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.
Ever since the period after WW2, it seems like it has been a common thing for people to leave the farm or their hometown. People don't stay as close and this has possibly caused the major loss in community. Anyways, it seems like recently this is happening at a much higher rate. Small towns are seen as boring so many people leave for the big cities. People who stay in the same town are often into drugs and have no choice due to poverty or lack of motivation. Of course, there are plenty of good people that stay in their small towns, but it seems like over time what I've said is generally occurring.
Now, maybe this is only a thing where I live. I don't know. I would like to hear some opinions.
One thing to add is that not a small towns are dying. Towns that are within 45 minutes or so of larger cities or suburbs are not having this problem. This is where a lot of growth is occurring, and it is often retirees or small families. Some towns aren't within commuting distance but still end up becoming touristy which helps them thrive and become larger. It seems like most towns around me are either touristy, commuting distance from a large city, or sort of druggy. This is sad, because it is my dream to live in a nice small town. I don't think community is much of a thing in cities, compared to small towns.
You missed one type that has no issues... those that are heavy on Gov jobs. My home town in Wyoming is a prime example, LOTS of Gov jobs on all 3 levels (county, state, federal) that pay well above the minimum cost of live there. That means disposable income that feeds the "art" community (boutique shops that serve all kinds of things, I just roll them into "art"). I had no idea how unique that was for a small town while growing up, just thought it was normal. Town pop is under 10k and has no other Real industry. Next closest town that's bigger is heavily dependent on energy (oil fields), then you're 3 hours drive to the largest town in the state.
Bottom line is that there needs to be a source of income. No source of income, property values drop, taxes drop, services drop, lower desire to live there, property values drop more, etc... till you end up with an abandoned town. There's usually a stop before that, people too poor to leave, having their money taken by local necessary businesses (groceries ~ my current town has 1, their prices are so high that it's about $100/month cheaper for me to drive 80 miles round trip, 4 times a month, to buy groceries elsewhere. Nevermind the quality difference). We're here because my wife's family lives here and there are medical jobs everywhere, took about a year till there was a part-time opening but that was enough.
We will have to see what happens in the coming decade. If tariffs make it cheaper to manufacture in the US again, these old towns might very well see a resurgence (never to what they were before, but some). There are towns the country over with a population or cheap manual labor just needing something to do, in an area with cheap land pricing and counties desperate to give tax incentives to any business that wants to come in. Again with where I live now, a couple decades ago a large number of the "Goody" brand products (hair brushes, combs and the like) were made here. It was also a mill town (textiles), and happens to be a major railroad hub for the SE. Cheap land, cheap labor, direct access to a national transportation network.... only needs a business that decides there's more profit in manufacturing in the US vs overseas, which is what tariffs can do.
This branches into the more political side, but yes tariffs also raise prices. Thing is, it raises Wages, and quality of life too (when the tariffs are high enough to encourage US manufacturing). Add that to our current low unemployment and ALL wages go up as the pool of applicants shrinks. There's an annoying transition period, but the potential for everyone to have a better life is there, just waiting to be taken, especially for those in rural America.
Connecticut with 169 counties divided by wealthy,poor and so called middle class and Ct in not good shape.
For the most part each county and town having to provide services makes for a rough ride.
There is no balance anymore.
In the midwest, most farms before WWII were smaller and family owned. I can still remember when we used horses to farm in the late 40s. With the larger farm machinery that was developed since WWII, larger farms were possible and more profitable, so instead of having 10 small family-owned farms, you soon had one large corporate farm. My sister and her husband are farmers. They started farming in the 60s on a 240-acre farm, worked hard, bought larger machinery and added to it. They now farm more that 2000 acres -- more than 10 times the size of most farms during WWII.
It doesn't take nearly the support services for that 2000 acres now, with 10% of the number of farmers, so the number of grocery stores, clothing stores, car dealerships, homes, schools, roads, etc., etc. have all dwindled to a fraction of what was needed with small farms. The only thing that's increased is size of farms and profits. So what do all those people do who used to service farmers? They move, usually to the cities, where they can find employment. It's not because people are bored in small towns, it's because there isn't work for them.
I live in a small city of 33,000. It's 150 miles to a larger city. When I moved here in '71, the town had just leveled off from an oil boom to 7,200. From then until a couple years ago it grew due to a coal mining boom. Now it's leveled off again, due to the collapse of "dirty coal," and it's anyone's guess whether it'll grow or dwindle. Jobs. It's a lovely city, but if the jobs aren't here, people will move, not because they're bored, but because they must move to wherever they can earn a living.
I lived in what I consider a very "small town". Population of 420. It's been slowly growing for decades. Only by a few people a year, but it's definitely not dying. Only a couple of long term employers that are still there, still employing. Now I live in what many of you would still consider a small town (to me it's the city). Population about 5,000. It has also grown over the past 20 years. Talk to anyone who's lived here that long and they'll confirm it. The employers are also pretty steady. When you get very small there are still some basic services people need but less competition, so they can stay in business quite well. Woe to you if you run a shady business. If the word gets out that you can't be trusted and there's even one competitor who can, you will fold very very quickly.
Connecticut with 169 counties divided by wealthy,poor and so called middle class and Ct in not good shape.
For the most part each county and town having to provide services makes for a rough ride.
There is no balance anymore.
169 counties in a state the size of Conn? That’s crazy! CA has 52 counties and is doing fine. Small towns in CA tend to be healthy, vibrant and friendly.
169 counties in a state the size of Conn? That’s crazy! CA has 52 counties and is doing fine. Small towns in CA tend to be healthy, vibrant and friendly.
There are not 169 counties in Conn. There might be that many incorporated places or villages in the state, but there are only eight counties as delineated by the Census Bureau: (Litchfield, Hartford, Tolland, Windham, Fairfield, New Haven, Middlesex, and New London).
Connecticut with 169 counties divided by wealthy,poor and so called middle class and Ct in not good shape.
For the most part each county and town having to provide services makes for a rough ride.
There is no balance anymore.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GraniteStater
There are not 169 counties in Conn. There might be that many incorporated places or villages in the state, but there are only eight counties as delineated by the Census Bureau: (Litchfield, Hartford, Tolland, Windham, Fairfield, New Haven, Middlesex, and New London).
Eight counties sounds reasonable. DanBev needs to consult a map
You missed one type that has no issues... those that are heavy on Gov jobs. My home town in Wyoming is a prime example, LOTS of Gov jobs on all 3 levels (county, state, federal) that pay well above the minimum cost of live there. That means disposable income that feeds the "art" community (boutique shops that serve all kinds of things, I just roll them into "art"). I had no idea how unique that was for a small town while growing up, just thought it was normal. Town pop is under 10k and has no other Real industry. Next closest town that's bigger is heavily dependent on energy (oil fields), then you're 3 hours drive to the largest town in the state.
Bottom line is that there needs to be a source of income. No source of income, property values drop, taxes drop, services drop, lower desire to live there, property values drop more, etc... till you end up with an abandoned town. There's usually a stop before that, people too poor to leave, having their money taken by local necessary businesses (groceries ~ my current town has 1, their prices are so high that it's about $100/month cheaper for me to drive 80 miles round trip, 4 times a month, to buy groceries elsewhere. Nevermind the quality difference). We're here because my wife's family lives here and there are medical jobs everywhere, took about a year till there was a part-time opening but that was enough.
We will have to see what happens in the coming decade. If tariffs make it cheaper to manufacture in the US again, these old towns might very well see a resurgence (never to what they were before, but some). There are towns the country over with a population or cheap manual labor just needing something to do, in an area with cheap land pricing and counties desperate to give tax incentives to any business that wants to come in. Again with where I live now, a couple decades ago a large number of the "Goody" brand products (hair brushes, combs and the like) were made here. It was also a mill town (textiles), and happens to be a major railroad hub for the SE. Cheap land, cheap labor, direct access to a national transportation network.... only needs a business that decides there's more profit in manufacturing in the US vs overseas, which is what tariffs can do.
This branches into the more political side, but yes tariffs also raise prices. Thing is, it raises Wages, and quality of life too (when the tariffs are high enough to encourage US manufacturing). Add that to our current low unemployment and ALL wages go up as the pool of applicants shrinks. There's an annoying transition period, but the potential for everyone to have a better life is there, just waiting to be taken, especially for those in rural America.
It's important to note that your opinion of the benefit of tariffs has zero support among the vast majority of those who deal with them from an academic or business standpoint. Tariffs are a tax on consumers, and there is no evidence that they benefit most citizens in the long run. They are widely attributed to the horrendous economic malaise that keep the American economy wounded and limping from the start of the great depression up to the beginning of WW2. Projections are that for every job created by the tariff situation, there will be 16 lost. The solar panel tariffs have been a mess, with thousands of job loses, and no real conditions created to encourage domestic manufacturing of panels. The Whole "laundry equipment" tariff mess, stated a year ago, has done little but drive the cost of a washing machines up significantly, and now it will go up again, due to the steel and aluminum tariffs. restarting mothballed steel mills looks good, but it's of little impact. There will be no serious investment in domestic manufacturing that are caused by tariffs for many reasons. Including the fact that they are a totally unreliable variable, and nobody knows what the president will do next, or if congress will allow the extreme stretching of the definition of "tariffs required to protect our nation defense" which is the ruse being used to start this mess. There is no evidence that tariffs are going to raise wages, or improve quality of life, and in fact there is ample evidence that the opposite is true. Regardless of the low unemployment numbers, for the first time in the history of modern economics wages have NOT significantly risen, and show no sign of doing so.
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.
