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It's amazing how defensive and angry some people can get just by the mentioning of comparative statistics. You can live where you want too. Nobody gives a damn what you do with your life. The point is that statistically, residents of rural areas have fewer job opportunities, are less likely to go to college, and are more likely to develop cancer or heart disease than residents of any other types of communities. Use of opioids in such areas is exploding also. As far as politics is concerned, remember the "Clinton Archipelago" map that showed how comparatively few counties were carried by Hillary? The flip side is that small sliver of land accounts for nearly 2/3rds of GDP.
When Trump supporters complain about the economy tanking, these are the areas that they are most likely talking about. It isn't a new problem. It's been going on since time immemorial. It didn't start with Barack Obama, but it is accelerating, and it doesn't help by not talking about it.
I for one am not angry about statistics or even how some might use them in a thinly veiled manner to insult, as the OP did.
What I do know is that I am happy where I live, I will be happier still in 7 months when I retire and move abroad.
You are far more likely to be robbed, stabbed, shot or murdered in a city than in a rural community. You are also far more likely to be the victim of a home invasion.
That said Cities have some great benefits. Huge variety in food and cultural differences. I love to travel. Going to NYC is a taste of everything in the world. I love NYC. I just don't want to live there.
Cities have the best hospitals in the country. My local hospital I wouldn't take a dog I hated there for treatment.
Cities have a variety for shopping experiences. You want variety try Bangkok. I love BKK too. I wouldn't live there tho.
In short you may live longer in a city, but if it isn't your thing what's the point? I would soon become miserable if forced to live in a place where I have no space.
I lived exclusively in rural communities. We have also been debt-free since 2000 which I suspect few that "flocked to the cities" can say.
Statistics are tricky and often say what the person making the study want them to say, much like polls.
Trump is already working on making rural areas better by booting the illegal aliens back where they belong. Much of the lack of "opportunity and prosperity in rural areas is due to illegal aliens flocking in, driving up poverty, etc. and outsourcing of manufacturing jobs. Also, agriculture has taken a big hit, since we bring so much from out of country without a tariff making it hard to impossible for our farmers to compete.
You can have the cities. The cities have a very mobile population making it hard to base statistics on anything of value.
Once in a while I go to Google Street view and look at where we used to live in San Diego, and my old stomping grounds after I was discharged from the Navy. I think, "My God, I could never live in that kind of congestion again." Traffic, houses and apartment houses so close you could watch your neighbor in the bathroom. No place to park. No room for a garden. I don't even recognize much of it anymore (but my old apartment is still there on Hornblend St. in P.B.!
No thank you. I'll take the country, and our 11 acres, with maple trees, etc, a large garden and lots of green grass (we don't have "lawn" here ...we have grass). It's a pleasure to get out on the lawn tractor on a warm sunny day and mow. Even though the house is an old farm house and needs a lot of work, I couldn't go back to that city life.
I doubt those statistics. I think people probably are healthier and live longer being in the country. My mother (who lives in Western New York, about 100 miles from us) is going to be 97 in July.
Once in a while I go to Google Street view and look at where we used to live in San Diego, and my old stomping grounds after I was discharged from the Navy. I think, "My God, I could never live in that kind of congestion again." Traffic, houses and apartment houses so close you could watch your neighbor in the bathroom. No place to park. No room for a garden. I don't even recognize much of it anymore (but my old apartment is still there on Hornblend St. in P.B.!
No thank you. I'll take the country, and our 11 acres, with maple trees, etc, a large garden and lots of green grass (we don't have "lawn" here ...we have grass). It's a pleasure to get out on the lawn tractor on a warm sunny day and mow. Even though the house is an old farm house and needs a lot of work, I couldn't go back to that city life.
I doubt those statistics. I think people probably are healthier and live longer being in the country. My mother (who lives in Western New York, about 100 miles from us) is going to be 97 in July.
It may also fail to take into account how many people retire from the city to the country.
I moved from Sacramento to Bishop CA.
My commute was 18 miles, one way.
Now my commute is 1/2 mile, one way.
My car insurance dropped by about $60 per month (2 vehicles).
Sure, there are pros and cons to both - but in my older age, I prefer the more relaxed and neighborly atmosphere of small town living.
Education is still the answer to rural poverty. I have college grads in the family who live in very rural areas but make a good living on the internet and only go to the city once a week to their parent companies. Yet there are still Republicans who fight programs that help bring high speed internet to rural areas.
Tell you what, you can take your big cities and... well, you know what I want to say. The area I live in may now have a whole bunch of jobs since it has gone from rural to metropolis, but I despise the place more each day. I can't wait until the day I can go to the "boonies." I have a little patch of ground in rural eastern North Dakota. The nearest town has less than two hundred residents. There has been negative growth since the nineteen forties. And I CAN'T WAIT to get there and the day that all I hear is the wind through the grass, a few birds singing, and a tractor out in the field a half mile away. If that's "very bad" give me very bad any day of the week.
Not to mention actually being able to see stars at night. That sounds beautiful, Chris. I don't necessarily miss owls talking to each other all night right outside my bedroom window or roosters talking to each other (LOUDLY) at 4 in the morning, but definitely remember and miss the other stuff.
Education is still the answer to rural poverty. I have college grads in the family who live in very rural areas but make a good living on the internet and only go to the city once a week to their parent companies. Yet there are still Republicans who fight programs that help bring high speed internet to rural areas.
While I support the idea I have a real problem with this since the Senate President (R) works for one of the cable companies that will benefit the most from this.
It may also fail to take into account how many people retire from the city to the country.
I already said that in another thread the statistics are skewed by a disproportionate amount of seniors living in certain areas. Stats are always easily manipulated and skewed to try and fit a certain point of view.
While I support the idea I have a real problem with this since the Senate President (R) works for one of the cable companies that will benefit the most from this.
They've already been sued for screwing over consumers. Now they will get subsidized. Reminds me of the last eight years.
Getting WV connected would be great. In many areas crappy service from Frontier is the only option. It's slow and often simply doesn't work. People who live there are essentially cut off from much of the online world.
I'm very skeptical that this will wind up actually helping people, though. More than likely it'll just be a cash donation to industry.
I live in SC and the old farming communities, lumber mill towns, railroad towns, and the likes in rural SC, which by the way is most of SC are dirt poor, with most of the remaining populations in those towns dying off, or finally giving in and moving to the cities to find work.
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