .
Kerry Rainey , board president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pawn and Jewelry in Louisiana , described the situation as “ complete madness and a complete change of our business structure.
” “ Our pawns went way down , our redemptions went way up , ” he said .
And with all the extra cash , pawners turned into buying customers .
“ Now we ’ re having a hard time restocking the store and getting our inventory back up because of all of the sales that we ’ ve done.
” It ’ s an experience shared across the industry , among @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in blue states and red states .
“ The way it ’ s turned out has been quite different than what we had anticipated , not only for us , but from some of the discussions we ’ ve had in other pawn stores in Las Vegas , ” said Andy Zimmerman , the general manager of Gold and Silver Pawn in Las Vegas , made famous by the television show Pawn Stars .
Zimmerman said in their case , it ’ s not just about the stimulus and savings ; it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , especially earlier on in the pandemic .
In Las Vegas , it ’ s not uncommon for gamblers to pawn items for money to bet with .
“ When we ’ re at normal times ... especially when big events happen in town and people are well-to-do , they have expensive jewelry , and they ’ re not very lucky at the tables .
Because we have a pretty decent-sized bandwidth to take in expensive items , during those times , the loans would typically pick up , ” he said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Act have ended or are about to .
The extra $ 600 in weekly federal unemployment ended in July , PPP loans have been used up , and rent and mortgage payments put off are coming due .
Pawnbrokers say that ’ s started to show up in their business now , too , as customers old and new are again in need of their services .
The publicly traded pawn company FirstCash reported that loans fell by 60 percent in the month of April , and while they began to improve , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the end of September from the prior year , meaning people are still pawning things less and able to pay off existing loans more .
In its third-quarter earnings report , the company indicated it expects the rebound to accelerate .
“ We are starting to see people who are in need of short-term cash , ” Hyde said .
“ The big question , of course , is what happens next , and none of us has a crystal ball.
” The negative effects on lower-end financial services aren ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ payday loan industry has seen a steep decline in business , too .
Pawnshops are an outgrowth of capitalism .
If people had more money , they wouldn ’ t need them .
When asked , most pawnshop owners acknowledged that they were in an awkward position : Many people have been better off financially , at least when government stimulus was flowing , and that ’ s been bad for business .
But shop owners countered that business overall is generally better when the economy is doing better than it is when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ assertion that experts backed up .
While the impression of pawnshops is that they are only there for people in moments of desperation , that ’ s not always the case .
People will also pawn an item to buy a concert ticket or get that last bit of money they need for a vacation .
And in good times , they tend to feel more optimistic they can pay it off .
“ A pawnshop tends to do best when the economy is good and rolling and people feel safe and secure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ laptop , jewelry , television , a watch — something like that so they can just get the temporary loan because they know they ’ ve got their next payroll check coming , ” Barnett said .
A one-time government loan doesn ’ t provide the same kind of future assurances .
For many people , the pawnshop is just a part of their financial lives , and some of their possessions are just a part of their budget .
They build up relationships with brokers and will come in to get a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the Illinois pawnbroker , told me about a widow in her 70s who has been coming to him every month for years , getting a $ 200 or $ 300 loan on a nice piece of jewelry to tide her over before her next Social Security check comes in .
When she comes to pick up her jewelry , they clean it for her , give her a cup of coffee , and catch up .
Yes , pawnshops charge high interest rates that more traditional financial institutions don ’ t .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ people who often don ’ t have access to more traditional financial institutions or just need to figure out a way to get by .
If people had more money in their pockets , if the capitalist system worked better , then they wouldn ’ t need pawnbrokers as much in the first place Wendy Woloson , a historian at Rutgers University and the author of In Hock : Pawning in America From Independence Through the Great Depression , noted that throughout history pawnshops have been vilified in an effort to downplay the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The exploitative practices that capitalism relies on would not have worked if it were not for the pawnbroker to help people get by week-to-week , ” she said .
If people had more money in their pockets , if the capitalist system worked better , then they wouldn ’ t need pawnbrokers as much in the first place .
2020 has been a case study showing just that .
But while more help is not on the way from the federal government , it ’ s still going to be there from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lot of people in a world of hurt if pawnshops didn ’ t exist , ” Farr said .

Perry Lewin has been in the pawn industry for 28 years, but he’s never quite seen a year like this one. Sales have skyrocketed at his store, Decatur Jewelry and Antiques, in central Illinois. Early on in the pandemic, people were scooping up TVs, guitars, gaming systems, laptops, whatever they could to stay occupied and educated at home.
“We couldn’t keep a bicycle in the stock to save our life,” Lewin said. Tools were flying off the shelves, as many households decided it was the “perfect time for a honey-do list.” He estimates his gun and ammunition sales are up by 500 percent. “You know what it was like back in March and April, scared as hell,” he said.
But that doesn’t mean the pawn business has been good in 2020. Even the Pawn Stars pawn stars are struggling. This, at its core, is a money business, not a stuff business. The bread and butter is in loans.
“What happened is our inventory started depleting rapidly, and that was the result of consumers not needing the services of a pawnshop,” Lewin said, explaining that his central loan operation has been way down for much of 2020. “They were not bringing items in to us either to sell or get a loan on, but they were mining everything from us.”
Pawnshops are a longtime fixture in the capitalist economy — one pawnbroker told me pawning is the second-oldest industry in the world. (He asked me if I knew what the oldest was; I assured him I did.) But they remain relatively misunderstood by much of the public, especially those who don’t use their services.
I spoke with pawnbrokers across the country about what the business has been like in this unprecedented year, and the picture that emerged was a microcosm of the economy that flies under the radar for many. Pawnshops, which were deemed essential during the pandemic, experienced panic-buying trends — guitars, guns, and gold — in real time. They also felt the impact the CARES Act had in getting money into people’s pockets and small businesses’ cash registers because it meant people didn’t need their loans.
“We have loans where customers who have been with us for a very long time — 10 years, 20 years even — are now redeeming stuff completely, which they’ve never done before,” said Eric Modell, president of Modell Financial, which owns a chain of jewelry stores and pawnshops in New York. “And they don’t say, ‘I have money from the government, here I am,’ but 20 years you’ve been paying interest.”
But now that much of that support has ended, loans are ticking up again. People are heading back to the pawnshop.
Guitars, gold, and guns
When the pandemic hit, a lot of people had similar ideas on how to pass the time at home and what they needed to buy to do it. They turned to Amazon, sure, but also pawnshops. Brokers say they couldn’t keep at-home entertainment items, musical instruments, laptops, and tablets on the shelves.
But people haven’t just been making their purchases to stay entertained and educated. They’re also buying to ease their panic.
“I don’t know why they wanted a gun for a virus that was spreading, but I didn’t ask them”
Gun sales have been through the roof in 2020, and some of the pawnbrokers I spoke to said they’ve truly never seen such a sustained boom in gun and ammunition sales as they have now, especially among first-time buyers.
Troy Farr, who owns Texas Pawn & Jewelry outside of Austin, recalled going to one of his stores on a Saturday during the spring to see how things were going and discovered 42 guns had been sold, “which is a lot for a pawnshop.” Forty-one of them had been to new gun owners. “I don’t know why they wanted a gun for a virus that was spreading, but I didn’t ask them,” he said.
Supply chain problems in the pandemic have complicated what gun sellers would otherwise see as a pretty positive increase in firearms sales, especially when it comes to ammunition.
Rob Barnett worked at his family’s pawn operation in Huntsville, Alabama, before starting up his own shop in Fayetteville, Tennessee, and he has spent decades in the firearms business. He says he’s never seen supply in worse shape, and perceived hoarding has only made the situation worse. “Once people start perceiving there’s a shortage in the industry, people start to worry and start buying things they don’t want,” he said.
Guns aren’t the only thing people buy when they’re nervous — they’re also buying gold, the price of which has increased fairly steadily for much of the year.
“Even though the prices of gold had gone up on account of Covid, people still felt the stability of gold and were investing in gold,” said Jordan Tabach-Bank, the owner and CEO of the Loans Companies, a high-end pawn brand that operates in New York, California, and Chicago. When people think the world might be going to hell — and 2020 has given them plenty of reasons to think that — they buy gold.
“That is a trend that has happened since the beginning of time,” he said.
Loans are a much bigger part of the pawnshop business than you probably realize
Everybody knows the Hollywood pawnshop tropes — the creepy guy smoking behind the counter in a seedy corner store, taking a stolen television off someone’s hands, probably so they can go buy drugs. But that’s not the reality. For one thing, it’s easier to sell stolen items online because pawnshops are pretty heavily regulated. But in recent decades, the industry has also made an effort to remake its image.
Pawnshops are a collateral, non-recourse lender, which basically means loans are made not on someone’s credit history but on the value of an item — a TV, a ring, a hammer, whatever. The length of a loan and the interest rate on it often depends on the state.
For example, in New York, shops have to hold on to pawned items for four months and can’t charge more than 4 percent interest per month; in Texas, it’s one month at a 15 to 20 percent rate for most items. People can sell their items to pawnbrokers directly as well, but that’s generally not the business model and not what most people do.
“Absolute worst-case scenario with us, you lose your ring, you lose your watch. We do not garnish your wages, we do not ding your credit, we don’t prevent you from owning a home.”
Basically, you bring in your watch, get a loan on it, get a ticket for it, and come back to redeem your watch at some point in the future, paying off the loan plus interest. If you don’t come back to pay off your loan — or at least keep paying the interest payments (some people leave items with the pawnshop for years) — the pawnbroker gets to keep your watch and can sell it.
“Absolute worst-case scenario with us, you lose your ring, you lose your watch. We do not garnish your wages, we do not ding your credit, we don’t prevent you from owning a home,” Tabach-Bank said.
According to the National Pawnbrokers Association, there are about 10,000 pawn stores nationwide that employ about 35,000 people and serve about 30 million customers annually. The stores run the gamut from publicly traded pawn companies, such as EZCorp and FirstCash, to small mom-and-pop operations. Many pawn businesses are multigenerational not only in ownership but in customers.
Pawn loans are “like clockwork for a lot of our customers,” Modell said. “There are people who live and breathe with the pawnshop.”
The NPA estimates that pawn loans average $150 for 30 days and that about 85 percent of loans are redeemed. That can vary, depending on the item — people are likelier to retrieve a family heirloom than they are a buzzsaw.
“There are people who live and breathe with the pawnshop”
Pawnshops generally serve people without credit or with bad credit, though there are exceptions. They get compared to payday lenders, which are often predatory and suck people into cycles of debt. Are the interest rates pawnshops charge great? No. But on the scale of options for people without a lot of options, they’re not the worst, either.
“Pawn loans are, of course, one of the more expensive forms of credit, but they are often less costly than a payday or car title loan and are far less likely to trap consumers in long cycles of debt,” said Charla Rios, a researcher at the Center for Responsible Lending. “You do have instances where people are bringing in items, and they’re on loan for quite some time.”
She also noted the industry hasn’t really been growing. “Prior to Covid-19, the revenues for pawn loans were kind of flat,” she said.
Financially underserved consumers spent an estimated $189 billion in fees and interest on financial products in America in 2018, $9.2 billion of which went to pawnshops. By comparison, $25.4 billion went to overdraft fees.
“It’s a mixed story,” said John Caskey, an economist at Swarthmore College and the author of Fringe Banking: Check-Cashing Outlets, Pawnshops, and the Poor. “It’s not a complicated transaction where people are being swindled.”
Covid-19 has not been great for pawnshops
Whenever Tabach-Bank, the high-end pawnbroker, runs into people lately, they ask him about what they assume must be a boom in business this year. “People are like, ‘Business must be amazing, you must be crushing.’ But for most pawnbrokers across the nation, it’s been quite the contrary,” he said.
According to Cyndee Harrison, director of marketing and public relations at the National Pawnbrokers Association, members have reported loans falling by as much as 40 percent this year, and some shops have been forced to close down altogether. “When you have a 40 percent decrease in the core area of your business, that’s going to pinch,” she said.
There’s no single answer for what’s going on, but most pawnbrokers and experts have a two-pronged explanation. One is that people are staying home and spending less — they’re not going out to restaurants and bars, they’re skipping vacation, etc. The other is that the CARES Act, the $2.2 trillion stimulus package signed into law in March, got money to a lot of people by way of stimulus checks, expanded unemployment benefits, and Paycheck Protection Program loans to small businesses. Eviction moratoriums and forbearance on mortgages and student loan payments are also factored in.
In other words, people and businesses had more money, and they didn’t need to resort to the pawnshop to pay rent, float their payrolls, or even just go to the bar on Friday night. And it’s not just that they weren’t taking out new loans; they were also able to pay off their existing loans and redeem their stuff.
Kerry Rainey, board president of the NPA and owner of Bayou Pawn and Jewelry in Louisiana, described the situation as “complete madness and a complete change of our business structure.”
“Our pawns went way down, our redemptions went way up,” he said. And with all the extra cash, pawners turned into buying customers. “Now we’re having a hard time restocking the store and getting our inventory back up because of all of the sales that we’ve done.”
It’s an experience shared across the industry, among high-end shops and more typical operations, in blue states and red states.
“The way it’s turned out has been quite different than what we had anticipated, not only for us, but from some of the discussions we’ve had in other pawn stores in Las Vegas,” said Andy Zimmerman, the general manager of Gold and Silver Pawn in Las Vegas, made famous by the television show Pawn Stars.
Zimmerman said in their case, it’s not just about the stimulus and savings; it’s also the decline in casino traffic, especially earlier on in the pandemic. In Las Vegas, it’s not uncommon for gamblers to pawn items for money to bet with.
“When we’re at normal times ... especially when big events happen in town and people are well-to-do, they have expensive jewelry, and they’re not very lucky at the tables. Because we have a pretty decent-sized bandwidth to take in expensive items, during those times, the loans would typically pick up,” he said.
Many of the measures from the CARES Act have ended or are about to. The extra $600 in weekly federal unemployment ended in July, PPP loans have been used up, and rent and mortgage payments put off are coming due. Pawnbrokers say that’s started to show up in their business now, too, as customers old and new are again in need of their services.
The publicly traded pawn company FirstCash reported that loans fell by 60 percent in the month of April, and while they began to improve, pawn balances were still down 30 percent at the end of September from the prior year, meaning people are still pawning things less and able to pay off existing loans more. In its third-quarter earnings report, the company indicated it expects the rebound to accelerate.
“We are starting to see people who are in need of short-term cash,” Hyde said. “The big question, of course, is what happens next, and none of us has a crystal ball.”
The negative effects on lower-end financial services aren’t limited to the pawn industry. The payday loan industry has seen a steep decline in business, too.
Pawnshops are an outgrowth of capitalism. If people had more money, they wouldn’t need them.
When asked, most pawnshop owners acknowledged that they were in an awkward position: Many people have been better off financially, at least when government stimulus was flowing, and that’s been bad for business. But shop owners countered that business overall is generally better when the economy is doing better than it is when it’s doing poorly, an assertion that experts backed up.
While the impression of pawnshops is that they are only there for people in moments of desperation, that’s not always the case. People will also pawn an item to buy a concert ticket or get that last bit of money they need for a vacation. And in good times, they tend to feel more optimistic they can pay it off.
“A pawnshop tends to do best when the economy is good and rolling and people feel safe and secure with pawning their extra item — a laptop, jewelry, television, a watch — something like that so they can just get the temporary loan because they know they’ve got their next payroll check coming,” Barnett said. A one-time government loan doesn’t provide the same kind of future assurances.
For many people, the pawnshop is just a part of their financial lives, and some of their possessions are just a part of their budget. They build up relationships with brokers and will come in to get a loan time and time again.
Lewin, the Illinois pawnbroker, told me about a widow in her 70s who has been coming to him every month for years, getting a $200 or $300 loan on a nice piece of jewelry to tide her over before her next Social Security check comes in. When she comes to pick up her jewelry, they clean it for her, give her a cup of coffee, and catch up.
Yes, pawnshops charge high interest rates that more traditional financial institutions don’t. But they are also a lifeline for people who often don’t have access to more traditional financial institutions or just need to figure out a way to get by.
If people had more money in their pockets, if the capitalist system worked better, then they wouldn’t need pawnbrokers as much in the first place
Wendy Woloson, a historian at Rutgers University and the author of In Hock: Pawning in America From Independence Through the Great Depression, noted that throughout history pawnshops have been vilified in an effort to downplay the broader flaws their existence exposes. “The exploitative practices that capitalism relies on would not have worked if it were not for the pawnbroker to help people get by week-to-week,” she said.
If people had more money in their pockets, if the capitalist system worked better, then they wouldn’t need pawnbrokers as much in the first place. 2020 has been a case study showing just that. But while more help is not on the way from the federal government, it’s still going to be there from the pawnshop.
“There would be a lot of people in a world of hurt if pawnshops didn’t exist,” Farr said.


vox--2020-11-30--Want to improve climate policy in the Biden era? Here’s where to donate.

Now that Joe Biden is the president-elect of the United States , the prospects of staving off total climate disaster look a little less dire .
The Senate will likely constrain him — pending Georgia special elections , either the Republicans retain control of the Senate or the Democrats eke out a very narrow 50-50 majority and have to rely on centrists to get anything done — but there are still plenty of ways he can use his power to fight climate change .
The situation calls out for a potential change in approach if you ’ re interested in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ past , there was reason to think that donating to US charities may not be the most cost-effective option — that , say , your dollars may go farther in developing countries working to preserve their rainforests .
But right now — and despite the logjam in federal climate policy — there really is a strong case for donating toward shifting US policy .
Given that Biden campaigned on climate and has indicated that he ’ s willing to make bold moves on that front , it ’ s more likely now than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can actually improve US climate policy by funding the right groups .
And now may be the most impactful time to donate .
New leaders often do their most significant policy work in the first years of their presidency , so contributions made early in the Biden era can have an outsized impact when it comes to moving the needle on climate .
And with Giving Tuesday coming up on December 1 , some very wealthy folks are offering to match donations .
But which are the most high-impact , cost-effective , evidence-based @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to improve US climate policy ?
Your three best bets are the Clean Air Task Force , Carbon180 , and the Sunrise Movement Education Fund .
These recommendations come from Founders Pledge and Giving Green , both groups that research the most effective charities and guide donors to give to them .
Founders Pledge recommends the Clean Air Task Force and Carbon180 , while Giving Green recommends the Clean Air Task Force and the Sunrise Movement Education Fund .
As you can see , there ’ s overlap as well as divergence in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ instructive .
It stems from the recommenders ’ differing assumptions about the best way to push forward climate policy under divided government : focusing on work that might have bipartisan appeal versus leaning into cultivating progressive grassroots activism .
The case for funding advocacy with bipartisan appeal Johannes Ackva , the researcher who authored Founders Pledge ’ s assessment , believes that now is a particularly important time to focus on advocacy that targets Washington lawmakers , rather than focusing on grassroots activism .
He notes that the combo Americans are likely to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a Republican Senate — means lawmakers will need to craft climate proposals that Republicans can get behind .
So he thinks people concerned about climate change need to respond to our new circumstances and change the typical approach .
“ Especially in light of the election result , we believe this kind of advocacy to be more impactful and more neglected than grassroots activism ; right now , we need to be working to turn proposals and visions into politically feasible and effective policies , ” he wrote .
“ The work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which targets Democrats to encourage a more progressive climate agenda , likely won ’ t be so impactful as the US needs bipartisan policy favorable to both parties.
” There ’ s reason to be skeptical that the GOP will agree to any bipartisan climate deal ; after all , this is the Mitch McConnell Senate we ’ re likely talking about .
And Ackva acknowledges that “ the Democrats will probably need to compromise as their preferred climate policies are unlikely to pass through the Senate.
” But Republican intransigence on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our best bet is to fund organizations that know how to make inroads with Republicans , rather than ones that have strong ties only to Democrats .
Doing that obviously doesn ’ t guarantee any wins , but the claim is that failing to do that probably guarantees a loss .
Ackva also thinks this kind of advocacy is relatively neglected , which means directing more dollars there stands to make a bigger impact than directing dollars to an area that ’ s already getting funding and attention .
This is why Founders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Task Force and Carbon180 .
The former has a long history of successfully advocating for bipartisan climate policies under divided government .
During the Bush years , for instance , it led a successful campaign to reduce the pollution caused by coal-fired power plants in the US and helped establish regulations of diesel , shipping , and methane emissions .
It also runs a campaign to promote innovation on advanced nuclear energy , which could facilitate global decarbonization .
Meanwhile , Carbon180 focuses on ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ puzzle .
It has successfully lobbied for a tax credit for carbon capture and helped win increased funding for carbon removal research .
And the organization is well connected among policy elites : It often briefs congressional staffers and provides input on legislation , and its executive director Noah Deich has just joined the transition team at the Department of Energy .
Founders Pledge believes it ’ s suited for the moment .
Dan Stein , the director of Giving Green , agrees that it ’ s important to fund advocacy with bipartisan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recommendation to donate to Clean Air Task Force .
But he also thinks it ’ s important to fund grassroots activist groups , including those strongly tied to Democrats .
“ I would push for a two-part strategy , because I think the way policy gets made is through these insider-outsider coalitions , ” he said .
“ You have people with close links in the halls of Congress and to the president , and then you have external pressure that ’ s forcing the politicians to pay attention to the issue .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ : In the civil rights movement , you had these pacts between [ Martin Luther ] King on the outside and Lyndon Johnson on the inside.
” In addition to forcing Biden to keep prioritizing climate , activists can shift the Overton window , the range of policies that seem possible .
Without a Democratic Senate , activists almost certainly won ’ t succeed in getting a Green New Deal , but they can still continue pushing its policy ideas into the mainstream .
And while legislative climate policy will need Republican votes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ branch , where Biden is going to have a lot of latitude to make policy changes through regulatory agencies .
“ A lot of the smart money is on most of the climate movement in the Biden administration happening through the executive branch .
For that , you don ’ t need bipartisanship , ” Stein said .
“ So the question there is who has the ear of the Biden administration .
And I think that people like Sunrise have the ear .
They ’ ve gotten that seat at the table.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Green ’ s recommendation , noting : “ Sunrise Movement Education Fund played a central role in building a strong coalition of politicians , activists , and researchers to coalesce around a policy framework generally known as ‘ Standards , Investment , and Justice.
’ This framework has been adopted by the House Select Committee on Climate Change and is integrated into the incoming Biden administration ’ s climate plan.
” Giving Green says the Sunrise Movement Education Fund has been highly effective at growing its membership , but needs more funding to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so it can keep pushing for policy change .
So , which is the very best climate charity to donate to now ?
Political scientists have lots of different theories of change , and they ’ ll probably be debating which is right for a long , long time .
Since we don ’ t know for sure what ’ s most effective at creating change in a political landscape like the one we ’ re about to enter , it may make sense to support multiple evidence-based strategies simultaneously .
Hedging your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ type of charity isn ’ t always a sign of indecisiveness .
It can also be a sign of intellectual humility .
Whichever charity or charities you pick , know that the case for donating to improve US climate policy right now is strong — both because Biden ’ s victory creates new openings and because the US is the biggest carbon polluter in history and the second-biggest carbon emitter in the world today .
And while you may think that American climate work is already well-funded , there are pockets within it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , when it comes to lobbying to influence climate legislation , the fossil fuel industry has outspent environmental advocates 10 to 1 in recent years .
That said , if you ’ re interested in donating to effective climate charities elsewhere in the world , check out this list , which includes high-impact groups that focus on other facets of the problem , such as protecting rainforests and tech innovation .
Finally , if you like the groups that Founders Pledge recommends , note that donations that come through its Climate Fund are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a marketing entrepreneur , until December 31 .
Sign up for the Future Perfect newsletter .
Twice a week , you ’ ll get a roundup of ideas and solutions for tackling our biggest challenges : improving public health , decreasing human and animal suffering , easing catastrophic risks , and — to put it simply — getting better at doing good .

Now that Joe Biden is the president-elect of the United States, the prospects of staving off total climate disaster look a little less dire. The Senate will likely constrain him — pending Georgia special elections, either the Republicans retain control of the Senate or the Democrats eke out a very narrow 50-50 majority and have to rely on centrists to get anything done — but there are still plenty of ways he can use his power to fight climate change.
The situation calls out for a potential change in approach if you’re interested in donating to climate causes. In the past, there was reason to think that donating to US charities may not be the most cost-effective option — that, say, your dollars may go farther in developing countries working to preserve their rainforests.
But right now — and despite the logjam in federal climate policy — there really is a strong case for donating toward shifting US policy. Given that Biden campaigned on climate and has indicated that he’s willing to make bold moves on that front, it’s more likely now than it was under President Trump that donors can actually improve US climate policy by funding the right groups.
And now may be the most impactful time to donate. New leaders often do their most significant policy work in the first years of their presidency, so contributions made early in the Biden era can have an outsized impact when it comes to moving the needle on climate. And with the end-of-year giving season upon us, some very wealthy folks are offering to match donations.
But which are the most high-impact, cost-effective, evidence-based charities to donate to if you want to improve US climate policy? Your three best bets are the Clean Air Task Force, Carbon180, and the Sunrise Movement Education Fund.
These recommendations come from Founders Pledge and Giving Green, both groups that research the most effective charities and guide donors to give to them. Founders Pledge recommends the Clean Air Task Force and Carbon180, while Giving Green recommends the Clean Air Task Force and the Sunrise Movement Education Fund.
As you can see, there’s overlap as well as divergence in these recommendations. And the divergence is instructive. It stems from the recommenders’ differing assumptions about the best way to push forward climate policy under divided government: focusing on work that might have bipartisan appeal versus leaning into cultivating progressive grassroots activism.
The case for funding advocacy with bipartisan appeal
Johannes Ackva, the researcher who authored Founders Pledge’s assessment, believes that now is a particularly important time to focus on advocacy that targets Washington lawmakers, rather than focusing on grassroots activism. He notes that the combo Americans are likely to end up with — a Democratic House and a Republican Senate — means lawmakers will need to craft climate proposals that Republicans can get behind. So he thinks people concerned about climate change need to respond to our new circumstances and change the typical approach.
“Especially in light of the election result, we believe this kind of advocacy to be more impactful and more neglected than grassroots activism; right now, we need to be working to turn proposals and visions into politically feasible and effective policies,” he wrote. “The work of grassroots campaigners like the Sunrise Movement, which targets Democrats to encourage a more progressive climate agenda, likely won’t be so impactful as the US needs bipartisan policy favorable to both parties.”
There’s reason to be skeptical that the GOP will agree to any bipartisan climate deal; after all, this is the Mitch McConnell Senate we’re likely talking about. And Ackva acknowledges that “the Democrats will probably need to compromise as their preferred climate policies are unlikely to pass through the Senate.”
Related Having fewer kids will not save the climate
But Republican intransigence on climate, Ackva suggests, is why our best bet is to fund organizations that know how to make inroads with Republicans, rather than ones that have strong ties only to Democrats. Doing that obviously doesn’t guarantee any wins, but the claim is that failing to do that probably guarantees a loss. Ackva also thinks this kind of advocacy is relatively neglected, which means directing more dollars there stands to make a bigger impact than directing dollars to an area that’s already getting funding and attention.
This is why Founders Pledge recommends donating to the Clean Air Task Force and Carbon180. The former has a long history of successfully advocating for bipartisan climate policies under divided government. During the Bush years, for instance, it led a successful campaign to reduce the pollution caused by coal-fired power plants in the US and helped establish regulations of diesel, shipping, and methane emissions. It also runs a campaign to promote innovation on advanced nuclear energy, which could facilitate global decarbonization.
Meanwhile, Carbon180 focuses on ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere, a neglected yet important piece of the climate puzzle. It has successfully lobbied for a tax credit for carbon capture and helped win increased funding for carbon removal research. And the organization is well connected among policy elites: It often briefs congressional staffers and provides input on legislation, and its executive director Noah Deich has just joined the transition team at the Department of Energy. Founders Pledge believes it’s suited for the moment.
The case for funding grassroots activism
Dan Stein, the director of Giving Green, an initiative at IDinsight, agrees that it’s important to fund advocacy with bipartisan appeal — hence Giving Green’s recommendation to donate to Clean Air Task Force.
But he also thinks it’s important to fund grassroots activist groups.
“I would push for a two-part strategy, because I think the way policy gets made is through these insider-outsider coalitions,” he said. “You have people with close links in the halls of Congress and to the president, and then you have external pressure that’s forcing the politicians to pay attention to the issue. You see examples of this throughout history: In the civil rights movement, you had these pacts between [Martin Luther] King on the outside and Lyndon Johnson on the inside.”
In addition to forcing Biden to keep prioritizing climate, activists can shift the Overton window, the range of policies that seem possible. Without a Democratic Senate, activists almost certainly won’t succeed in getting a Green New Deal, but they can still continue pushing its policy ideas into the mainstream.
And while legislative climate policy will need Republican votes, there’s also the executive branch, where Biden is going to have a lot of latitude to make policy changes through regulatory agencies.
“A lot of the smart money is on most of the climate movement in the Biden administration happening through the executive branch. For that, you don’t need bipartisanship,” Stein said. “So the question there is who has the ear of the Biden administration. And I think that people like Sunrise [Education Fund] have the ear. They’ve gotten that seat at the table.”
He elaborated on this in Giving Green’s recommendation, noting: “Sunrise Movement Education Fund played a central role in building a strong coalition of politicians, activists, and researchers to coalesce around a policy framework generally known as ‘Standards, Investment, and Justice.’ This framework has been adopted by the House Select Committee on Climate Change and is integrated into the incoming Biden administration’s climate plan.”
Giving Green says the Sunrise Movement Education Fund has been highly effective at growing its membership, but needs more funding to increase the size of its activist network so it can keep pushing for policy change.
So, which is the very best climate charity to donate to now?
Political scientists have lots of different theories of change, and they’ll probably be debating which is right for a long, long time. Since we don’t know for sure what’s most effective at creating change in a political landscape like the one we’re about to enter, it may make sense to support multiple evidence-based strategies simultaneously.
Hedging your bets by donating to more than one type of charity isn’t always a sign of indecisiveness. It can also be a sign of intellectual humility.
Whichever charity or charities you pick, know that the case for donating to improve US climate policy right now is strong — both because Biden’s victory creates new openings and because the US is the biggest carbon polluter in history and the second-biggest carbon emitter in the world today. And while you may think that American climate work is already well-funded, there are pockets within it that are still neglected; for example, when it comes to lobbying to influence climate legislation, the fossil fuel industry has outspent environmental advocates 10 to 1 in recent years.
That said, if you’re interested in donating to effective climate charities elsewhere in the world, check out this list, which includes high-impact groups that focus on other facets of the problem, such as protecting rainforests and tech innovation.
Finally, if you like the groups that Founders Pledge recommends, note that donations that come through its Climate Fund are currently being matched by Erik Bergman, a marketing entrepreneur, until December 31.
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