The vanishing of small towns

We keep hearing about small town America, and what we lost….

Well, for one, they’re not all that wonderful. Certainly my late wife hated the one she grew up in – yes, she could bike everywhere. But on the other hand, she was stuck with the same kids all the way through school, and if you’re different, it’s hell.

But I think there’s a far, far larger issue that everyone’s nibbling around, but not seeing: there’s no need for most small towns to exist. In the past, you had a lot of farmers, and the farmhands, and the stores in the small towns that they dealt with (including small banks). Then came the railroads, who created towns as stops for fuel, water, etc.

NONE of that is true anymore. I’ve mentioned before that as of the 1990 US census, “family farmer” is no longer a “recognized occupation” – under 1.5% of the population did that. ALL the rest is agribusiness. Trains don’t need all those stops, and Walmart (in the US) has literally destroyed almost all small town businesses.

There are not jobs there anymore, other than when a large company located a plant there were cheap labor (sorry, a lot of folks will move from overpriced city areas), and they can go away whenever the CEO decides their wages are too high.

Look around the world – most of Mexico’s population is around Mexico City, for example.The Paris metro area is over 11M of France’s 65M.

If we institute BMI, and IF people are willing to take it (as opposed to “being too proud”), we may see some come back. Otherwise… why should they exist?