Trying to ‘Save’ the Rural Economy
I grew up in a town of 2,000 in rural Illinois. My parents ran a business, until it shut down of course. A lot of people have this idyllic vision of small town life. Everybody knows everybody, you can let your kids walk home from school, happy cows chewing cud in verdant fields.<p>I will add a caveat to this: I lived in a small town during the decline. The place my parents grew up in was a much more lively, happy place. There were jobs and prosperity, it made sense for them to not leave. My town no longer has a grocery store, has a single restaurant, and I am hard pressed to think of a small business doing well. There are other small towns in the US that I am sure are lovely. I&#x27;m just speaking from my own experience.<p>Unstructured list of thoughts about small town life:<p>- People are poorly educated and constantly make bad decisions about everything.<p><pre><code>  - Years of poor decisions and management have buried my town in bad expensive infrastructure.
  
  - Our mayor was an extremely incompetent, unqualified barber.
  
  - The schools are falling apart and the good teachers quickly move on to more lucrative jobs in other areas. The good ones leave. The bad ones stay.
  
  - Picture the Simpsons monorail episode, but replace the ambitious public transit project with a strip mall they can put a buffalo wild wings and a huge parking lot into
  
  - Picture the Simpsons monorail episode, but instead of the town agreeing to build affordable housing, they reject the free government development because, and I was at this meeting, `They don&#x27;t want the black people from Chicago moving into town.`
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- The people... kinda suck.<p><pre><code>  - Conservatism in small town America exists, it is not some abstract concept. They are racist. They are poorly educated. They think global warming is a hoax.
  
  - There is a special breed of large, swaggering, ignorant, low, angry white men that tend to live in small towns. They exist in cities too, but there are also other people around.
  
  - As the article suggests: The educated leave. The info-wars fans stay.
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- Poor diversity. Still know 30 year olds who think it is edgy&#x2F;cool to slur constantly. Experiencing other cultures breeds empathy. Full stop.<p>- RAMPANT drug abuse. Alcohol. Meth. Opiates. You name it.<p>- Mind numbing boredom.<p><pre><code>  - Just because there is less civilization does not mean it is a beautiful forest. 
  
  - Is often a polluted creek people would be happy to replace with a Walmart, or a corn field that stinks of fertilizer for months on end. ( poop )
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- There is no culture to interact with.<p><pre><code>  - Want an education?
  
    - Good luck finding a decent college nearby.
    
  - Want to see a band? Too bad. You will have to drive 4 hours to see anyone.
  
  - Want to start a band? 
  
    - Good luck finding a community. 
    
    - Good luck finding an audience. 
    
    - Good luck finding a mentor.
    
    - Good luck finding a place to perform.
    
  - Who you surround yourself with matters. 
  
    - Who are you going to hang out with? 
    
    - Who is going to be hanging out and collaborating with your kids? Would you rather it be the smart, cosmopolitan Muhammad, or Cletus the pig-farmer&#x27;s feral son?
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- Kind of obvious, but: What are you going to do for a living?<p><pre><code>  - There is nobody to network with.
  
  - What are you going to do when you lose your remote gig? 
  
  - Personally I would rather have the opportunity to get a local job if remote work goes out of style.
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- Small town gossip is a THING.<p><pre><code>  - People will see your success, covet it, and hate you for it. They will want to knock you down.
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Small towns destroyed themselves by deciding to build giant roads, shopping malls, and walmarts instead of maintaining their main street, building parks, and upgrading their schools. You know, enhancing the life of people living in your city, instead of enhancing the lives of the people who drive through it at 60 miles an hour.<p>Now the malls are empty ( They were always a bad, dumb experiment ). Now all of their pointless expensive roads are crumbling and eating up a massive amount of tax revenue. Walmart pays the community a pittance and funnels all of their wealth to the CEOs.<p>It stinks people are suffering and losing a way of life, but I feel that much of this pain is self-inflicted. So to small towns: Bye, Felicia.<p>Some interesting reading:<p>- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.strongtowns.org&#x2F;the-growth-ponzi-scheme" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.strongtowns.org&#x2F;the-growth-ponzi-scheme</a>