Small Town Rural America Has Been Screwed

[OKTexas]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

You're sooooooo full of shit. The interstate highway system is what decimated small town America. When the traffic through town disappeared, so did businesses. You commies just ain't too bright, are ya.

.

 

[odanny]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

You're sooooooo full of shit. The interstate highway system is what decimated small town America. When the traffic through town disappeared, so did businesses. You commies just ain't too bright, are ya.

.

Your simplistic answer to a far more complex problem shows you lack the intellectual capacity to even be on this thread.

 

[DrLove]

Great post Dana! I saw the same thing on a road trip over to Boise to see my daughter for Thanksgiving. Took the backroads to Sunriver, OR to meet a friend and stay for a few nights. Went through a lot of tiny Oregon towns. Saw two Trump Parades (AFTER the election believe it or not) with disgruntled looking souls with guns in the backs of pickups flying ginormous MAGA flags. But other than that, these little towns looked deserted and run down. They are not run by Democrats - guaranteed. But yep, they've been ignored and in some cases forgotten entirely by our federal government for many years.

Thank you DrLove.

Your roads have a reputation in my state for not being very good.

Your roads are a paradise compared to what I've driven on in the last week.

Wow.

I've been all over your state. Backroads and the interstate.

You have fantastic roads compared to what I've been driving over for just over a week.

My only problem is with Portland and your bridges. If you are in the wrong lane and can't get over, you're screwed. LOL. It has happened to me a couple times.

I remember my first impression of Oregon when I moved here from coastal SoCal in ‘91 was how great the roads were, and actually still are. Main roads that is - backroads in and out of Bend area for instance not so much.

I used to get lost in Seattle when I was running a lot of appointments there. But I got lost a ton when I first moved to P-town too. Piece o cake now, although I still get lost on Terwilliger in SW and the Oregon City area in SE.

Portland is quirky & weird with all the curvy roads & bridges and that takes time. But I try to avoid both Portland and Seattle as I approach the golden years. Traffic is pretty bad both places (I plan my trips flying in n out of PDX on weekends) Not as patient as I once was.

 

[OKTexas]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

You're sooooooo full of shit. The interstate highway system is what decimated small town America. When the traffic through town disappeared, so did businesses. You commies just ain't too bright, are ya.

.

Your simplistic answer to a far more complex problem shows you lack the intellectual capacity to even be on this thread.

I bet you're a city boy, ain't ya? I'm old enough to have seen small towns dry up because the interstates bypassed them.

“Small towns that were bypassed by the highways withered and died,” writes Brandon Keim for Wired. “New towns flourished around exits. Fast food and motel franchises replaced small businesses.”

Three Ways the Interstate System Changed America

The idea of a national highway system stretches back to the 1930s but wasn't put into place until the midcentury

www.smithsonianmag.com

Carry on commie.

.

 

[DrLove]

Right wingers come out in hives when you mention higher wages. Higher wages are communism because they reduce the profits that their masters make. Its the big right wing con.

and rat shit foreigners are clueless about America.

Unless you’re a Native American, we’re all foreigners you idiot

 

[Jimmy_Chitwood]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

Are you making good money at the rest area gloryholes?

 

[DrLove]

These rural folks are very confusing. They seem to want help, on one hand, and then want, on the other hand, to live apart from the rest of their fellow Americans, blaming their fellow citizens all the way when nobody else is actually treating them badly.

The ruralists need to get out more, meet more people, acknowledge that people who are different from themselves exist. They somehow expect that the rest of the U.S. cater to their desire to live in a bubble. The closer you live to a population center, the more different people you interact with. I grew up right outside of NYC, and live in the DC suburbs. I've known people from all over the world. I've really enjoyed it. I can't imagine living any other way.

The anger that these ruralists exhibit toward others is entirely unfounded. Nobody owes them anything. They have no one else to blame for their failure to participate in society.

It's a safety and economical situation as far as I'm concerned.

I learned about the safety this morning.

After driving on these bad roads for over a week, the front driver side blew out one of the nearly brand new tires I had put on my car in November.

I hit one of their craters in the road and it blew my tire to smithereens. I was driving 75 mph at the time. Some how I got the car to the shoulder safely.

I called AAA for help. Was towed 40 miles back to Winslow to a tire shop.

The AAA driver said what happened to me is very common here. He said he himself has had that exact same thing happen to him 3 times in the last couple year. The guy at the tire shop wasn't surprised either. He said it's normal.

It's not normal in my state.

It's not normal for the roads to be so bad that it destroys a nearly brand new tire.

But the people are used to it. It's normal for them.

I'm in Flagstaff now for the rest of the day and night. Will take my car to the Toyota dealer tomorrow to have all my other tires checked out before I hit the road again. Hopefully the tires will be able to handle these roads so I can get home.

I always get much more appreciation for my state when I travel. This trip sure has done just that.

I so understand why so many people keep flocking to my state.

Ouch not good Dana! You’re too far south to be headed straight home. San Diego maybe? I’ve never been to Winslow don’t think, but if I ever get there, will stand on the famous Eagles corner and look for the - you know - The girl my Lord in a flatbed Ford slowin down to take a look at me! ;-)

 

[DrLove]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

If you want to know what's happened (and is happening) to small town America, it can probably best be summed up by the concept of economies of scale. The trend began under Reagan.

You see, Reagan embraced the idea of massive tax cuts for businesses for a specific stated reason. A little history is in order here.

In the aftermath of WWII, the US was the only major industrial economy with our factories, and shipyards, and transportation system completely intact. Meanwhile, the economies of England, France, Germany, Japan, and the USSR were in ruins. Consequently, we cleaned up during the 1950s and 1960s. Not only did we manufacture consumer goods for them, we rebuilt their industrial base. By the 1970s, countries like Japan were cleaning our clock. They built better quality cars which were also considerably more fuel efficient. In the aftermath of the oil embargos of the 1970s, we were no longer competitive because our industrial base was much older and no longer efficient compared to the other industrial countries.

In comes Reagan with the idea of granting massive tax cuts to businesses in order to help them retool. This is where the law of unintended consequences comes in. Unfortunately, there were insufficient strings attached to the tax cuts indicating how the money had to be spent. As a result, both large and smaller companies went on a corporate buying spree with their windfalls. That's how companies like RJ Reynolds (a tobacco company) ended up buying Nabisco (of food company) to become RJR Nabisco. That's how media companies like ABC, NBC, and CBS ended up being owned by Disney, GE, and Westinghouse. The trend continued for decades even to the point that huge profitable oil companies like Exxon and Mobile felt compelled to merge (like Chevron and Texaco) in order to compete with other oil companies that had merged.

While all of this was happening to the economy as a whole, small towns got hit in ways that weren't as much of an issue in and around large cities.

The first was the exportation of manufacturing jobs. After all, some towns had a major manufacturer that employed hundreds of people, often working several shifts. People referred to them as company towns whether it was a paper plant, an athletic shoe manufacturer, or a company that made bicycles, or refrigerators. Once those jobs started going overseas for cheaper labor, their competitors were forced to follow if they wanted to stay in business. This trend was the opposite of over a hundred years of American policy which was always to protect our industrial base by keeping them here at home.

The second was the growth of Walmart. Previously, small towns had a healthy business class of educated people who owned stores and shops that were operated by small town residents who, in turn, hired locals to work there. Once Walmart moved in and started selling products at prices that undercut the best prices local merchants could offer, it was just a matter of time until the local shops closed their doors, leaving main street with shuttered doors in empty buildings which nobody could afford to rent. Making matter worse, megastores like Walmart took their profits out of these small towns unlike the local shop keepers who spent their profits in their home towns, thereby stimulating their local economy.

Then there's the demise of the family farm. You probably remember the Willie Nelson Farm Aid concerts of the 1990s. As family farms were sold off, agribusinesses like Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), also known as "The Supermarket to the World," moved in to gobble up thousands of acres of farm land. The remaining family farms couldn't compete based on, you guessed it, the economies of scale.

Finally, with little opportunity and very few jobs available, people in general, especially young people, started moving away to larger cities in search of a better life.

I should know. I came from a small town where the population has declined by over 25% since 1970.

I have watched almost all of what you posted. From the 60s on.

In the 80s everything changed.

When Reagan and the republicans were doing all those changes people like me said this exact thing would happen.

We were ignored.

Now we are near the end of the road and our nation is failing.

The cities can't exist without the rural areas.

The rural areas can't exist without the cities.

We have stopped calling our nation it's proper name.

The United States of America. We haven't been united for a very long time and it's destroying us.

Something needs to be done or America will be left behind.

One word: INFRASTRUCTURE! Trumpublicans of course hate that word ‘cept for when Donnie was hosting one his famous “Weeks”
But I’m serious, imagine what high speed rail could do for small rural towns.
Hell, you could get from central WA or OR to Seattle or Portland in like an hour, take in a concert or play, and be home by 11 PM!

 

[DrLove]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

You're sooooooo full of shit. The interstate highway system is what decimated small town America. When the traffic through town disappeared, so did businesses. You commies just ain't too bright, are ya.

.

Your simplistic answer to a far more complex problem shows you lack the intellectual capacity to even be on this thread.

I bet you're a city boy, ain't ya? I'm old enough to have seen small towns dry up because the interstates bypassed them.

“Small towns that were bypassed by the highways withered and died,” writes Brandon Keim for Wired. “New towns flourished around exits. Fast food and motel franchises replaced small businesses.”

Three Ways the Interstate System Changed America

The idea of a national highway system stretches back to the 1930s but wasn't put into place until the midcentury

www.smithsonianmag.com

Carry on commie.

.

Danny was correct - You’re not smart enough to participate here. There are a million reasons, not one.
I know lots of small towns that have flourished because they were willing to change with the times and give people reasons to go there!

 

[Dana7360]

These rural folks are very confusing. They seem to want help, on one hand, and then want, on the other hand, to live apart from the rest of their fellow Americans, blaming their fellow citizens all the way when nobody else is actually treating them badly.

The ruralists need to get out more, meet more people, acknowledge that people who are different from themselves exist. They somehow expect that the rest of the U.S. cater to their desire to live in a bubble. The closer you live to a population center, the more different people you interact with. I grew up right outside of NYC, and live in the DC suburbs. I've known people from all over the world. I've really enjoyed it. I can't imagine living any other way.

The anger that these ruralists exhibit toward others is entirely unfounded. Nobody owes them anything. They have no one else to blame for their failure to participate in society.

It's a safety and economical situation as far as I'm concerned.

I learned about the safety this morning.

After driving on these bad roads for over a week, the front driver side blew out one of the nearly brand new tires I had put on my car in November.

I hit one of their craters in the road and it blew my tire to smithereens. I was driving 75 mph at the time. Some how I got the car to the shoulder safely.

I called AAA for help. Was towed 40 miles back to Winslow to a tire shop.

The AAA driver said what happened to me is very common here. He said he himself has had that exact same thing happen to him 3 times in the last couple year. The guy at the tire shop wasn't surprised either. He said it's normal.

It's not normal in my state.

It's not normal for the roads to be so bad that it destroys a nearly brand new tire.

But the people are used to it. It's normal for them.

I'm in Flagstaff now for the rest of the day and night. Will take my car to the Toyota dealer tomorrow to have all my other tires checked out before I hit the road again. Hopefully the tires will be able to handle these roads so I can get home.

I always get much more appreciation for my state when I travel. This trip sure has done just that.

I so understand why so many people keep flocking to my state.

Ouch not good Dana! You’re too far south to be headed straight home. San Diego maybe? I’ve never been to Winslow don’t think, but if I ever get there, will stand on the famous Eagles corner and look for the - you know - The girl my Lord in a flatbed Ford slowin down to take a look at me! ;-)

It was not a good experience. The speed limit in that area is 75 mph but everyone is going at least 80.

So many huge semi trucks flew by me as I was on the shoulder. One of them was barreling down through part of the shoulder and just missed hitting me in the car. I got out of the car after that and stood away from it in case it got hit.

The wind through that area just blows trucks and cars around. I was afraid the wind was going to blow one of the semi trucks into me.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do but Vegas isn't far from here and that is a 2 day drive home from there.

I will decide what I do after the rest of the tires are checked out at the Toyota dealer tomorrow.

I was at the corner park this morning and photographed it. There's a restaurant on the corner across the street that plays Eagles music so everyone on the street can hear it. It's cool.

 

[Dana7360]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

If you want to know what's happened (and is happening) to small town America, it can probably best be summed up by the concept of economies of scale. The trend began under Reagan.

You see, Reagan embraced the idea of massive tax cuts for businesses for a specific stated reason. A little history is in order here.

In the aftermath of WWII, the US was the only major industrial economy with our factories, and shipyards, and transportation system completely intact. Meanwhile, the economies of England, France, Germany, Japan, and the USSR were in ruins. Consequently, we cleaned up during the 1950s and 1960s. Not only did we manufacture consumer goods for them, we rebuilt their industrial base. By the 1970s, countries like Japan were cleaning our clock. They built better quality cars which were also considerably more fuel efficient. In the aftermath of the oil embargos of the 1970s, we were no longer competitive because our industrial base was much older and no longer efficient compared to the other industrial countries.

In comes Reagan with the idea of granting massive tax cuts to businesses in order to help them retool. This is where the law of unintended consequences comes in. Unfortunately, there were insufficient strings attached to the tax cuts indicating how the money had to be spent. As a result, both large and smaller companies went on a corporate buying spree with their windfalls. That's how companies like RJ Reynolds (a tobacco company) ended up buying Nabisco (of food company) to become RJR Nabisco. That's how media companies like ABC, NBC, and CBS ended up being owned by Disney, GE, and Westinghouse. The trend continued for decades even to the point that huge profitable oil companies like Exxon and Mobile felt compelled to merge (like Chevron and Texaco) in order to compete with other oil companies that had merged.

While all of this was happening to the economy as a whole, small towns got hit in ways that weren't as much of an issue in and around large cities.

The first was the exportation of manufacturing jobs. After all, some towns had a major manufacturer that employed hundreds of people, often working several shifts. People referred to them as company towns whether it was a paper plant, an athletic shoe manufacturer, or a company that made bicycles, or refrigerators. Once those jobs started going overseas for cheaper labor, their competitors were forced to follow if they wanted to stay in business. This trend was the opposite of over a hundred years of American policy which was always to protect our industrial base by keeping them here at home.

The second was the growth of Walmart. Previously, small towns had a healthy business class of educated people who owned stores and shops that were operated by small town residents who, in turn, hired locals to work there. Once Walmart moved in and started selling products at prices that undercut the best prices local merchants could offer, it was just a matter of time until the local shops closed their doors, leaving main street with shuttered doors in empty buildings which nobody could afford to rent. Making matter worse, megastores like Walmart took their profits out of these small towns unlike the local shop keepers who spent their profits in their home towns, thereby stimulating their local economy.

Then there's the demise of the family farm. You probably remember the Willie Nelson Farm Aid concerts of the 1990s. As family farms were sold off, agribusinesses like Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), also known as "The Supermarket to the World," moved in to gobble up thousands of acres of farm land. The remaining family farms couldn't compete based on, you guessed it, the economies of scale.

Finally, with little opportunity and very few jobs available, people in general, especially young people, started moving away to larger cities in search of a better life.

I should know. I came from a small town where the population has declined by over 25% since 1970.

I have watched almost all of what you posted. From the 60s on.

In the 80s everything changed.

When Reagan and the republicans were doing all those changes people like me said this exact thing would happen.

We were ignored.

Now we are near the end of the road and our nation is failing.

The cities can't exist without the rural areas.

The rural areas can't exist without the cities.

We have stopped calling our nation it's proper name.

The United States of America. We haven't been united for a very long time and it's destroying us.

Something needs to be done or America will be left behind.

One word: INFRASTRUCTURE! Trumpublicans of course hate that word ‘cept for when Donnie was hosting one his famous “Weeks”
But I’m serious, imagine what high speed rail could do for small rural towns.
Hell, you could get from central WA or OR to Seattle or Portland in like an hour, take in a concert or play, and be home by 11 PM!

Yes we need to get our infrastructure into the 21st century.

We are building light rail in Washington but only along I 5 from Everett down to Tacoma.

It's a start.

Our parents paid for our nation to have a complete interstate freeway system.

We can pay to update our nation's infrastructure.

It can't be done only by the states. Most don't have the money, refuse to raise taxes to afford it which will result in a hodgepodge of some states updated and succeeding. While others don't update and fail.

Much like what has happened to rural small town America now.

If we don't fix this mess we will be left behind.

 

[Unkotare]

.....
It was not a good experience. The speed limit in that area is 75 mph but everyone is going at least 80.

So many huge semi trucks flew by me as I was on the shoulder. One of them was barreling down through part of the shoulder and just missed hitting me in the car. I got out of the car after that and stood away from it in case it got hit.

The wind through that area just blows trucks and cars around. I was afraid the wind was going to blow one of the semi trucks into me.
.....

You are one badass mofo...

 

[DrLove]

These rural folks are very confusing. They seem to want help, on one hand, and then want, on the other hand, to live apart from the rest of their fellow Americans, blaming their fellow citizens all the way when nobody else is actually treating them badly.

The ruralists need to get out more, meet more people, acknowledge that people who are different from themselves exist. They somehow expect that the rest of the U.S. cater to their desire to live in a bubble. The closer you live to a population center, the more different people you interact with. I grew up right outside of NYC, and live in the DC suburbs. I've known people from all over the world. I've really enjoyed it. I can't imagine living any other way.

The anger that these ruralists exhibit toward others is entirely unfounded. Nobody owes them anything. They have no one else to blame for their failure to participate in society.

It's a safety and economical situation as far as I'm concerned.

I learned about the safety this morning.

After driving on these bad roads for over a week, the front driver side blew out one of the nearly brand new tires I had put on my car in November.

I hit one of their craters in the road and it blew my tire to smithereens. I was driving 75 mph at the time. Some how I got the car to the shoulder safely.

I called AAA for help. Was towed 40 miles back to Winslow to a tire shop.

The AAA driver said what happened to me is very common here. He said he himself has had that exact same thing happen to him 3 times in the last couple year. The guy at the tire shop wasn't surprised either. He said it's normal.

It's not normal in my state.

It's not normal for the roads to be so bad that it destroys a nearly brand new tire.

But the people are used to it. It's normal for them.

I'm in Flagstaff now for the rest of the day and night. Will take my car to the Toyota dealer tomorrow to have all my other tires checked out before I hit the road again. Hopefully the tires will be able to handle these roads so I can get home.

I always get much more appreciation for my state when I travel. This trip sure has done just that.

I so understand why so many people keep flocking to my state.

Ouch not good Dana! You’re too far south to be headed straight home. San Diego maybe? I’ve never been to Winslow don’t think, but if I ever get there, will stand on the famous Eagles corner and look for the - you know - The girl my Lord in a flatbed Ford slowin down to take a look at me! ;-)

It was not a good experience. The speed limit in that area is 75 mph but everyone is going at least 80.

So many huge semi trucks flew by me as I was on the shoulder. One of them was barreling down through part of the shoulder and just missed hitting me in the car. I got out of the car after that and stood away from it in case it got hit.

The wind through that area just blows trucks and cars around. I was afraid the wind was going to blow one of the semi trucks into me.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do but Vegas isn't far from here and that is a 2 day drive home from there.

I will decide what I do after the rest of the tires are checked out at the Toyota dealer tomorrow.

I was at the corner park this morning and photographed it. There's a restaurant on the corner across the street that plays Eagles music so everyone on the street can hear it. It's cool.

Maybe check out the Central Callie Coast around Morrow Bay/ San Simeon and then head all the way back on Hwy 1. That area through Big Sur and all the way up Oregon Coast is gorgeous!

 

[Carl in Michigan]

This is the result of keeping wages low

And yet you support importing cheap, ILLEGAL labor

 

[Dana7360]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

You're sooooooo full of shit. The interstate highway system is what decimated small town America. When the traffic through town disappeared, so did businesses. You commies just ain't too bright, are ya.

.

Your simplistic answer to a far more complex problem shows you lack the intellectual capacity to even be on this thread.

I bet you're a city boy, ain't ya? I'm old enough to have seen small towns dry up because the interstates bypassed them.

“Small towns that were bypassed by the highways withered and died,” writes Brandon Keim for Wired. “New towns flourished around exits. Fast food and motel franchises replaced small businesses.”

Three Ways the Interstate System Changed America

The idea of a national highway system stretches back to the 1930s but wasn't put into place until the midcentury

www.smithsonianmag.com

Carry on commie.

.

Danny was correct - You’re not smart enough to participate here. There are a million reasons, not one.
I know lots of small towns that have flourished because they were willing to change with the times and give people reasons to go there!

Go to a lot of the small towns in Washington and you will find they are making the changes.

Internet is a basic infrastructure. Any area that doesn't have it falls behind and fails. Roads are too. If trucks can't get to places to deliver goods, business isn't going to go into those areas.

I know if I owned a trucking company I wouldn't want my drivers driving on a lot of the roads in this nation. It's too expensive. The cost of maintenance and repairs on the equipment must be astronomical which I'm sure trucking companies would love to not have to pay.

I'm understanding why there are so many Canadian trucks on the road in my state. The roads are good and don't damage the equipment. They don't have to pay tolls either. I still wish they weren't allowed here. They are a menace on our roads and add to the traffic.

 

[Flopper]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

If you want to know what's happened (and is happening) to small town America, it can probably best be summed up by the concept of economies of scale. The trend began under Reagan.

You see, Reagan embraced the idea of massive tax cuts for businesses for a specific stated reason. A little history is in order here.

In the aftermath of WWII, the US was the only major industrial economy with our factories, and shipyards, and transportation system completely intact. Meanwhile, the economies of England, France, Germany, Japan, and the USSR were in ruins. Consequently, we cleaned up during the 1950s and 1960s. Not only did we manufacture consumer goods for them, we rebuilt their industrial base. By the 1970s, countries like Japan were cleaning our clock. They built better quality cars which were also considerably more fuel efficient. In the aftermath of the oil embargos of the 1970s, we were no longer competitive because our industrial base was much older and no longer efficient compared to the other industrial countries.

In comes Reagan with the idea of granting massive tax cuts to businesses in order to help them retool. This is where the law of unintended consequences comes in. Unfortunately, there were insufficient strings attached to the tax cuts indicating how the money had to be spent. As a result, both large and smaller companies went on a corporate buying spree with their windfalls. That's how companies like RJ Reynolds (a tobacco company) ended up buying Nabisco (of food company) to become RJR Nabisco. That's how media companies like ABC, NBC, and CBS ended up being owned by Disney, GE, and Westinghouse. The trend continued for decades even to the point that huge profitable oil companies like Exxon and Mobile felt compelled to merge (like Chevron and Texaco) in order to compete with other oil companies that had merged.

While all of this was happening to the economy as a whole, small towns got hit in ways that weren't as much of an issue in and around large cities.

The first was the exportation of manufacturing jobs. After all, some towns had a major manufacturer that employed hundreds of people, often working several shifts. People referred to them as company towns whether it was a paper plant, an athletic shoe manufacturer, or a company that made bicycles, or refrigerators. Once those jobs started going overseas for cheaper labor, their competitors were forced to follow if they wanted to stay in business. This trend was the opposite of over a hundred years of American policy which was always to protect our industrial base by keeping them here at home.

The second was the growth of Walmart. Previously, small towns had a healthy business class of educated people who owned stores and shops that were operated by small town residents who, in turn, hired locals to work there. Once Walmart moved in and started selling products at prices that undercut the best prices local merchants could offer, it was just a matter of time until the local shops closed their doors, leaving main street with shuttered doors in empty buildings which nobody could afford to rent. Making matter worse, megastores like Walmart took their profits out of these small towns unlike the local shop keepers who spent their profits in their home towns, thereby stimulating their local economy.

Then there's the demise of the family farm. You probably remember the Willie Nelson Farm Aid concerts of the 1990s. As family farms were sold off, agribusinesses like Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), also known as "The Supermarket to the World," moved in to gobble up thousands of acres of farm land. The remaining family farms couldn't compete based on, you guessed it, the economies of scale.

Finally, with little opportunity and very few jobs available, people in general, especially young people, started moving away to larger cities in search of a better life.

I should know. I came from a small town where the population has declined by over 25% since 1970.

I have watched almost all of what you posted. From the 60s on.

In the 80s everything changed.

When Reagan and the republicans were doing all those changes people like me said this exact thing would happen.

We were ignored.

Now we are near the end of the road and our nation is failing.

The cities can't exist without the rural areas.

The rural areas can't exist without the cities.

We have stopped calling our nation it's proper name.

The United States of America. We haven't been united for a very long time and it's destroying us.

Something needs to be done or America will be left behind.

One word: INFRASTRUCTURE! Trumpublicans of course hate that word ‘cept for when Donnie was hosting one his famous “Weeks”
But I’m serious, imagine what high speed rail could do for small rural towns.
Hell, you could get from central WA or OR to Seattle or Portland in like an hour, take in a concert or play, and be home by 11 PM!

If high speed rail passes through small rural towns, it will be because they happen to be on the route and even if they pass thru those tiny towns they won't likely stop. High speed rail is incredible expensive, about 150 million dollars a mile compared to Interstates at about 7 million a mile in rural areas. That kind of money is not going to be spent on rail connections between Cow Town and Bull Balls.

High Speed Rail will only be used to connect a few large cities that can keep trains filled. In the 1950's, decisions were made to create an Interstate highway system which put the nails in the coffin of most railroads. Rail traffic, particular passenger trains decreased drastically, which destroyed many small towns and put many more on a path of slow death. Today as many countries are expanding rail service, and converting to high speed rail, that train left the station in the US over 60 years ago.

 

[jasonnfree]

Kinda sad that small town America votes republican. Republican politicians will never do anything to help their way of life. An affordable government run health care system like other more advanced countries have would certainly help their and their children make it through life. I say that as someone who has voted republican at times also, but I've come to realize that republicans really don't care about any one who's not wealthy although they pretend to, and are pretty successful at it.

 

[DrLove]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

If you want to know what's happened (and is happening) to small town America, it can probably best be summed up by the concept of economies of scale. The trend began under Reagan.

You see, Reagan embraced the idea of massive tax cuts for businesses for a specific stated reason. A little history is in order here.

In the aftermath of WWII, the US was the only major industrial economy with our factories, and shipyards, and transportation system completely intact. Meanwhile, the economies of England, France, Germany, Japan, and the USSR were in ruins. Consequently, we cleaned up during the 1950s and 1960s. Not only did we manufacture consumer goods for them, we rebuilt their industrial base. By the 1970s, countries like Japan were cleaning our clock. They built better quality cars which were also considerably more fuel efficient. In the aftermath of the oil embargos of the 1970s, we were no longer competitive because our industrial base was much older and no longer efficient compared to the other industrial countries.

In comes Reagan with the idea of granting massive tax cuts to businesses in order to help them retool. This is where the law of unintended consequences comes in. Unfortunately, there were insufficient strings attached to the tax cuts indicating how the money had to be spent. As a result, both large and smaller companies went on a corporate buying spree with their windfalls. That's how companies like RJ Reynolds (a tobacco company) ended up buying Nabisco (of food company) to become RJR Nabisco. That's how media companies like ABC, NBC, and CBS ended up being owned by Disney, GE, and Westinghouse. The trend continued for decades even to the point that huge profitable oil companies like Exxon and Mobile felt compelled to merge (like Chevron and Texaco) in order to compete with other oil companies that had merged.

While all of this was happening to the economy as a whole, small towns got hit in ways that weren't as much of an issue in and around large cities.

The first was the exportation of manufacturing jobs. After all, some towns had a major manufacturer that employed hundreds of people, often working several shifts. People referred to them as company towns whether it was a paper plant, an athletic shoe manufacturer, or a company that made bicycles, or refrigerators. Once those jobs started going overseas for cheaper labor, their competitors were forced to follow if they wanted to stay in business. This trend was the opposite of over a hundred years of American policy which was always to protect our industrial base by keeping them here at home.

The second was the growth of Walmart. Previously, small towns had a healthy business class of educated people who owned stores and shops that were operated by small town residents who, in turn, hired locals to work there. Once Walmart moved in and started selling products at prices that undercut the best prices local merchants could offer, it was just a matter of time until the local shops closed their doors, leaving main street with shuttered doors in empty buildings which nobody could afford to rent. Making matter worse, megastores like Walmart took their profits out of these small towns unlike the local shop keepers who spent their profits in their home towns, thereby stimulating their local economy.

Then there's the demise of the family farm. You probably remember the Willie Nelson Farm Aid concerts of the 1990s. As family farms were sold off, agribusinesses like Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), also known as "The Supermarket to the World," moved in to gobble up thousands of acres of farm land. The remaining family farms couldn't compete based on, you guessed it, the economies of scale.

Finally, with little opportunity and very few jobs available, people in general, especially young people, started moving away to larger cities in search of a better life.

I should know. I came from a small town where the population has declined by over 25% since 1970.

I have watched almost all of what you posted. From the 60s on.

In the 80s everything changed.

When Reagan and the republicans were doing all those changes people like me said this exact thing would happen.

We were ignored.

Now we are near the end of the road and our nation is failing.

The cities can't exist without the rural areas.

The rural areas can't exist without the cities.

We have stopped calling our nation it's proper name.

The United States of America. We haven't been united for a very long time and it's destroying us.

Something needs to be done or America will be left behind.

One word: INFRASTRUCTURE! Trumpublicans of course hate that word ‘cept for when Donnie was hosting one his famous “Weeks”
But I’m serious, imagine what high speed rail could do for small rural towns.
Hell, you could get from central WA or OR to Seattle or Portland in like an hour, take in a concert or play, and be home by 11 PM!

Yes we need to get our infrastructure into the 21st century.

We are building light rail in Washington but only along I 5 from Everett down to Tacoma.

It's a start.

Our parents paid for our nation to have a complete interstate freeway system.

We can pay to update our nation's infrastructure.

It can't be done only by the states. Most don't have the money, refuse to raise taxes to afford it which will result in a hodgepodge of some states updated and succeeding. While others don't update and fail.

Much like what has happened to rural small town America now.

If we don't fix this mess we will be left behind.

My friend In Boise married a Chinese gal. They visit her fam often and she has a condo there. His pix are amazing. They’re kicking our asses in infrastructure & renewable investments. Rump put us another four years behind the 8 ball. And for every four you stand still, it takes another eight to catch up. Thx God for not making us live through ANOTHER four!

 

[Missourian]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

Please don't "help".

Just keep "helping" the blue Clinton Archipelago.

We love our small towns. Life is wonderful. If we wanted what you've got...trust me, we all know where to find it.

Population Growth Shifts to Suburban America

Suburban counties are once again gaining population at the expense of the cities around them. What does that mean for urban areas?

www.governing.com

 

[DrLove]

I've been on a road trip that I've wanted to do for a very long time.

I drove east to Illinois then am driving southwest to the Pacific Ocean on what's left of Route 66.

That road, or what's left of it, goes through small town rural America.

I've gone through ghost town after ghost town. The towns that aren't abandoned are so deeply depressed it's painful and shameful to see.

Small town rural America has been totally screwed and abandoned by both our government and our citizens.

I understand now why so many republicans are so angry. I don't understand why they can't see why they have been screwed so badly and by whom.

Most of the states and all of the towns are controlled by republicans. People keep voting for them because of social issues like gay marriage and because they don't make much money and wrongly seem to believe that tax cuts are the answer to their financial problems.

Tax cuts have only totally screwed small town rural America. Their roads are so bad. I mean so bad that there were times the rough road and wind has my car literally bouncing down the road. When was the last time their roads were paved? The poverty is just terrible.

This is the result of keeping wages low, no regulation on business and trillions in tax cuts for the rich and big business.

Capitalism is making it worse because there's no money to be made in those areas so they are abandoned by business which results in more depressed economic conditions.

Raising wages will help these people a lot. Not just by increasing their own pay but by increased business from others being paid more. No little tax cut that is temporary will be a solution to such poverty. Higher wages will.

Better education will help a lot. So people don't have to take low wage jobs that require public assistance to be able to survive.

Small town rural America needs to stop electing politicians who don't give a damn about them and won't invest in the people and the areas they live in.

I was in one place that the water coming out of the faucet was a light brown and cloudy. I didn't wash my hands, I used hand sanitizer instead.

I have gone through countless towns that are totally abandoned. I've gone through farming areas that there aren't houses on the land. Just farming. People don't live in those areas anymore so the towns are turning into ghost towns.

The air in Oklahoma and Texas was so polluted it has caused a sinus infection. And people live in those areas. I can only imagine the health problems of the people in those areas but they don't have any hospital or medical facilities to go to. They have to travel hundreds of miles to get medical help.

Younger people who weren't alive before Reagan think this is normal.

It's not.

America wasn't like this before the conservatives convinced Americans that taxes, regulations, worker protections, a livable wage and investing in our nation was a horrible thing.

I totally understand now why so many in small town rural America voted for trump. He was the first republican who actually vocalized the problems the Republican Party was creating.

Only he either went about fixing the problem wrong or just didn't do anything. Which is what he mostly did. Nothing. In fact, things got worse for small town rural America.

I don't know what the solution is to help these people see that voting for republicans got them in this mess and won't get them out of it.

But I finally saw for myself the reasons why republicans voted for trump.

If you want to know what's happened (and is happening) to small town America, it can probably best be summed up by the concept of economies of scale. The trend began under Reagan.

You see, Reagan embraced the idea of massive tax cuts for businesses for a specific stated reason. A little history is in order here.

In the aftermath of WWII, the US was the only major industrial economy with our factories, and shipyards, and transportation system completely intact. Meanwhile, the economies of England, France, Germany, Japan, and the USSR were in ruins. Consequently, we cleaned up during the 1950s and 1960s. Not only did we manufacture consumer goods for them, we rebuilt their industrial base. By the 1970s, countries like Japan were cleaning our clock. They built better quality cars which were also considerably more fuel efficient. In the aftermath of the oil embargos of the 1970s, we were no longer competitive because our industrial base was much older and no longer efficient compared to the other industrial countries.

In comes Reagan with the idea of granting massive tax cuts to businesses in order to help them retool. This is where the law of unintended consequences comes in. Unfortunately, there were insufficient strings attached to the tax cuts indicating how the money had to be spent. As a result, both large and smaller companies went on a corporate buying spree with their windfalls. That's how companies like RJ Reynolds (a tobacco company) ended up buying Nabisco (of food company) to become RJR Nabisco. That's how media companies like ABC, NBC, and CBS ended up being owned by Disney, GE, and Westinghouse. The trend continued for decades even to the point that huge profitable oil companies like Exxon and Mobile felt compelled to merge (like Chevron and Texaco) in order to compete with other oil companies that had merged.

While all of this was happening to the economy as a whole, small towns got hit in ways that weren't as much of an issue in and around large cities.

The first was the exportation of manufacturing jobs. After all, some towns had a major manufacturer that employed hundreds of people, often working several shifts. People referred to them as company towns whether it was a paper plant, an athletic shoe manufacturer, or a company that made bicycles, or refrigerators. Once those jobs started going overseas for cheaper labor, their competitors were forced to follow if they wanted to stay in business. This trend was the opposite of over a hundred years of American policy which was always to protect our industrial base by keeping them here at home.

The second was the growth of Walmart. Previously, small towns had a healthy business class of educated people who owned stores and shops that were operated by small town residents who, in turn, hired locals to work there. Once Walmart moved in and started selling products at prices that undercut the best prices local merchants could offer, it was just a matter of time until the local shops closed their doors, leaving main street with shuttered doors in empty buildings which nobody could afford to rent. Making matter worse, megastores like Walmart took their profits out of these small towns unlike the local shop keepers who spent their profits in their home towns, thereby stimulating their local economy.

Then there's the demise of the family farm. You probably remember the Willie Nelson Farm Aid concerts of the 1990s. As family farms were sold off, agribusinesses like Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), also known as "The Supermarket to the World," moved in to gobble up thousands of acres of farm land. The remaining family farms couldn't compete based on, you guessed it, the economies of scale.

Finally, with little opportunity and very few jobs available, people in general, especially young people, started moving away to larger cities in search of a better life.

I should know. I came from a small town where the population has declined by over 25% since 1970.

I have watched almost all of what you posted. From the 60s on.

In the 80s everything changed.

When Reagan and the republicans were doing all those changes people like me said this exact thing would happen.

We were ignored.

Now we are near the end of the road and our nation is failing.

The cities can't exist without the rural areas.

The rural areas can't exist without the cities.

We have stopped calling our nation it's proper name.

The United States of America. We haven't been united for a very long time and it's destroying us.

Something needs to be done or America will be left behind.

One word: INFRASTRUCTURE! Trumpublicans of course hate that word ‘cept for when Donnie was hosting one his famous “Weeks”
But I’m serious, imagine what high speed rail could do for small rural towns.
Hell, you could get from central WA or OR to Seattle or Portland in like an hour, take in a concert or play, and be home by 11 PM!

If high speed rail passes through small rural towns, it will be because they happen to be on the route and even if they pass thru those tiny towns they won't be stopping. High Speed Rail is incredible expensive, about 150 million dollars a mile compared to Interstate at about 7 million a mile in rural areas. That kind of money is not going to be spent connection Cow Town to Bull Balls.

I think we can do both. All it takes is WILL (something we seem to be short on ;-)