Two articles have inspired the OP:
Rural Americans turn to disability as jobs dry up.
Rural Americans dying at higher rates than urban Americans
What’s the solution?
Trump supporters seem hopeful that jobs can be brought back to the “real” America. Manufacturing jobs, coal mining jobs, good blue-collar jobs that anyone with a high school diploma can do. Like the olden days. Give em jobs and they’ll get er done.
This seems very idealistic to me. I can’t see a whole bunch of big corporations flocking to Bumfuck. I especially can’t see a whole bunch of big corporations flocking to Bumfuck to hire low-skill locals and simultaneously paying wages that would harken back to the “good ole days”.
I have a coworker who commutes into the city from Bumfuck. At home he has satellite internet, which he says delivers just a little better than dial-up. There is no broadband where he lives. My mind was blown when he told me this. I live in the bubble of a city slicker. There are things about rural life that I just can’t relate to. I can’t imagine a large employer moving out to a place where you can’t even stream a youtube video.
So I guess that’s why I’m feeling like the rural poor need to get the hell out of Dodge. Poverty sucks no matter where you live, but it seems like it would be a million times worse out in the sticks. Seems like the lack of public transportation alone would do a poor person in. But then you’ve got the social isolation on top of that.
I’m thinking what we really need is to find a way to encourage people to move out of economically dead/dying places. I wonder how successful a “re-location assistance fund” would work. If you live in a certain zip code and make less than X amount of money, then you could qualify for no-interest loan of Y amount of money, which would help you set up shop in another zip code where you’d have a better chance of finding a job. Maybe the program would require participants to take job training classes, and they would provide case workers to help participants transition to their new town. Maybe the program would provide “rescue” funds just in case the participant can’t hack it and they need to return home.
I don’t know. Maybe this is also idealistic. But it seems more practical than the current plan.
What’s your solution?