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.
I've lived anywhere from a town to 400 people in Wyoming to major cities on the east coast. Purely my opinion, but rural America (speaking in broad brushed generalities) sees themselves as 'future millionaires who are temporarily poor'. They see the wealthy as people who got there on their own steam, and strive to that (even when that attitude is harmful). Those in more rural areas don't see themselves as needing help, because they do have a notion of the wealthy and successful as very self-made people. To claim they need help is to claim they personally can't be that same self-made success story. This is the belief, even when overwhelming evidence is presented that helping each other is how most people get ahead, and is what's best for everyone.
Again, this is 100% my opinion based on what I've seen in my life.
It depends on what you think the point of the country is.
If you think freedom is the point, then some who do think help shouldn’t be mandated.
While I'm a champion for rural America and the values that it instills in 'most' who grow up there, I'll be the last to say that everything is rosy. But, blaming Trump for "stringing them along" is a bit over the top. It isn't like the Democrats have given a rodent's rectum about rural America in the last few decades. Rural America, or at least the rural America I grew up in, had a strong Democrat presence until around the Bill Clinton era. That's when people who lived there realized that the Dems were far more concerned with helping urban voters than helping rural voters. Of course that's also about the same time that Democrats got really pushy on gun control, so it isn't surprising that rural Americans aren't going to vote for the party that wants to take away tools that their lives depend on to some degree.
True that Dems don't cater to places they will not get votes. It is not an argument though that refutes what Trump did.
He gave a lot of rural and AG voters hope and big promises. Then he stuck it to them with tariffs that hurt them badly. His response was AG bailouts, which was nowhere near enough to make them whole, let alone improve their prior situation. Past tariff impositions have backfired similarly and usually that business never returns after the supply chains are adjusted. Will China be back for soybeans, or has Trump shown them that they would be fools to count on us? We shall see.
His promise to re-invigorate manufacturing and bring back coal and the steel industry were not followed by sound policy and results. He never had an actual plan, only the promise of one. Rural America that put him over the top in 2016 is no better off after 4 years and in many ways worse off. They believed his speeches, his rhetoric, his promises.
So, whats worse? Ignoring someone's needs, as Democrats have done, or playing to them and not delivering?
There is a lot of rural America that exists on welfare, disability; government subsidies; and Meth.
Let's face it.
All we hear time and again is how bad the cities are. I lived and worked in 'rural America' and I can tell you i saw some pretty awful things.
Children that would never have a chance in life because their parents were such losers. Not even capable enough to work at a McDonalds - but perfectly able to birth 3 kids that they would never be able to care for.
Collecting disability because they never learned to read or write; it was so depressing,
I'm sure people that worked in bigger cities saw the same; but I know what i saw in many rural populations.
Is anyone claiming that ALL rural life is Shangri-La? The whole point of most of those who don't agree with OP's thesis is that much of what they're claiming is not unique to rural America, not that rural America is the epitome of the "American Dream"?!?
I've been across rural America, New Hampshire has plenty of these places.
The people don't look out for one another, their defensive of their property, none of the towns are walkable, the people are hyper individualists.
In the rest of the world rural towns are more tight knit, have collective land, support one another regardless of the situation, and pool together resources.
So what makes rural America so different? Also note much of the liberal places are more economically left wing, but in the USA they are a bastion of social darwinism.
Why?
Our Pilgrims tried collective land and farming, and it almost killed them when lazy collectiveists got lazy and thought the others would do all the work. Please educate yourself, so we dont wind up making the same mistake again. The natives saved the Pilgrims, and the Pilgrims changed the way they farmed into a more entrepreneurial model that flourished, where each family got theri own plat, and then traded their harvest with others.
I first heard this on Rush Limbaugh's show because the public schools I went to didn't teach it. Wonder why
Would you care to dispute me on this? Go ahead...make my day.
You've all heard about the Mayor of Colorado City in Texas and his letter accusing the citizenry of being lazy and calling the ice storm a "survival of the fittest".
Most people on this thread and in this country shrugged their shoulder, for rural America is a bastion of libertarian thought and "do it on your own philosophy".
What is so strange is that outside of this country rural areas could not be anymore different.
In Shirgah for example (a village in northern Iran) the community does not have state infrastructure so they pool together capital to provide some sort of stability.
In villages in Bolivia they typically share housing with those in their community, most of the communist rebels in central America come from the indigenous territories away from the city.
In Siberia villagers typically don't mind sharing their property to help each other.
In America, rural areas are less united, more individualistic, and more skeptical of providing public help to their neighbors. They don't like public institutions of any size, and lecture people who can't carry their own weight.
Looking at the images, it is striking. Shirgah for example is by a mountain pass. The houses are near one another, and people/kids spend time in common areas.
American rural towns, each house is 20 feet apart, people don't wander off their space, no walkable areas, no common places besides the Walmart or the local church.
Our Pilgrims tried collective land and farming, and it almost killed them when lazy collectiveists got lazy and thought the others would do all the work. Please educate yourself, so we dont wind up making the same mistake again. The natives saved the Pilgrims, and the Pilgrims changed the way they farmed into a more entrepreneurial model that flourished, where each family got theri own plat, and then traded their harvest with others.
I first heard this on Rush Limbaugh's show because the public schools I went to didn't teach it. Wonder why
Would you care to dispute me on this? Go ahead...make my day.
Collective land is not the same thing as living on a commune.
Their homes are private as is their food storage, just that there is common land.
I read this thread and wonder what planet all of you are on.
Life will always be full of challenges. Ups and downs and successes and failures and beauty and ugliness.... but there has NEVER been an easier, better time to be alive in America.
You all are a lot more depressing than real life in rural America
i agree. there are some people that post here that i think are on psychadelic drugs all the time
You've all heard about the Mayor of Colorado City in Texas and his letter accusing the citizenry of being lazy and calling the ice storm a "survival of the fittest".
Most people on this thread and in this country shrugged their shoulder, for rural America is a bastion of libertarian thought and "do it on your own philosophy".
What is so strange is that outside of this country rural areas could not be anymore different.
In Shirgah for example (a village in northern Iran) the community does not have state infrastructure so they pool together capital to provide some sort of stability.
In villages in Bolivia they typically share housing with those in their community, most of the communist rebels in central America come from the indigenous territories away from the city.
In Siberia villagers typically don't mind sharing their property to help each other.
In America, rural areas are less united, more individualistic, and more skeptical of providing public help to their neighbors. They don't like public institutions of any size, and lecture people who can't carry their own weight.
Looking at the images, it is striking. Shirgah for example is by a mountain pass. The houses are near one another, and people/kids spend time in common areas.
American rural towns, each house is 20 feet apart, people don't wander off their space, no walkable areas, no common places besides the Walmart or the local church.
I think to a degree it's partly Anglo culture to be rather individualistic, independent, self sufficient and kind of aloof. I don't think it is all bad or that there's no friendliness or charity or that the alternatives are so great. Most of the world is tribal, poor or lack freedom.
Agreed. In my experience growing up in Maine, houses were spaced widely but neighbors knew one another, were generally on good terms, and helped each other out if there was need. Kids, at least, got together to play often.
But it is very different here in Japan. Rural villages are packed tightly together, surrounded by fields and forests that are virtually empty of houses.
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.
