# What (if anything) is good about rural America? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 7, 2020, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450 "2020-10-07T21:56:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/101 "2020-12-29T21:22:53Z")
Hers an interesting article about hostility to attempts to control COVID resulted in health care workers being pushed out of rural America. In Kansas, more than 25% I’d health care administrators left their jobs in 2020. Doctors receive death threats for telling people to wear masks. It reminds me of the Khmer Rouge’s hostility to anyone with an education. From the article: “ A wave of departing medical professionals would leave gaping holes in the rural health care system, and small-town economies, triggering a death spiral in some of these areas that may be hard to stop.” I think that if a community is so hostile to knowledge that it drives its doctors away with death threats, maybe it’s a good thing for it to die. > **['Toxic Individualism': Pandemic Politics Driving Health Care Workers From...](https://www.npr.org/2020/12/28/950861977/toxic-individualism-pandemic-politics-driving-health-care-workers-from-small-tow)** > > A wave of departing medical professionals in rural areas threatens to leave gaping holes in these health care systems and local economies, triggering a death spiral that may be hard to stop. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/102 "2020-12-29T21:51:15Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > I’d say an alternative to this thread is “What (if anything) is good about _Suburban_ America?” It’s really hard to find anything good about the suburbs except for all the taxes we pay and jobs we do and provide in order to keep the cities and rural areas from going broke. That’s really it I think, The crime rate is usually lower than the cities, I guess, and we have the best school systems, if you want to count things like that. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/103 "2020-12-29T22:13:41Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Marie Callender’s was originally a sit-down restaurant chain (and that’s likely what @squeegee was referring to), which eventually licensed the name for use in frozen foods. > > The restaurants are gone from the Midwest, though apparently there are still a few dozen left (mostly in California). I ate at Marie Callender’s all the time when I was in college (late 70s)! Good chili and fantastic cornbread. I had no idea there were any left. The only relationship between MC frozen food and the restaurants, besides the name, is the “comfort food” theme. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/104 "2020-12-29T22:46:51Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > My hometown is not a suburb—just a small town in the middle of farms farms farms. 10 years ago, the state made some money available to build new schools and they jumped at it. But they built it outside town. Back in the day, about 75% of the students could walk or bike to school. Now, almost nobody can—it’s on a highway. WTF? I’ve seen the same thing in many other rural towns—it seems to be a pattern. The school district gets money for a shiny new state-of-the-art high school, and builds an enormous sprawling campus on a highway outside of town. High schools need lots of open space for all the athletic stuff that goes on there, so I’m guessing they build where they can get the most land for the least money. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/105 "2020-12-29T23:31:58Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > In Kansas, more than 25% I’d health care administrators left their jobs in 2020. Clarification: In Kansas, more than 25% of _public health administrators_ left their jobs in 2020. This is generally a county level position, responsible for recommending guidelines for the county. Often these are medical professionals who take on this responsibility in addition to their current medical duties. According to [this](https://www.kansas.com/news/coronavirus/article247552355.html) article, 27 county health officials (out of 105 counties) left their posts. Certainly not a good situation, but it is most definitely NOT communities driving their doctors away with death threats. In fact, the NPR article explicitly talks about the doctor who left the public administrator position, but stayed to continue her medical practice. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/106 "2020-12-29T23:35:10Z")
The article also said: “ And who, she asks, is going to take the jobs health care directors are leaving? “It’s not a secret that the position is open because of extreme tension between the health department director and the city commissioner, county commission, or because the person has required a guard,” Collie-Akers says.” That’s some third world shit there. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/107 "2020-12-29T23:55:36Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > I’ve seen the same thing in many other rural towns—it seems to be a pattern. The school district gets money for a shiny new state-of-the-art high school, and builds an enormous sprawling campus on a highway outside of town. > > High schools need lots of open space for all the athletic stuff that goes on there, so I’m guessing they build where they can get the most land for the least money. More school districts should take a cue from what Arlington County did with Wakefield High: brand-new school where the athletic fields used to be and athletic fields where the old school used to be. Construction was staged so the old school could stay open while the new one was being built. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/108 "2020-12-29T23:57:47Z")
Me! I’m good, and I’m all about rural America. Frankly, I’m the opposite of almost everyone posting here: there is no reason I can think of to go to an urban area unless I’m being airlifted to a major medical facility God forbid. Three years ago moved to a village two hours from Boston, and I have not only never been to Boston except once to the airport, ech ech ech, I have no particular intention of ever going there. I am a staunch believer in Edward Abbey’s not very famous dictum, “If you can’t piss in your own front yard, you’re living too close to town.” I like everything about rurality, particularly how few people there are. As far as those few people go, I would like to state that my experience is, wait for it, they VARY. Just like rural places vary, far more than an urban person can be persuaded of. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/109 "2020-12-30T00:38:56Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > That’s some third world shit there. I don’t disagree. But it’s not only rural communities in Kansas, as you have inferred. From an article in June: > On Thursday, Ohio’s state health director, who had armed protesters come to her house, resigned. The health officer for Orange County, California, [quit Monday](https://apnews.com/d274d355c701ee1abae6f2c9dd66e7aa) after weeks of criticism and personal threats from residents and other public officials over an order requiring face coverings in public. > **[Public Health Officials Face Wave Of Threats, Pressure Amid Coronavirus...](https://kffhealthnews.org/news/public-health-officials-face-wave-of-threats-pressure-amid-coronavirus-response/)** > > Public health officials are confronting growing pressure — and threats — across the country as the backlash to the coronavirus response continues. At least 27 state and local health leaders have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 13... ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/110 "2020-12-30T00:44:06Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Me! I’m good, and I’m all about rural America. > > Frankly, I’m the opposite of almost everyone posting here: there is no reason I can think of to go to an urban area unless I’m being airlifted to a major medical facility God forbid. Three years ago moved to a village two hours from Boston, and I have not only never been to Boston except once to the airport, ech ech ech, I have no particular intention of ever going there. > > I am a staunch believer in Edward Abbey’s not very famous dictum, “If you can’t piss in your own front yard, you’re living too close to town.” > > I like everything about rurality, particularly how few people there are. > > As far as those few people go, I would like to state that my experience is, wait for it, they VARY. Just like rural places vary, far more than an urban person can be persuaded of Hear, hear! ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/111 "2020-12-30T00:48:41Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > High schools need lots of open space for all the athletic stuff that goes on there, so I’m guessing they build where they can get the most land for the least money. > [@Skywatcher](#): > > More school districts should take a cue from what Arlington County did with Wakefield High: brand-new school where the athletic fields used to be and athletic fields where the old school used to be. Construction was staged so the old school could stay open while the new one was being built. In my home town they already had a football field/track, a baseball field, a practice field, and a fairly new shop building that were each a block away. Also two or three blocks away they had tennis courts. But they chunked it all and built new. There were other sites they already owned that I think they could have used. Or they could have bought other land, but I’m not sure what the price difference would have been—or if the state had attached some stipulations that forced their hand. ISTM that the buses will burn the savings in gas. But IMO the worst part is that with so little for teens to do they’ve made it harder for many of them to participate in extracurriculars etc. I remember growing up there and it makes me cry on their behalf…nothing but the dead and dying back in my little town. Years ago I heard about a type of community someone proposed. Imagine a circle ringed with circles. The center circle would be businesses, schools, churches, etc. **No cars** but lots of sidewalks and bike paths. The ring of circles around the center circle would be houses, apartments, etc. Outside that is where the cars can drive. A good friend of mine, who lived on a farm, had basically all the room you’d want to play baseball, football, etc. My brother in law hunts. Deer. Bear. Frogs. Ducks. Etc. And he fishes, likes to go boating. Up until about 20 years ago it seemed pretty safe for raising kids, too (then drug dealers decided to expand their territory). Rural living is where it’s at for some. As I posted upthread, maybe a town of 100K would be a good tradeoff for me. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/112 "2020-12-30T02:09:11Z")
No, it’s all of rural America and the article mentions that. Think about what kind of sick culture produces multiple people who will threaten the lives of health care professionals for speaking truths they don’t like. It’s like theTaliban in Pakistan shooting Malala. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/113 "2020-12-30T02:41:27Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I think that if a community is so hostile to knowledge that it drives its doctors away with death threats, maybe it’s a good thing for it to die. > [@madmonk28](#): > > No, it’s all of rural America and the article mentions that. So now you want all of rural America to die? > [@madmonk28](#): > > Think about what kind of sick culture produces multiple people who will threaten the lives of health care professionals for speaking truths they don’t like. So now you’re talking about American culture in general? Because the article I linked talked about the director of Orange County receiving personal threats, and Ohio’s state health director having armed thugs show up at her house. The point I’m making is that it’s everywhere in America, not just rural America. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/114 "2020-12-30T13:33:02Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Me! I’m good, and I’m all about rural America. > > Frankly, I’m the opposite of almost everyone posting here: there is no reason I can think of to go to an urban area unless I’m being airlifted to a major medical facility God forbid. Three years ago moved to a village two hours from Boston, and I have not only never been to Boston except once to the airport, ech ech ech, I have no particular intention of ever going there. > > I am a staunch believer in Edward Abbey’s not very famous dictum, “If you can’t piss in your own front yard, you’re living too close to town.” > > I like everything about rurality, particularly how few people there are. > > As far as those few people go, I would like to state that my experience is, wait for it, they VARY. Just like rural places vary, far more than an urban person can be persuaded of. Same here. And it surprises me that people are finding so many chain restaurants. Not the case at all in my mountain community. Private (and often very good) restaurants far out number the chains. The town closest to me there is a Starbucks, a Subway, and about a dozen non-chain restaurants. The closest fast food burger, when I partake is 45 minutes away. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/115 "2020-12-30T13:33:14Z")
It doesn’t matter if I want rural America to die, it is killing itself and good riddance. Once they’ve burned all the doctors and scientists for being witches, they’ll have no one to de-worm their children and treat their rickets. I’m talking about rural, or red state, America. To paraphrase their president, it’s a third world shithole and has as much in common with my culture as Bronze Age Gaul has with modern day Paris. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/116 "2020-12-30T13:48:27Z")
Take a look at one of those maps that show how every state actually voted – not the solid Blue State Red State ones. They are ALL purple. Every single state, even West Virginia. Okay maybe not Wyoming. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/117 "2020-12-30T14:39:18Z")
Yup, along the rural divide. Uneducated, white and rural voted for Trump. That’s your red state America. And they are awful. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/118 "2020-12-30T14:58:27Z")
Well, you are generalizing. Take a look at [this map](https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/graphics/2020/11/10/election-maps-2020-america-county-results-more-voters/6226197002/) and you can see that it can’t be broken down like that so easily. White rural voters with a high school education or less, maybe. But that doesn’t account for millions of people who are rural and aren’t the other things. My New Year’s resolution is to avoid blanket statements. Youse liberals are so into nuance, maybe demonstrate your commitment. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/119 "2020-12-30T15:09:33Z")
The fact is hat rural America went for Trump. Rural America also, not coincidentally, resisted basic measures to fight COVID and health care workers in rural America face harassment. A pocket of these savages in an otherwise civilized state is one thing, but our political system gives way too much power to rural America and they are an anchor around our necks. American history has always been rural America fighting progress tooth and nail. Like I said, they’re savages and we can’t keep carrying them, they’re too much of a burden. > **[As American as Apple Pie? The Rural Vote’s Disproportionate Slice of Power...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/upshot/as-american-as-apple-pie-the-rural-votes-disproportionate-slice-of-power.html)** > > Rural America, even as it decries its economic weakness, has retained electoral strength beyond its numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450/120 "2020-12-30T15:34:11Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > The fact is hat rural America went for Trump. > [@madmonk28](#): > > our political system gives way too much power to rural America Nobody in this thread, or elsewhere on this board, has argued otherwise. > [@madmonk28](#): > > Rural America also, not coincidentally, resisted basic measures to fight COVID and health care workers in rural America face harassment. You refuse to acknowledge that this resistance and harassment have occurred across the country, and not just in rural areas or red states. Continuation of this argument is pointless. This savage from rural America will bow out of this discussion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-anything-is-good-about-rural-america/922450.md?page=7)