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Well it's not like you have awesome urban living around corn fields either. Huge fields and few people kind of get in the way of vibrant towns.

sverige 8y ago
Small town living has its own charms, and having lived in big cities, medium-sized cities, and small towns, my preference is for places that are 50,000 people or smaller, with a city over 500,000 population no nearer than 90 minutes away. Small towns were common 50 years ago in the rural Midwest. Farm sizes were much smaller on average then, and lots of people raised several children and made a decent living with 160 acres and some livestock. Now average farm size is somewhere north of 1000 acres, the kids move away for jobs more often than not, and the small towns are shrinking and dying. This is a loss for the country as a whole.
- jonknee 8y ago
  > This is a loss for the country as a whole. Is it? It seems like that’s the direct result of increased productivity. Even if it’s a loss for the people who would enjoy that life, it seems like tons of cheap food made available for everyone else is very much a gain. tl;dr The losses of farmers in Kansas are large in Kansas terms, but small in United States terms. It seems a win for the country.
SuperPaintMan 8y ago
Funny story, a few of my friends were moving out to the middle of Saskatchewan and I decided to room with them. So we pack our stuff into a hauling van and take off to the place one of the friends had gotten lined up for us. We roll into the city, take a rip through her and eventually pull up on this little duplex. The entrance was in the back so we go to scope her out and just over my fence is a bunch of cropland and bales. Right in the middle of a damn city. If the wind was blowing right we'd get hit with the smell of manure from the livestock research pens. Ever see a porthole installed on a living animal? Cool! [1] https://www.google.ca/maps/@52.1325516,-106.6079861,14.25z https://www.google.ca/maps/@52.1325516,-106.6079861,14.25z [2] https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cL9JKhb1HCU/maxresdefault.jpg https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cL9JKhb1HCU/maxresdefault.jpg

sverige 8y ago

Small town living has its own charms, and having lived in big cities, medium-sized cities, and small towns, my preference is for places that are 50,000 people or smaller, with a city over 500,000 population no nearer than 90 minutes away. Small towns were common 50 years ago in the rural Midwest. Farm sizes were much smaller on average then, and lots of people raised several children and made a decent living with 160 acres and some livestock. Now average farm size is somewhere north of 1000 acres, the kids move away for jobs more often than not, and the small towns are shrinking and dying. This is a loss for the country as a whole.

jonknee 8y ago
> This is a loss for the country as a whole. Is it? It seems like that’s the direct result of increased productivity. Even if it’s a loss for the people who would enjoy that life, it seems like tons of cheap food made available for everyone else is very much a gain. tl;dr The losses of farmers in Kansas are large in Kansas terms, but small in United States terms. It seems a win for the country.

SuperPaintMan 8y ago

Funny story, a few of my friends were moving out to the middle of Saskatchewan and I decided to room with them. So we pack our stuff into a hauling van and take off to the place one of the friends had gotten lined up for us. We roll into the city, take a rip through her and eventually pull up on this little duplex. The entrance was in the back so we go to scope her out and just over my fence is a bunch of cropland and bales. Right in the middle of a damn city. If the wind was blowing right we'd get hit with the smell of manure from the livestock research pens. Ever see a porthole installed on a living animal? Cool! [1] https://www.google.ca/maps/@52.1325516,-106.6079861,14.25z https://www.google.ca/maps/@52.1325516,-106.6079861,14.25z [2] https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cL9JKhb1HCU/maxresdefault.jpg https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cL9JKhb1HCU/maxresdefault.jpg