As I think I said when this thread was first created two years ago, I find it’s more the case that people who live in the country can’t understand that some people want to live in the city, rather than the reverse. You can go pretty far in US politics denigrating city people as not being real Americans. I know lots of people who live in the city, but enjoy some time in the country, but for them the benefits of city life out-weigh the benefits of country life. Why’s that so hard to understand?
The chores! The stores!
Fresh air! Times Square!
Well, I’m glad a lot of people don’t want to live in the country. If millions did, then it would be the city.
In the country there is silence and privacy. I could get that in solitary confinement in prison.
Though I suppose I would be forgoing chances to be eaten by wolves, so there’s a tradeoff.
“Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
Thanks, Yogi.
There’s something cities have that the countryside doesn’t: ball teams with guys like Yogi Berra.
There’s country and then there’s the sticks. I grew up in Alaska, and anything outside of Anchorage was pretty much the latter. My brother’s house had no running water and an outhouse out back. The trip out there in winter was a real adventure, not to mention that icy toilet seat. He hauled water weekly from a local creek, risking hepatitis for his whole family. Heat was via fuel oil and cooking was via propane tanks. I never saw the attraction of living like that, but he preferred it. Over the years, he continued to live outside the city, but the amenities got much better. I’d rather drive an hour to a nice view, than have to drive an hour to buy every damn thing that I need.
I hear if you live out there too long you start to hear things 
That’s what TV is for.
Yep, though pigs instead of cows.
My first 11 years were spent in a tiny country town. Was a great place for kids and young teens but once they the got their license they wanted to get the hell out.
Now, although the stated population has increased by 150%, there’s even less to do in town. Insurance issues closed the quarry. The gas station/candy store is boarded up, as is the diner. The school went from K-8 to K-5 and, AFAIK, stopped holding classes altogether with local children bussed 9 miles to a K-12 complex.
And now I’m picturing a chicken, en flagrante, slowly chewing on roast leg of canine. There’s a sight you’ll never see in the big city!
I prefer small town myself. Some folks around, but enough room to have an acre or 10 of privacy.
I prefer the country life. Unfortunately my job requires me to live in the city. I’d need at least a 35 to 50 mile commute to get out past the city and suburbs into the country. Thats just too far.
I miss the country. Bush hogging the pasture on a tractor. Having a few cows. My uncle bought calves and raised them to sell at auction or butcher for the freezer. He never had more than 8 at a time. The piece and quiet. No light pollution. We could see the stars. Wonderful.
I’d love to buy 10 acres and retire. But would worry about health care. Rural areas are short of doctors.
It also depends on the state.
Small towns in Missouri, those tend to suck.
Small towns in South Dakota, I’ve never seen a bad one.
And in South Dakota, you would be surprised at some of the good jobs. You can easily make a 6 figure salary if you can work on diesel equipment or heavy farm machinery. Cattle workers do pretty well to. In fact there is usually a shortage of labor for anyone who can drive a tractor.
I get it if your are an extrovert. But if you’re an introvert, you’d think you’d understand the appeal. You can literally get away from people. And yet you’re not going to be so far from civilization that you can’t get what you need.
I don’t mind people being around. I just don’t want to have to talk to them all day. Indeed, I think one of the reasons why I like city life is that I can keep to my own, but still get enough residual social interaction to not feel totally isolated.
Yeah, one of the things I like about city life is the solitude, you can disappear in the middle of a crowd.
I don’t because crowds are the source of all evil. I am a rather extreme introvert. Even having many people around for very long sets me on edge and it drives me clinically insane if it lasts too long (more than a few hours without refuge). I like some people just fine but only in small and controlled doses. Don’t get me wrong, my job is helping people but those are individuals and I can also kick them out of my office when they start to annoy me. You can’t do that with crowds of anonymous people.
I grew up in the country with all of the land a boy could hope for and parents that supported an unstructured upbringing. I would just disappear in the woods for hours or days at a time whenever I felt like it. I even built my own secluded log cabin. It was idyllic and I still hope to get back to that someday.
I have lived in major cities before. They have some good points but they aren’t for me. Any warm, rural place with lots of land is much more valuable to me than the most expensive penthouse in NYC. Those different preferences are a feature and not a flaw in humanity. It would be pretty brutal if everyone wanted and was willing to fight for the same thing.
Both are good, in my opinion, though if you dislike crowds NYC is the antithesis of where you want to be. Unless one grew up in the country like you or I did, Shagnasty, I think they will have trouble understanding what a magical fun place that is for a child.
See for me, I like cities because I don’t like people. If I’m in a small town and I run in to someone, I’m expected to interact with them, in the city, no one expects you to even acknowledge them, you can be alone and anonymous, another raindrop in the sea.
I appreciate you saying that cities aren’t for you because that shows that you get that they are for some people. You don’t put on the air that country life is just “better.”
The US has a long tradition of painting country life as somehow more virtuous and patriotic than city life and that has lead to every bad idea that has ever come out of America from slavery, to prohibition, to Jeff Dunham.
Small town != country living. I agree with others that it would be easier to be anonymous in a big city than a small town.
I live where there is only one other house on my road. Nice people, we see them every few months. Can’t see their house, can’t hear them, once in a while, we will notice their car go down the road. We only own two acres, but it backs up to national forest so it feels like we have a few million acres 
I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a suburban guy, in that both urban living and country living have attractive and unattractive aspects to me.
I mean, I like the fact that in most cities above a certain size, there are a myriad of specialty shops of all sorts, fine dining restaurants that showcase the latest culinary trends, and any sort of entertainment you might like- theater, music, cinema, sports (both viewing and participatory), etc… Plus, for any service you might need, there are multiple providers- doctors, lawyers, plumbers, etc…
But I don’t like the fact that urban living is congested, crowded, contentious, somewhat divorced from nature, and… so interdependent. When you live in an apartment building, you can’t just go fix your own pipes or knock out a wall or anything like that. Nor can you decide that you want gas, not electric, and run a new line and get new appliances. You can’t grow a real garden, have a real grill, sit on your porch and watch fireflies, etc…
Conversely, country living has the slower pace, the beauty of nature, the ability to be more independent if you so wish, and the ability to NOT see anyone or deal with anyone except when you choose to do so. That’s a serious plus in my book.
But similarly, your options are limited- there may be one rinky-dink grocery store 15 miles away, and if they don’t have pancetta, you’re having to Amazon it, or drive into the big city 40 miles away. There may be one plumber who services your area and one GP who sees everyone. The one hospital with a half-assed ER may be 20 miles away by country road. You’re stuck with high school sports and televised sports, there’s no fine arts at all, and if you say… want to do fine woodworking, you have to go into the big city to get something like lauan mahogany.
That’s why I say I’m a suburban guy- it’s kind of the best or worst of both worlds, depending on how you look at it. I’m within striking distance of everything, but I’m not tenant #174 out of 582 in a big high-rise apartment building. I can have a real garden if I want, although not a huge one. I can dig a pit in my backyard and roast a lamb over hot coals if I so wish (a friend does this for Greek Easter every year). I can hang out in my backyard and watch fireflies if they happen to be around, and watch my boys play in the sandbox. But if I need emergency medical care, two major hospitals are less than 3 miles away, and the two class 1 trauma centers in the area are less than 8.5 miles away.
I’m with you. I moved from quite a sprawling urban area, which I came to hate, to a very very rural area, which I like better, but it’s still not ideal. We’re a little too far from real civilization. I’ve determined that my perfect situation would be a smallish college town on the edge of the country, but 20 or so minutes away from a medium-sized city.