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> pay for the sprawl of infrastructure needed to support all those towns spread out everywhere You mean the septic tank, well, and solar panels? Plus the dirt

> pay for the sprawl of infrastructure needed to support all those towns spread out everywhere You mean the septic tank, well, and solar panels? Plus the dirt road? Frankly the only infrastructure you really need is the high speed internet connection.

icebraining 10y ago
No, I mean the hospitals, schools, warehouses, postal service, shops, electricity generation and distribution, mobile towers, roads that can support the trucks that transport everything, etc - and then the human infrastructure: courts, police, administration, etc.
- douche 10y ago
  That stuff already exists. In many cases, it's the only thing that still exists. In the podunk little town I grew up in, every scrid of industry has been outsourced or regulated out of existence, but the schools, hospital, local college, government services, and utilites are still around, and are the primary sources of employment, by an overwhelming margin. If you could halt the brain and youth drain out of the area, and put some people that were making real money back into the community, you could support some actual businesses, besides the WalMart and the gas station. I actually have faster internet when I go visit my parents up there than I do where I live in the suburbs...
  - icebraining 10y ago
    That stuff already exists. In many cases, it's the only thing that still exists. In the podunk little town I grew up in, every scrid of industry has been outsourced or regulated out of existence, but the schools, hospital, local college, government services, and utilites are still around Just because the buildings exist doesn't mean they're now free; they have to be supplied and maintained, each and every one. If you could halt the brain and youth drain out of the area, and put some people that were making real money back into the community, you could support some actual businesses, besides the WalMart and the gas station. But why would we do that? What's the point of having "some actual businesses" in a podunk little town, where they'll be cutoff from the wider industry and where everything they need and produce (assuming it's not just software) must be shipped a bunch of extra miles? My whole point is that small towns are inefficient unless the inhabitants are willing to be mostly self-sufficient. Supporting the creation of businesses, which require by definition tons of infrastructure and usually transportation of stuff goes directly against that.

icebraining 10y ago

No, I mean the hospitals, schools, warehouses, postal service, shops, electricity generation and distribution, mobile towers, roads that can support the trucks that transport everything, etc - and then the human infrastructure: courts, police, administration, etc.

douche 10y ago
That stuff already exists. In many cases, it's the only thing that still exists. In the podunk little town I grew up in, every scrid of industry has been outsourced or regulated out of existence, but the schools, hospital, local college, government services, and utilites are still around, and are the primary sources of employment, by an overwhelming margin. If you could halt the brain and youth drain out of the area, and put some people that were making real money back into the community, you could support some actual businesses, besides the WalMart and the gas station. I actually have faster internet when I go visit my parents up there than I do where I live in the suburbs...
- icebraining 10y ago
  That stuff already exists. In many cases, it's the only thing that still exists. In the podunk little town I grew up in, every scrid of industry has been outsourced or regulated out of existence, but the schools, hospital, local college, government services, and utilites are still around Just because the buildings exist doesn't mean they're now free; they have to be supplied and maintained, each and every one. If you could halt the brain and youth drain out of the area, and put some people that were making real money back into the community, you could support some actual businesses, besides the WalMart and the gas station. But why would we do that? What's the point of having "some actual businesses" in a podunk little town, where they'll be cutoff from the wider industry and where everything they need and produce (assuming it's not just software) must be shipped a bunch of extra miles? My whole point is that small towns are inefficient unless the inhabitants are willing to be mostly self-sufficient. Supporting the creation of businesses, which require by definition tons of infrastructure and usually transportation of stuff goes directly against that.