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Hey! I'm a 18 year old male from suburban Minneapolis trying to figure out his life. I am not quite sure what I want to do as a career. But what is most important to me, is that I want to live in a RURAL area! I really do not care for city life, or even large towns. Frankly, if possible i would like nothing to do with any town over about 10,000 people. There are a few specific areas that I consider my favorites. But they are all looking terrible in terms of prosperity, as they are all losing jobs and population. So I guess what I'm asking is what kind of careers would I need to look at in order to live someplace I would want to? And what are some good rural areas to live? Please don't attack or mock me, I'm just trying to figure things out. Also, I don't want to live in The West, The Plains States, or The Northeast. I don't want to go into why, but I do not want to live anywhere in those regions, or anyplace that is socially or culturally liberal. So I'm strictly thinking of towns in the Midwest or South with populations under 10K. I know all of my criteria might be impossible to find nowadays, and that's really sad that things have come to that. Thanks for any help!
Um OK. Your criteria eliminated just about all of the USA for unspecified reasons including much of the "rural" regions you say you want to live in. Best look into a career in agriculture...maybe you can find ag-based towns small enough to suit you.
Virginia has lots of small towns that would fit the bill.
Add the Carolinas and Georgia. But you need an income, most people commute to larger town or city areas. Small towns are tough to find jobs that pay anything.
I have lived in a rural area most of my life by choice. It's true there isn't the long list of careers that may be available in larger metropolitan areas but it isn't as bleak as some will lead you to believe. There are many opportunities in education, Federal programs, law enforcement, municipalities, agriculture, medical and the list goes on. Peace of mind and contentment has no price. Do what your heart says and forget the naysayers. Rural life is an exceptional lifestyle for free thinkers. I do understand the need to be free of the "liberal" mindset. One needs to stay in touch with logic and reality. The best of luck to you.
Alabama, Eastern Tn, West S. Carolina, lots of rural space, plenty of very small, conservative towns (I'm originally from New England but have been down here since '76 now). It is possible to live quite rural and commute for work. We lived in a N. Forest and had no neighbors, hubby was an air traffic controller and had a 45 minute interstate commute to work. I ran a biz from the home.
There are plenty of ways of doing it.
As someone mentioned, even small towns have schools (usually), depending on how small or how rural, general stores. Electricians, plumbers, heating and cooling, farming, all of those are options.
Online telecommuting is big now and will probably be moreso in the the coming years.
We live in a town of 235 people, overall the population-density is <10 people-per-square mile.
But there are no jobs here.
People that migrate here are mostly retirees, like me. On my pension, I can afford to live anywhere that has a low Cost-Of-Living.
We know, a lot of people around here that have huge gardens. They supply Farmer's Markets with veggies. I do that too, but at its 'best' it only barely makes enough money for anyone to support themselves.
Young adults who need to start careers tend to leave this state, seeking careers somewhere else.
This morning I met with some techs doing work on a building I own, one of them is a Sprinkler system tech. He and all of his co-workers are in their 60s and 70s. No young men are going into that field. They know that as they retire, there is nobody in the career field to replace them. The man I was talking to, just wants to retire. Another firm in Michigan has offered him $50/hour to move out there. He was telling me that if any new person started they would need to do a 10-year apprenticeship. It takes 5-years of On-The-Job training to learn enough to pass the testing to get certified, and then another 5 years to become really competent to go out to a job-site by yourself. It is a big nation-wide corporation, so you could live anywhere in the nation.
Pretty obviously the "plan" provided by OP ends in living a dirt-poor lifestyle, in a place with poor opportunity, ignorance, and general poverty of culture. In the South, presumably. I saw more than a few towns like that in North Carolina, I'm sure there are tons more in Mississippi in-particular, that being (I believe) one of the poorest/under-achieving states in the union on multiple axes.
Not sure why someone would 'decide' at age 18 to extremely limit future opportunities. I have little use for humanity but it was patently obvious when I was 17 the road to riches involves the complete opposite of just about everything listed: obtain a STEM degree, move to an area of opportunity (like SF, or LA, or Seattle). To hell with the politics, who cares what nuts think, I figure? Build foundation skills in something up and coming, like Cloud development (Azure, AWS), or a modern programming language. Keep in the revenue stream, build equity brick by brick without making stupid life-errors (marrying young, having children, refusing to finish a Bachelor's degree). Brookings Institute lists the following three:
1. Graduating from high school.
2. Waiting to get married until after 21 and do not have children till after being married.
3. Having a full-time job.
Or live in Palookaville, MS and wind up working at the S-Mart as a clerk for $7/hr. Really? Sorry, can't aid and abet that with 'advice' that flies in the face of just about every megatrend for professional work in the United States, next 20 years or so.
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