Its not idiotic. The transport problem discourages investment in these places. The unavailability of delivery services and amenities discourages internet based businesses and services like call centers, not to mention tourism (the place is actually beautiful, after all).
your dependence on so called ‘amenities’ tells me you are sift and will not survive when things go bad (and they already are).
Oh no we don’t have a call center or an internet business oh how awful. Particularly since most of those got shipped to India long ago.
You act as if no one can even get to the Appalachia… what a joke. Tourism is in every state that runs its spine. Delivery services exist through out… and it shows you might have walked the width of the trail but that is all.
Stay in the city we don’t want you
Not sure that follows. The inability for each household to buy crap from China online means there can't be a leased line to a call center? Of course you can say that is true using the at-home "call center" example. But those jobs are not much more than a scam.
The fact is that the rural economy is adequate. The author seems to think that progress is defined by the number of Walmarts but that kind of economic "progress" is an unsustainable charade.