Changing Trends in rural America (house, calf, property, buy)

[turkeydance]

"Are you aware of any problems in the community where you live? It has to be a small town, a few hundred or a few thousand people. I will appreciate any suggestions."

further restrict your definitions.
one example which might work:
"population range from 500 to 5000 according to the 2010 census of incorporated municipalities."

[TabulaRasa]

HOSPITAL CLOSURES, LACK OF ACCESS TO NON - TRIAGE LEVEL HEALTHCARE LOCALLY, AND RURAL COMMUNITIES BEING A MENTAL HEALTH DESERT.

Last one isn't that new... Counseling and psych services where there aren't dual relationships to contend with are a longtime thing in rural communities. The other medical stuff is newer. Our hospitals closing is a big damned deal.

[ccc123]

I live in a town of 800. We have no Dr but we do have a dentist, no mental health services at all.

[rruff]

Originally Posted by tin2019

I am a graduate student and I am trying to research on changing trends in rural America. I would like to identify a changing trend in a rural community that is having a negative impact on residents and then research and write a paper to suggest solutions to the problem.

When the internet grew, I thought small town living would be much more viable, but they seem to be bleeding population at a steady rate.

Telecommuting should have given them a boost. But oddly it seems the opposite as happened. Young people want maximum stimulation, diversity, and distraction, and you need to be in a city for that.

Same for shopping. Now you can have anything delivered (free!) to your door in 2 days, so you don't need a bunch of local stores, but that doesn't seem to help.

Small towns are best for raising a family, but that seems to be a relatively low priority for young people.

Local small-town jobs suck and that has only gotten worse with offshoring of manufacturing, and the Walmart phenomena. When stores in a small town are corporate owned, the profits exit the community instead of being cycled back when the hypothetically local owners of businesses buy things.

I'd suggest you look at it in terms of trade balances. A community must "export" products and services (anything value added) in order to have an income to buy things that aren't made locally... or they receive welfare, or SS, investment income, or tourist income from elsewhere to make up the difference.

[arctichomesteader]

One thing I have seen all over rural America (my work has taken me around the country a good bit) is a massive problem with off road vehicles. You get people who buy them, often modify the exhaust to run louder, ride them aggressively, trespass everywhere, damage property when property owners try to exclude them. It seriously degrades quality of life when you deal with them going by frequently near your home or trespassing. I've walked a good ways early in the morning to go duck hunting and had people come in on ATV's at dawn because they were too lazy to walk (one person literally asked me where all the ducks were one morning and I told them they flew off when they heard his machine coming through the woods). I'm a forester by profession and have seen a lot of losses caused by their illegal trails on timberland. Literally acres of forest lost on large parcels of public lands. Then there's the trash, occasional fuel or oil spill, etc. Enforcement is difficult, lax, and penalties lacking.

[ByeByeLW]

In Florida there’s a problem with people who think they can go ATVing through farms and cattle ranches, not to mention preserve areas.

[ddm2k]

Originally Posted by ByeByeLW

In Florida there’s a problem with people who think they can go ATVing through farms and cattle ranches, not to mention preserve areas.

Florida, in many ways, seems like a modern version of the Wild West, at least to me.

[Submariner]

I live in a town of 135 population. This general area [our adjacent townships] have a population-density less than 10 people per square-mile. I think of it as 'rural'.

Some people would say there are no high paying jobs here, they would be correct. But high paying jobs attract people and that is the opposite of rural.

We have some who have long commutes to their jobs. Most are on SS or disability pensions.

[rruff]

Originally Posted by Submariner

We have some who have long commutes to their jobs. Most are on SS or disability pensions.

There you go...

Looking at a community as a import/export entity is illuminating. These two always must balance. Used to be that a rural town would have farm products to sell, mining or other extraction, or a factory, and the value-added inside the community and sold outside could balance all the "imports": things made outside the community and brought in. Farm profits (per acre) are way down, and few factories exist. Unless they can get tourism going (which functions like an export) then they either need to rely on commuting to jobs outside, or retirement/government checks.

The small towns I see that are in good shape are either sharing in the oil/gas boom or have strong tourism.

[arctichomesteader]

Originally Posted by rruff

There you go...

Looking at a community as a import/export entity is illuminating. These two always must balance. Used to be that a rural town would have farm products to sell, mining or other extraction, or a factory, and the value-added inside the community and sold outside could balance all the "imports": things made outside the community and brought in. Farm profits (per acre) are way down, and few factories exist. Unless they can get tourism going (which functions like an export) then they either need to rely on commuting to jobs outside, or retirement/government checks.

The small towns I see that are in good shape are either sharing in the oil/gas boom or have strong tourism.

Many of the most rural Vermont towns were historically farming areas and the farming was more or less subsistence type. Self-sufficiency was the goal. This persisted on the surviving "hill farms" as they have been called into the 20th century. Barter provided what a person didn't produce for themselves. A few cash crops (maple sugaring was big) brought in money for items from outside the community (i.e., things like ammunition, salt as this was distant from the coast, items like woodstoves as needed, etc.). It's a completely different way of looking at things including economics. Using money to acquire everything is very much an urban approach.