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This was indeed a depressing article. It would be interesting to see the data around this phenomenon - how many instances of this are occurring now vs. 10-20-30

This was indeed a depressing article. It would be interesting to see the data around this phenomenon - how many instances of this are occurring now vs. 10-20-30-40 years ago? Surely globalism is having some measurable impact on the capability of rural populations to find work and make a living. Curious about other factors as well.

Mediterraneo10 9y ago
"Surely globalism is having some measurable impact on the capability of rural populations to find work and make a living." Globalism has had a huge, positive impact on the ability of many rural populations to find work by allowing them to no longer be rural populations. Look at how the growth of outsourced manufacturing in China led to the largest migration in human history, as dirt-poor subsistence farmers were able to find better jobs in the cities. Similarly, European integration has allowed people from miserable places in rural Romania or Bulgaria to move to Spain or Germany for better jobs. Even the people who stay in those rural places benefit, because prosperous people in the cities send money back home to their families. I get the impression that in the USA, however, people who have made a good life in the cities don’t send much money back home.
- rgrieselhuber 9y ago
  Sure, that's great for China and the countries where globalism has positively impacted those rural populations but there isn't much accounting for those populations that are left behind at home.
  - notyourday 9y ago
    That's because rural Chinese or Cambodian makes a lot less than a rural American described in this article.
    - rgrieselhuber 9y ago
      Hence one of the critiques of globalism.
      - notyourday 9y ago
        I may have not been obvious - i'm agreeing.
nikdaheratik 9y ago
I don't think you can just pin this all on one issue. "Globalism" mainly means moving manufacturing overseas, but that's not really applicable for most rural locations. "Immigration" especially the undocumented kind, is centered around low-wage service sectors. Again, not mainly part of the rural economy. The main issues are the collapse of coal and other higher wage resource extracting jobs, the take over of family farms by large corporations, and the fact that the majority of U.S. economic growth in the last 20+ years has been centered around very large cities. And it's pretty much impossible for people in these towns to get in on any of it since they don't have the networks, the skills, or the savings they would need to start from scratch in one of those cities.

Mediterraneo10 9y ago

"Surely globalism is having some measurable impact on the capability of rural populations to find work and make a living." Globalism has had a huge, positive impact on the ability of many rural populations to find work by allowing them to no longer be rural populations. Look at how the growth of outsourced manufacturing in China led to the largest migration in human history, as dirt-poor subsistence farmers were able to find better jobs in the cities. Similarly, European integration has allowed people from miserable places in rural Romania or Bulgaria to move to Spain or Germany for better jobs. Even the people who stay in those rural places benefit, because prosperous people in the cities send money back home to their families. I get the impression that in the USA, however, people who have made a good life in the cities don’t send much money back home.

rgrieselhuber 9y ago
Sure, that's great for China and the countries where globalism has positively impacted those rural populations but there isn't much accounting for those populations that are left behind at home.
- notyourday 9y ago
  That's because rural Chinese or Cambodian makes a lot less than a rural American described in this article.
  - rgrieselhuber 9y ago
    Hence one of the critiques of globalism.
    - notyourday 9y ago
      I may have not been obvious - i'm agreeing.

nikdaheratik 9y ago

I don't think you can just pin this all on one issue. "Globalism" mainly means moving manufacturing overseas, but that's not really applicable for most rural locations. "Immigration" especially the undocumented kind, is centered around low-wage service sectors. Again, not mainly part of the rural economy. The main issues are the collapse of coal and other higher wage resource extracting jobs, the take over of family farms by large corporations, and the fact that the majority of U.S. economic growth in the last 20+ years has been centered around very large cities. And it's pretty much impossible for people in these towns to get in on any of it since they don't have the networks, the skills, or the savings they would need to start from scratch in one of those cities.