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.
Rural America now accounts for just 16 percent of the nation's population, the lowest ever.
The latest 2010 census numbers hint at an emerging America where, by midcentury, city boundaries become indistinct and rural areas grow ever less relevant. Many communities could shrink to virtual ghost towns as they shutter businesses and close down schools, demographers say.
News from The Associated Press (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CENSUS_RURAL_AMERICA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPL ATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-07-28-00-02-47 - broken link)
Sad but true. Small town after small town is biting the dust. There's a number of reasons for it, but NAFTA certainly helped to kill off many small factory towns. My mothers was one of them.
Well, you won't hear me complaining. I guess I am fortunate to be just 45 minutes from the third largest city in my state which allows me to operate a business and enjoy a fairly nice standard of living.
That being said, in five years I will be living on the homestead full time. We are working toward sustainability and hopefully will only have to depend on a part time job to pay for taxes, gasoline and insurance. America has been dependent too long on a consumer-generated mentality. Those who live in rural and small towns need, more than ever, to pull together and depend upon locally grown foods and other products as well as local services to thrive.
I am excited that one day I will be part of that mindset and model.
If the rural area have high speed access, I could work from there. But not sure I would want to live in a "die'ing" town. Schools close (or already have). No where to get food/fuel etc. So you wind up going to a town that does, but how soon till it dies? At some point you are driving 1hr+ to go food shopping.
Lets say Big Machines, Inc is located in a far flung rural town, Small Town. CEO of Big Machines, Inc got the idea he could better position the company if he relocated a vast majority of the company to Metropolis. Keep in mind, Big Machines, Inc before the move had a dedicated staff of people who wanted to work for them; plus, being in Small Town, an employee had to "fish or cut bait" as there wasn't anything else around. A career change meant a life change. Quality of life in Small Town is excellent; it is the hub of education and healthcare for the region.
So CEO gets his wish. The Big Machines, Inc pulls out all its top brass, engineering, sales and relocates to Metropolis claiming it will put them closer to their vendors. Of course, we know the vendors, if they want your business, will come to you no matter how far flung you are. Within the first year, several key employees who made Big Machines, Inc successful are recruited away by competitors and vendors in Metropolis. Now Big Machines, Inc has to recruit and train new talent on top of the ridiculous rent Big Machines, Inc has to pay to maintain a corporate presence in Metropolis.
In this scenario, everybody loses. Small Town looses the talent who not only gave their time to Big Machines, Inc, but also their investment in community events, schools, churches, and local politics. Big Machines, Inc pays insane rent and loses the talent which made them successful which, in turn, further erodes the bottom line and reputation of this company.
Have you noticed on City-Data how many people are longing for the rural life? Of course there are the die-hard urbanites, but it seems to me that both on-line and in the real world there are so many many people who want to "get back" to that imaginary Mayberry.
So I keep thinking that maybe the future will bring a change to more people choosing a less affluent life in rural America.
And the current health care system is bound to change, ya'll - one way or another.
Where I live, the population is 9k. This includes the population in town and in the area around town. I think this qualifies as rural. A block away from my house its farms and there are a few towns with maybe half the population a few miles away. A state university is about a half hour away.
Most of this state is considered rural with the exception of the two large ciites and suburbs. But we have a large regional hospital in town and reasonably good doctors. That isn't a problem.
I moved here from California and took my small income with me. In California it didn't make it to the end of the month, but here it does since the cost of living is so much less. I think as more people retire the population of rural areas will grow, especially in areas where it goes a lot further.
Lets say Big Machines, Inc is located in a far flung rural town, Small Town. CEO of Big Machines, Inc got the idea he could better position the company if he relocated a vast majority of the company to Metropolis. Keep in mind, Big Machines, Inc before the move had a dedicated staff of people who wanted to work for them; plus, being in Small Town, an employee had to "fish or cut bait" as there wasn't anything else around. A career change meant a life change. Quality of life in Small Town is excellent; it is the hub of education and healthcare for the region.
Interesting scenario but highly unrealistic. Big Machines being in a rural area to begin with means that it doesn't have access to the young employees starting their careers in cities. Big Machines might have a dedicated staff but, being in a rural town, where the average age of the population is invariably high, many are close to retirement.
Also, not too many rural towns are "the hub of education and healthcare for the region", unless you're talking about a college town or a small city. Most college towns aren't all that rural though. If you are talking about a college town, then I agree that it would be a great place for Big Machines to locate.
(BTW, I'm not anti-rural in the least. I'm just pointing out there's a reason companies shy away from rural areas.)
My Big Machines, Inc story is based on a true account of a company in my state. While Small Town itself is not a college town, per se. It has a junior college; there are two Universities less than 1 hour away in the same state and a neighboring state (with a big engineering program.)
Fast forward to today, Big Machines, Inc is hemhorraging cash, the stock is in the toilet, and what's left of the operation in Small Town puts their hands together and prays every night the company will pull through.
The moral of the story is, if you are a large company with a very loyal employee base and universities in your region, reap the benefits of investing in rural America. Affordable expansion is far more cost effective than trying to make it competing for resources at top dollar in Metropolis.
Rural America now accounts for just 16 percent of the nation's population, the lowest ever.
The latest 2010 census numbers hint at an emerging America where, by midcentury, city boundaries become indistinct and rural areas grow ever less relevant. Many communities could shrink to virtual ghost towns as they shutter businesses and close down schools, demographers say.
News from The Associated Press (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CENSUS_RURAL_AMERICA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPL ATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-07-28-00-02-47 - broken link)
Sad but true. Small town after small town is biting the dust. There's a number of reasons for it, but NAFTA certainly helped to kill off many small factory towns. My mothers was one of them.
I think increased automation probably played a bigger role in killing small factory towns than NAFTA. The demand for factor labor just isn't there any more....Factory labor is becoming as rare as farm labor because of automation.
The passing of the railroads for transportation and the interstates went far in killing off rural America. Medical care is a real problem and getting less accessible all the time. What care is accessable is often sub-standard with a real language barrier from foreign medical students and people coming from mostly agrarian counties.
We could take care of a lot of this problem if people would just eat wholesome foods and less meat....then people wouldn't need as much medical care.
I foresee energy issues, among others, decimating the large cities at some point in the future. So I'm not too concerned over this...
In many ways, large cities are actually MORE energy efficient than rural areas.
New York City is the most energy efficient city in the US. Why? People there live in the most energy efficient homes you could have--high rise apartments & condos. People in NYC also don't drive anywhere near as much as in the rest of America. Walking, biking, and mass transit are much more energy efficient than private automobiles.
My wife is a veterinarian and she has the same loans as the MDs but she will never make even 1/2 of the money they do. I have had nothing but bad experiences with MDs from the do-not-care attitude to the don't-know-what-I-am-doing misfortune. This is one field where everyone can be a judge of the quality of care they receive. Either way, the whole system is structured in such a way that people going to medical school expect to pay a lot and earn a lot more. When you have it that way, it's only downhill from there and it is no wonder many rural areas have no doctors or poor quality ones.
OD
Just my .02...but I think it would be a lot better if we just started paying doctors directly out of pocket cash, like pretty much everyone did before WW2. The costs would drop by 50%. And people wouldn't be herded into employer or government sponsored insurance plans that limit their choices...so there would be more competition.
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.
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.
