# Is it possible to have an ultra dense city that has a low cost of living? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 16, 2016, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-an-ultra-dense-city-that-has-a-low-cost-of-living/772124 "2016-11-16T02:32:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 24
**Author:** ![Salvor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Salvor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Salvor)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-an-ultra-dense-city-that-has-a-low-cost-of-living/772124/24 "2016-11-17T01:00:07Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > Ever notice that small towns have exactly zero buildings \>4 stories? > > The only reason to build UP, instead of out is the extreme cost of land. > If city lots were as cheap as farmland, there would be no cities - just sprawling villages. > > It really saddens me that there is this great hostility between rural and urban. > The other side isn’t really Satan Spawn (they just vote like it 😉 ). > > So, by definition, no, cities will never be as cheap as hinterland. > > Before WWII, the US was mainly agrarian. The war simply compressed what had been a slow trend - kids leaving the farm to find work in the city. See Superman legend. Clark Kent was raised on a farm and went to the city to work on a newspaper. > > The shame of the Trump lie was that he told these people that they could just stay where and as they were, and he would make the money come to them. > > The Dust Bowl of the 30’s + mechanization of the farm = NO JOBS on the farm. > > My brother revolted from the movement and set up his family (they are straight out of 1940 culturally) in a farm house on the edge of tinytown WI. > > They had 3 kids - one a bit brighter than father, one much brighter, and one “old egg” who got through only because both her parents worked in the school. > > 1st went into IT at a regional campus in smalltown. Promoted to slightlybiggertown. > 2nd moved straight to big city and planted deep roots > 3rd tried 3rd rate college; flunked out (parents couldn’t protect her). She is in a nearby smalltown. > > That is pretty much a microcosm of the rural = urban model. I do think there is something to the hollowing out of rural areas due to the sorting mechanism of higher education and the shift of rewards to higher skilled people. NY and other major population centers tend to be more magnets of people with greater skills, and as those people leave the smaller towns the leftover residents are more of the… slag. It sounds awful but I think that is part of the issue in terms of demographics. This is why I think it should be on the agenda of every liberal to find a way to lift up the boats of all people, including the members of society that are less gifted. I have zero hope republicans are up to the challenge, Ryan is more of a randian than anything else, are his taxes low so he can keep more of his own money? Then problems solved. I think the most straight forward solution until we have a way to engineer a solution into mankind is a universal basic income. But there the issue is that unlike more homogeneous societies, when there are large immigrant populations that do not look like the majority, the majority is increasingly hesitant to sign off on some of their own tax dollars potentially going to help “those” people. Even if it would boost up plenty of members of their own group as well. It’s the black/latina welfare queens, meanwhile the rural areas are being increasingly hollowed out. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-have-an-ultra-dense-city-that-has-a-low-cost-of-living/772124)._