I think a solution to many problems can be found in repopulating the “heartland” towns across the US. More than anything else, this adjustment is psychological, and boils down to a simple question:
“Are people willing to live in a place that is boring, in exchange for economic stability and solvency?”
Since about WWII, the answer to that question has been “No!”, but we may be entering into a time when for many there will be little choice.
There are many variables to an idea like this, but they are based on State-driven incentive programs to rebuild rural towns for former city dwellers with no place left to go. Who cannot afford to live in the city, who cannot get work, who the government can no longer support directly, and have run through their personal and family resources.
Previously, small town models were reliant on agriculture, but this is no longer entirely possible, as their main source of income. So more likely, such towns would be “Internet based subcontractors”, working for corporations doing things like data processing, and mechanical assembly. Whatever brings in income. And the people who support these people, such as shopkeepers, and *some* local agriculture to provide less expensive food.
While there are some start up costs for the State, the end result is both cost savings, and even some tax revenues after a while.
Oooh! A planned economy! They always work well!
Dunno. I have reached the point where “boring is good.”
School, Library, Church, 4th of July Picnic and fireworks, parks, public pool, Veterans Day parade, Labor Day cookout. That is the good life.
Ditto everything! I wish more people thought like you.
“Are people willing to live in a place that is boring, in exchange for economic stability and solvency?”
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Boring is a state of mind, not a place. Anyone who is bored has only himself to blame. Some people might look at my life and say that I am a boring person but I am never bored.
Years ago Paul Harvey read an on air quotation from someone to the effect that being educated means that a person can spend an hour sitting and waiting for a bus or an airline flight with nothing to read, nobody to talk to and nothing else for amusement (cell phones, gameboys and such didn’t exist at the time) and never be bored. In other words an educated person could spend that time visualizing solutions to problems, mentally writing a poem or something but never would they be bored.
Nothing spells immaturity quite like someone who complains to others about being bored or calls other people or places boring. Anytime I feel the slightest hint of boredom I find something to dispel that feeling. I may be happy, I may be sad, I may be angry, I may be frightened, I may even go mad but I refuse to be bored.