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You're not thinking ahead are you...? The more people that move to rural areas, the more their tax base increases...and guess what? The school systems get better because of the influx of new people and more money.....
That's not all that happens. Every time you transplant a lot of well-paid urbanites into a rural area, you worsen rural poverty among the existing residents because the ever-increasing demand for more services continually raises the tax rates.
If too many people go rural, it won't be rural anymore.
Will be a long time before that happens. I am aware of urban sprawl and cities pushing out into their metros but for every mile the radius from cities-center grows, amount of area in each mile farther from the focus increases.
It will take a LOT before we have to worry about there being no more rural areas. More than 2x population. More than even 4x what we have now. It will be over 100 years, even at current growth rates (which I wouldn’t put money on them remaining consistent).
Well, the older we get the more access to healthcare becomes an issue. I know you need to be within 20 minutes of a hospital to survive a heart attack. That said, there are plenty of environments out there where you can live in a small town and still be within 20 minutes of a hospital.
If its important to you to be within 20 minutes of a hospital, it should be as much a part of the planning as a beach, boat ramp or golf course would be.
Theres are a lot of reasons why the country and the small towns in it have emptied and hollowed out those rural towns.
Kids no longer wanted to farm was a big one. Farming is an expensive venture that didn't have steady pay-off for all the labor it requires. And it demands heavy physical labor in all weathers.
The rural life doesn't offer a lot of social excitement or activities. There is more solitude out in the country, and people can become lonely.
Rural life is slower. Days are spent doing just one thing, and then more days are spent doing the next thing that needs to be done. There is seldom the adrenaline rush that comes from a faster moving life.
Much of rural life is very routine, and living in the country is always physically dirty.
People have to dress for the jobs, not for fashion. Much more work is demanded to keep life clean, neat and tidy.
The opportunity to find a mate who's very appealing is restricted when there aren't very many choices who are available.
Intellectual simulation is hard to come by.
All this and more are reasons why rural states haven't grown and why their population is aging.
Those who live there all love the life or are too old to change now.
The suburbs offer a mid-way between country life and city life. A suburb offers some of the city life and some of the country life. They are situated between the two, so any suburban person who wants more of one thing can go to the country, while another surburban can go to the city.
City life has all the things country life lacks, but it doesn't have the privacy of rurality. There are always plenty of interesting things to do, places to go, new people to meet, more potential to make money, and a much wider variety of occupations to make it.
Peace and quiet is sacrificed for activity in the city.
Everyone in the country all tend to think alike because they're all doing the same things. The same attitudes prevail in the country, most folks belong to the same religion, and strange things are relatively rare.
When folks age they don't crave the same things they once craved when they were young. They tire of a city's hub-but and close quarters, and want some isolation, steady predictability, and quietness. So a little place in the country to retire in is a pleasant thought.
As suburbs age and change, their advantages can be lost, so their residents may want to move to the country, or to the city.
The kids who like all the activity and energy of a city aren't old enough yet to crave life in the country, even though they could love it in small doses.
And everyone anywhere gets to know the territory they're living in, became familiar with it, like it just fine.
Moving can be fearful when you don't know anything about where you have moved to, and have left everything you've ever known behind, including your closest friends, relatives and other loved ones.
Most city dweller couples who move to 'actually rural' areas move back to cities or suburbs because they find the fantasy doesn't match the reality,at least for one member of the couple.
I grew up in Maryland,just outside of Wash DC and i've always hated the city.I spent many summers with relatives in very rural areas of Montana and West Virginia.One TV station and sparse shopping opportunities don't bother me....When I met my first wife I told her I intended to move out west and she was all for the idea.....until we actually moved to Wyoming.We lived in a town of 700 thirty miles from a city of 30,000 which isn't 'that rural' to me.Yeah you had to drive 130 miles to go to a mall,that doesn't bother me.My wife on the other hand acted like we had moved to the North Pole and complained bitterly,daily for a couple years and when I lost my job we ended up back east so she would shut up.I tried a compromise where we lived in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia,only one hundred miles from Wash DC and a lot more shopping within 25 miles....still too rural...we got divorced.
Even where I live in West Virginia i've had multiple people who live here, but 15-20 miles closer to the interstate and the shopping centers, who come out to my place on a whopping 2.5 acres in a subdivision of other houses and act like i'm living in the middle of nowhere.
Rural areas also are going to have less police presence as they usually have smaller police departments (if they have their own PD) otherwise they contract with the sheriff/troopers etc. in some cases you could be looking at a hour or more response time. My family who lives in a rural area doesn’t get fast response. The only fast response if you wanna call it that is medical because they have a volunteer fire department. That’s basically their first aid station.
Most rural areas simply don’t have the services.
Most rural areas don't need police departments. The crime to begin with is low and gun ownership is widespread.
A rural homestead makes sense if you have the time, and particularly if you have kids. A couple with remote jobs? Not so easy.
The homesteader families I follow on Youtube have multiple children who are all helping out -- milking the cows, letting out the chickens in the morning and gathering the eggs, watering the crops, etc. They usually home school. Such a great way for kids to grow up, learning skills and responsibility, fresh air, wholesome food, away from all the debauchery and decadence of the city.
Makes sense! This couple is purposely childless, but the wife is in a position to set her own schedule and hours at this point so she has the time to do these things she is interested in! I am totally jealous of her home smoked meats! It does seem like a lot of work, and I am not one of the people who would find this lift appealing. I am definitely a city person. Or maybe an easy access to Main Street/stuff to do person. Being at home for me is torture. Definitely not feeling my best right now quarantining at home. I am not a home body at all.
"People that own houses as investments, and don't live there are a big part of why housing is so expensive. Gov't should tax more heavily on anything that is not your primary residence. And if you own more than one other house the tax should go up even higher.
OMG. Are you for real?
They are coming to rural America. Take a look at the Idaho page sometime. First they just bought up the homes made vacant by the environmental industry and their spotted owl hoax. Then they went to Washington and southern Idaho.Take a look at the news articles about Coeur d'Alene, Idaho from two weeks ago. The locals who have been there for 150 years will not be easily driven out.
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