The Resurrection of Rural America: A Rainy Day Rant
Perhaps the title is misleading, as “rural America” has never died. She has changed; she has suffered; but like the strong-willed people who make up her population, she has persevered despite having a large portion of her three greatest treasures stolen over the last sixty-odd years. Those three things are her people, her economy, and her natural resources. What robbed rural America of her three treasures is what may be her best hope of regaining them. Such is the duplicitous nature of progress.
This “loss of great treasure” is especially true in areas where extractive industries (primarily mining and logging) were the mainstay of communities, although the treasures lost are not always as obvious as the sight of a clear-cut forest. I should also add that her fourth treasure, culture, remains in-tact. Like any culture, it has evolved over time. But it is distinctly rural, and distinctly American. My family comes from Appalachia, and that is where I now live. For those of you living in other parts of rural America, please forgive me for the biased use of geographic and cultural examples.
This part of Rural America lost her people as they left the Ozarks and Appalachia in droves after the textile factories shut down and farming had a new mantra: Get big or get out! As Appalachian families headed toward cities like Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Detroit in search of better jobs (primarily factory work, as was the case with my grandparents and parents) the communities in which they lived, already on the brink due to underemployment, crumbled completely as the social fabric was unraveled one family at a time.
But the population drain didn’t stop there. Some old-timers stayed on and raised families in rural America after the depression and loss of manufacturing jobs, but the brightest of them tended to head off to college, often never to return. That is not to say that rural Americans aren’t bright (Have you ever tried to operate a tractor complete with seven different PTO attachments? Or to be your own veterinarian when animals get sick?), but just imagine what it would do to a large US City if the majority of its college graduates moved to another city and were never replaced?
The second important thing lost by rural America was her economy. Where once farmers and small businesses kept the money they made in the community by paying employees, buying local supplies, and working with local banks – now international corporations (namely banks, fast-food joints and big box stores) take the money in and siphon it out of the community into corporate bank accounts around the world. Where once money circulated like a healthy vascular system, it began to flow out like a cut vein. Now what’s left of it trickles out one Big Mac or Dollar Store plastic thingamabob at a time. Even the local banks are gone from most communities, so our savings aren’t used to finance loans to other locals, but to finance gambling on Wall Street. Sometimes it seems like the only way money stays in the community is when it’s used to buy pills or meth from drug dealers who fill a niche once taken by a real, functioning economy made up of smart people with an honest work ethic. The money comes in now from minimum-wage jobs and welfare. Who knows where it ends up, but you can clearly see on any given day at the local Walmart that it is not being put into the pockets of local business owners. Away the money goes, and it doesn’t come back.
Rural America has lost a lot of natural resources over the years. While she maintains more resources than much of the rest of the country – including timber, coal, minerals and fresh, clean water – entire mountains have been leveled to the ground. Entire forests have been clearcut, leaving nothing behind but locust trees and briars where once stood mighty oaks, sycamore, and maple. Entire watersheds have been contaminated. Where once there were an abundance of fish and species of salamanders that had yet to be discovered, there are now signs posted beside the creek, warning of contamination from mountaintop removal operations or pesticide-sprayed Christmas tree farms. The coal gets put on a train or a barge and shipped off to far-away cities where it produces electricity for the people who have bumper stickers crying out for an end to coal mining, or nuclear power. Meanwhile, the few extractive industry jobs that used to be here are almost gone. A few guys in big machines with lots of dynamite now remove more coal in a day than a hundred full-time mining employees used to remove in a week or more. And away it goes, never to come back.
So that’s the bad news.
The good news is we have a chance to return to rural America some of the things she has lost. While we can’t put the coal back into the ground, we can – over time – put trees, and maybe even topsoil, back onto her mountainsides, and prairies. But I’m not speaking about what we can do over the course of centuries. I mean there is something happening today – right now – that promises to breathe life back into rural America. And with it comes two of the things she lost: Her economy and her people.
While most of the country has taken high-speed internet for granted since the late 1990′s, rural America is only just now getting the infrastructure necessary to watch a YouTube video without buffering for 15 minutes. We are the last house on our road to have high-speed internet. There is a “holler” beyond us with at least 15 other houses in it that has yet to go faster than dial-up. But this house DID have it and this fact – this precious “resource” – is what allowed us to move from our jobs in the city to the countryside without a fixed income source like social security (most of our neighbors are retirees from Florida and DC) or Welfare – and without having to take a job at the local McDonald’s or Home Depot. We work from home. We get paid about what we got paid in the city, only that money now goes into the pockets of local businesses.
I buy hay, mulch, chicken feed, and groceries from the community. Our savings account is here. We hire local contractors to help fix up the house and barn. We take our car into the local mechanic when it needs fixed. We have memberships at the local fitness center. We get our hair cut at the local barber. No, we’re not “locovores” and I don’t have a “buy local” bumper sticker. I’ll even buy a thing or two from Walmart if I can’t find it somewhere else. The point here is this: High speed internet has allowed us to participate in an economy where money finally comes INTO rural America FROM the cities and most of it stays here. Since the middle of the last century it has been the other way around.
Think about that for a moment. For over sixty years money that was made in the countryside went to the cities. Highly educated sons and daughters who were born in the countryside moved to the cities. Now we have the chance to turn the tide. Like in the days when we made furniture and textiles here, money from the cities can come into rural America – not by charity or social programs, but through entrepreneurship and telecommuting made possible with high speed internet access. Likewise, the children of these communities (separated by two generations from their heritage here), as well as college graduates and established professionals who want to live in the country, can now make a comfortable living in in rural America.
Did rural America lose her economy because she lost her people? Or did she lose her people because she lost her economy? This classic chicken/egg question isn’t expected to be answered. I suspect it was a bit of both; like when two logs in the fire help each other burn, where only one would lose its flame. But, while I am certainly no economist or historian, I think the transverse CAN be answered. Will the return of economy to rural America bring back her people? Or will the return of her people bring back her economy? The answer is the clearly the latter. All of the manufacturing jobs are overseas, and are likely to stay there. Despite the resurgence of interest in local, farm-fresh food, most of rural America is too far away from a major city to make market gardening or CSAs feasible to local farmers. No, her economy isn’t magically going to come back. Stores are still shutting down. The only hope of going from economy to people is if you focus 100% on tourism, in which case you end up with a sad replica of rural America – Like Gatlinburg, TN or Boone, NC. You get the full facade in the summertime tourist season, but the rest of the community is all but economically dead for the rest of the year.
While I doubt it will go from economy resurgence to repopulation (of “her” people; not just summer tourists), I think it can happen the other way around. If you work on a computer all day in New York and pay $3,000 a month for a studio apartment, there’s no reason you can’t do that same work from the comfort of a restored farmhouse in the countryside. Use the money you save to pay off the mortgage in five years. Wouldn’t that be nice? If you run an internet business in San Francisco and pay $10,000 for an office-space with trendy restored-brick walls, but keep telling yourself that “someday” you’re going to move to the country – understand that your “someday” can be now. There are plenty of smart college-grads who wish they could stay near their families instead of heading off to the city for work. You WILL have a workforce. If nothing else, your city employees would jump at the chance to telecommute.
I will leave this rant with a caveat. If you come to rural America, remember that you are coming here for a reason. That reason is defeated if you bring the city with you. Why buy a two-acre plot in a gated community built on a subdivided old farm when you could go down the road and buy an entire farm for less? Your neighbors would be happy to maintain your pasture if you let them keep their livestock there. Why build a new house when you could rehabilitate an older one with more character and for less money? I have nothing against new homes. We hope to build one ourselves someday, tucked away in the woods somewhere with more privacy. But I don’t understand the idea of moving to the country to live in a subdivision at the end of a cul-de-sac, complete with homeowners association dues, a big gate at the front and twenty other McMansions visible from your front door. This is the dilemma; this is the Achilles’ heel of my rant: How do you repopulate rural America without losing her culture? How do you bring in more people without destroying more land? How do you change her economy without making it like every other city in the country? And how do you ask “certain” people to come live here without sounding like some kind of anti-suburbanite elitist wanker?
Or maybe that’s just it. Maybe that’s all I am?
OK one last thing, and I promise I’ll shut up. An accent is only an accent. Australians aren’t less intelligent for speaking with an Australian accent, and rural Americans aren’t any less intelligent for speaking their respective dialects. If you do end up moving from the city to the country, remember that they have more to teach you than you have to teach them. I guess what I’m getting at is that, while I am excited about the opportunity for rural America to get her people and economy back, I don’t want that to come at the expense of her culture, which has – despite all odds – remained largely intact through decades of erosion. I appreciate any feedback or ideas you may have on the subject. Please feel free to comment below, as long as you’re not belligerent.
Oh, and I’d love to hear from anyone who has read this book. I’m going to try and get an inter-library loan because our library doesn’t have it.
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Category: Rants, Simple Thoughts, The Transplants
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Insightful and thought provoking post. Makes me wonder what I have to offer a rural community.
I totally agree! I think there’s a missing link along with the high speed internet, though. I keep trying to tell people that there’s no need to think that the only good jobs around here are in the coal mines, that they can create their own jobs over the internet, but people are so tunnel-vision that they want a salary and a boss they can see. We need to relearn independence, which is supposed to be what Appalachia was all about historically.
Thanks Jes! I’m sure you have a lot to offer a rural community. And it really feels good to be part of a community where people know each other and help each other out. It brings you out of your shell. In the city you just put your head down and go about your business, but here – when you can’t go to town without seeing three or four people you know – it becomes a social occasion just going to the post office.
Anna – I agree. But I think (hope is probably a better word) that the kids in schools today in our areas are going to be so comfortable with computers and the Internet that it will be second-nature to them. The trick will be keeping online work from being farmed out to India in the same way that our manufacturing was farmed out to China. You can’t “farm out” entrepreneurship so maybe the answer is in your missing link.
Well said, I think that about sums it up!
I live in a town of less than 20,000 people. It’s a fairly large county mile wise, but not in population. Many of the people here wished they were big city people. They drive fancy cars and they pride themselves on their handbags and shoes. Less than a 10 minute drive, you’re in the middle of a community that still carries it’s name but doesn’t have a zipcode of its own, and the feel is completely different. But this big city feel is migrating.
I used to live in a small “town” called Ilsley (one of those no zipcode having towns)and there were several farms and OLD (plantation looking) farm houses. All but one has been torn down now. In their place are all these modern homes. And their absent their trees. It’s just a big bunch of grass. Like 2 acres of GRASS. Which is better than 1 acre of grass and 1 acre of asphalt, but still, these places almost all had a little plot garden at least. It kind of makes me sad. Because it doesn’t feel as “country” and homey to me as it once was when I was a kid growing up. Eventually, I want to live further away from town with a couple of acres at least. I want to be able to grow my own veggies IN the ground (landlord currently doesn’t like vegetable gardening) and I want to have a dog that can run loose without the concern for a leash law and I want my son to grow up being able to play in the woods and in a big yard. We’re saving up money now to be able to buy such a place. 
And honestly, I can’t wait. 
Have you seen this site? It often has some interesting news on rural issues and policy.
http://www.dailyyonder.com/
AT thanks. That’s the first time I’ve seen that site. It seems to be a roundup of news about rural areas all over the world. Interesting. They had a story recently about getting broadband into the Australian outback. I used to live in Australia and in certain parts of the the “outback” and west coast you can drive all day without seeing a single person or car on the road. If they can run broadband out there we can do it here.
Certain economic theories would argue that it would be unfair to take that money out of the pockets of those living in the city (via taxes) to pay for broadband in rural areas. I’m not sure what the solution is and, at this point, am not interested in having that argument. My “hope” would be that the telecommunications companies find it profitable to serve more rural communities and so the solution would fit within the framework of capitalism. However, I do see a difference between capitalism and corporatism. Too bad the Supreme Court doesn’t.
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Great “rant”! I live in rural Nebraska, and much of what you wrote applies here. I tend to be more of a pessimist than you, however. If you aren’t an entrepreneur or you don’t have some very specialized skills that a company would be willing to pay good money for you to do from home, you may have a rough go of it in rural America. The entrepreneurs in rural America, in my experiences, don’t pay their employees anywhere close to what those employees could make doing comparable work in a city. Housing in the cities is usually more expensive, and you will spend more time commuting, but the “cost of living” in other areas is less in the city than in the country. Those of us (who I am pretty confident are not a minority) who are not highly educated or don’t have the chutzpah required to be an entrepreneur may be disappointed with career-life in rural America. For many who like the rural way-of-life but aren’t honestly going to find career success/satisfaction in the wilderness, the best option really is to make your money in the cities and then retire to country. Otherwise, the “retire” part may not happen
Rich,
Nice blog! I like the toilet cleaning screenshot.
I agree that not everyone is an entrepreneur, but you don’t have to be super business savvy to make a living writing articles online. I know lots of places that pay $10 to $15 an hour all day long for people to write content on just about every conceivable topic. If you’re not a good writer and have poor gammer that won’t be an option, but you seem to be a good writer.
As for Joe down the road who dropped out of high school and never bothered to get his GED or acquire a marketable skill… well he’d have the same problems finding work no matter where he lives. I guess it would be easier to find a job in a factory in the city though.
One thing I see a lot of potential for is to use the internet to supplement your income. I know a lot of really good plumbers, landscapers, electricians and carpenters who get good pay and find work in the country, but not on a steady basis. If they could supplement that income by writing about what they know online (I’d gladly pay for a good step-by-step article about installing a tankless water heater, for instance – and I know other sites like eHow would too.) it could help tide them over between jobs. Sometimes the difference between being able to live in the country Vs the city comes down to a few hundred dollars extra a month.
I do know that it’s easier said than done though. My goal is not to chastise someone for not following their dream, but to inspire those who are on the brink of making the leap. But inspiration doesn’t pay the bills so the best bet is to find work when and where you can in this economic climate. And on that note I wish everyone good luck.
One thing missing in rural America: a lively, concentrated community center. In the very small town near my parents’ farm, there’s no store, no playground, nothing except the local church (which is great, but not always the right venue for community life). The baseball diamond only functions sporadically since its committed owner passed. The school was “consolidated” (in a very shady way by a neighboring district) and for a while, functioned as a meth lab (since cleaned up and turned into a funky family home).
The social infrastructure of most small towns has been gutted, so that there’s no place for young people and young families to hang out together. This also has its economic side: you do business with the people you hang out with, and make useful connections that way. Instead, people drive 10+ miles to meet for coffee at a fast food franchise. They know and care for each other, but there are no great places to spend time together locally.
My husband, son, and I are planning to move to the area soon and my dream is to reestablish a village, perhaps by attracting like-minded families into a more concentrated area with a central social spot (a park? a dance hall? heck, even an old-school general store would do). By forming the core of a community, we may be able to bring some economic and social life back to the country.
Great article and something my husband and I have spoken on before. It’s my dream to move back to West Virginia where my father’s family is from. It’s one of those places where everyone knows your father and grandparents and they look out for each other in all ways. But he has misgivings. I was also interested in what you wrote about dialects. I can distinctly remember becoming quite angry with some classmates when over hearing their derorgratory comments while we where watching a film of West Virginia life in a cultural anthropology class. Their arrogant declaration that these people where stupid and a bunch of idiots just because of there slow, soft manner of speech made me so mad I actually left the class for a while. I for one would give anything to go back home to my people.
I must apologize for the spelling errors. Blogging from an iPhone with autocorrect is not always the best thing to do.
Donna,
I hope you do make it back “home” some day. I’m sure you will find yourself welcome among your kin. I smile ever time someone says they know a another “sizemore” down the road a ways. In the biggest cities there have been maybe half a page of us in the phone book. Around here there are five full pages!
Good luck with your plans and thank you for taking the time to read my rainy day rant.
Everett
An item to add to the list of “drains” is retirement monies. It frustrates me that policies don’t encourage keeping retirement monies invested in rural America. I had hoped that a byproduct of the nonsense of the last decade would be city / state workers, school teachers, and etc. would punt Wall Street (mutual funds) and move their retirement monies back to the community banks on their hometown Main Street. The direct return might be lower (everyone remembers the 20% gains but forgets the negative growth) but the indirect return can be much greater (and I’m not just talking feel good return). Placing monies in the community bank allows the bank to make loans to local businesses that add jobs and increase capital investment which increase sales and real estate taxes and eventually allow for the investor to get a raise in salary (higher tax base = higher pay for government workers). This is true American Capitalism!
[...] Rural Ecovillages Can Have Prosperous Economies In a recent post/rant, Everett waxed poetic about the sad economic drain of America’s rural economies and the ways [...]
My husband and I just moved back to Pocahontas County, WV after 13 years in the Denver area and in Silicon Valley. We seem to be part of a wave of 30-somethings who grew up in the area, went away to college and jobs, then came back. Our kids have their grandparents and the woods right at hand; we buy eggs, pork and beef from people we went to high school with; I’ve been talking with women who want to put together a community preschool; my husband and I are able to do martial arts and yoga in the TINY town where I grew up. There’s a feeling of a community resurgence right at the time when a lot of the old timers are, sadly, dying. It’s a pleasant surprise to be a part of it, since we came back for purely individual/selfish reasons.
Hanna, is your husband a Sizemore? I’m a Sizemore from eastern Kentucky but grew up mostly in Cincinnati. My dad and his side of the family always lived in KY. I too left for traveling and college before settling down for awhile in Denver and finally deciding to move back “home” to Appalachia. Although I don’t live as close to my family and high school friends as you do, I can relate to how you feel about moving back home and rejoining this awesome community. Thanks for sharing. I’ll be subscribing to your blog now, as we might just be KIN!
Ha-ha! Yes, my husband is a Sizemore. And he does seem to be related to half the country.