If rural America is so great, why does everyone want to leave for the big city? (Christmas, controversial)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
People move to the city for jobs. I live in a huge metroplex and tons of people bug out to a farm, ranch or lake house on the weekends. So, it's not like they hate rural areas, they just make more money in the city.
Years ago when I tooled about new england in sales...I was surprised to find out that even many middle class people had lake "camps" or 2nd homes. Yes, they call them "camps", but I've seen them......
So a guy who is in a plumbing wholesaler (not owners - just maybe a buyer) might live in Portland Maine, which isn't bad it itself nature-wise, and also have a place an hour away with a boat, fishing, etc.
Not a bad life! Back in NJ and the Philly area that was rarely the case. Only the wealthier folks had beach and mountain houses...or at least upper middle class two income folks.
There is an article in the WaPo right now about lots of city folks also having burb houses. They love both of them.....
Of course, we have to be realistic and say outright that only a small percentage of the population can BOTH afford this AND afford the time for enjoyment of both.
I consider myself a country person....my life was formed by years in the real boonies when I was in my early 20's - but I simply would go stir-crazy without access to good food, people and other distractions.
That's because people in cities run to the hospital for every little things wrong with them. They call a WAHmbulance if they fall down and skin their knee. Rural people are mentally and phsycially tougher. We don't need as many hospitals as weaker people.
I went from being originally in Los Angeles to a small town in Oklahoma. No regrets. I know several others that have done or are going to do the same sort of thing. Several new restaurants and businesses have opened up this year. Things are going well.
People tend to want the opposite of what they have so small town people want to sample the big city. And there are also lots of people like me.
In terms of quality of life, certain rural areas perform better than others when it comes to important metrics.
That's because people in cities run to the hospital for every little things wrong with them. They call a WAHmbulance if they fall down and skin their knee. Rural people are mentally and physically tougher. We don't need as many hospitals as weaker people.
I know you were laughed at, but you actually do have a point. I grew up fairly poor and the only time I remember going to the doctor or hospital when I was young was for vaccinations, when I had my tonsils out, and when I needed stitches one time. I am 65, and in the past ten years, the only time I've been to the doctor was for a general exam when I was 60 (I was fine in all respects) and my Medicare Wellness check last year. As I said, I am 65 and take no meds whatsoever (knock wood).
If people are reared to not run to the doctor for every little thing, they usually won't.
I live in the outskirts of the metro area. Vast majority of jobs in my field are in the city of Atlanta or one of the larger suburbs like Alpharetta, Sandy Springs, Roswell, or Marietta. If the majority of your work involves being on a computer, the cities and larger suburbs are where most of those jobs are. Exurban areas and rural areas, not nearly as much. The opportunities in the Atlanta area are disproportionately concentrated in Atlanta proper and the closest suburbs. Rural areas don't have that many opportunities depending on what you do.
Demand for goods and services doesn't stop at city limits. However, it depends on what your field of expertise is. People move to where their business takes them. And so far, it's the cities. This is not to speak down on rural living. I'm saying that people go where the jobs are highly concentrated. If you work in finance, banking, biotechnology, certain kinds of manufacturing, cities are where alot of those jobs are located. If you work for the state, most of those jobs are in the capital city or the state's largest city.
There is a demand for teachers in rural areas, especially places like rural Montana. However, many people don't want to teach in those areas. In rural areas, not being near certain amenities like professional sports, having living limited entertainment options, many people opt for cities. Or, if not in the city, to live close to the city. In rural areas, you need to be okay with not having the things that cities have. Same goes for doctors.
If you work in ranching, farming, drilling wells, certain kinds of construction, oil industry, mining, then of course those are jobs that can be found in rural areas. Not everyone works in those kinds of jobs. People go where their jobs takes them, and they will go where the amenities are.
I understand the attraction of urban living, and daily count my blessings that people seem to prefer to huddle together in cities. If they didn't, they would be where I live, ruining my environment instead of ruining theirs. If you are going to have lots of people, concentrating them in cities does less damage than any other arrangement.
Don't get your idea of rural life from TV news reporters. Many rural people have a quality of life that would be difficult to obtain in a city. The internet and satellite TV have broken the back of the rural isolation that persisted into the last century.
Thanks to the continuing depopulation of rural areas, rural assets have escaped the hyperinflation that has afflicted urban assets, and rural assets tend to be productive rather than consumptive. I have a neighbor who is still a young, working guy. He has about 600 acres of moderately productive pasture land. He raises and sells 50 cows a year. If you take them to auction, each cow is worth about $1,000 at market, but he is a little smarter than that. He's certified organic and grass finishes his beef on hay he grows himself. We have a USDA certified slaughterhouse about 7 miles away, so he sells cut and wrapped, certified organic, grass finished beef, and clears about $3,000 per cow. For the $150k paycheck he puts in about 2 weeks work a year, putting up a hay crop. He keeps horses to round up the cattle, and the horses come in handy during hunting season when he can pack into back country for a couple weeks and maybe bring back an elk. The property paid for itself years ago, and he used the excess to build a new house. He also does a few contract logging projects for pin money, that bring in a couple hundred thousand a year for about 4 months work.
That's what the rural middle class looks like. Just off the top of my head, one of my friends is a surveyor, others include a mechanical engineer, industrial electrician, health care workers, government, education, restaurateurs, etc. The majority of convenience stores in my county are owned by Sikhs.
Compare that to Atlanta, where a quick Google tells me your poverty rate is 22.5%. Yes, there are rural failures, but it seems to me there are a lot of urban failures too.
The difference between urban and rural employment is that urban jobs are a slot they can pound the peg into. Rural jobs require more of an entrepreneur spirit and the ability to organize your life into productive channels that people will pay you for.
As for sports teams, are you kidding me? If sports didn't get a free 10 minute infomercial on every news broadcast, pro sports would not exist. If there's an urban attraction worth following, it's musical groups like Larkin Poe. They're from Atlanta, but I bet you have never heard of them.
With all the talk about how terrible America's cities are lately and how rural America is a shining example of the 'real America', why is rural America in such decline? Why is there so much poverty in the Ozarks and Appalachia? Why does everyone who has the means to want to move to the big city for employment and quality of life? In addition, very few cities are predominantly conservative.
I live rural and I don't want to go to the city, and I have ample means to live well in any urban center. For me the issue is the quality of life I enjoy in the countryside vs the noise, dirt, crowds, and crime of the city.
I know you were laughed at, but you actually do have a point. I grew up fairly poor and the only time I remember going to the doctor or hospital when I was young was for vaccinations, when I had my tonsils out, and when I needed stitches one time. I am 65, and in the past ten years, the only time I've been to the doctor was for a general exam when I was 60 (I was fine in all respects) and my Medicare Wellness check last year. As I said, I am 65 and take no meds whatsoever (knock wood).
If people are reared to not run to the doctor for every little thing, they usually won't.
I'm about the same way. A little older than you.
Yeah. When I was coming up I never even met a kid who had a pediatrician! I remember going for a bad case of swimmer's ear, and then once when I dislocated my elbow.
Last time I had a physical was 1969 when I got drafted.Passed and called it a day.50 years later they were right no problems. I live in a town of 1300 and we have everything you could want one town over east or west
People have moved out of the urban areas to the suburbs.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.