6 ms·

This never goes over well when I say it but, on my most recent trip through America driving across 5 States, much of what we drove through did not look like wha

This never goes over well when I say it but, on my most recent trip through America driving across 5 States, much of what we drove through did not look like what I would consider developed. For hundreds of miles the only towns we'd come across had nothing but fast food places a gas station and usually multiple churches and then just houses, no schools, no grocery stores, no hospitals or doctors, though usually a pharmacy, and not much else for at least a hundred miles in any direction from these places. Between these would just be highways dotted with billboards telling you not to kill yourself or smoke meth. You could always see the 'towns' coming about 50 miles away though, first you'd see the massive McDonald's sign in the distance, then maybe a Burger king sign or a gas station sign, a massive monolith spiking 100m into the sky. A lot of it felt really bleak.

s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago
I wonder why that never goes well, because it's an incredibly offensive and out of touch statement. Yes there are schools, pharmacies, and grocery stores, you just didn't see them because you were passing through. That is nowhere near the level of homeless shooting up in the street, it's just a small community. Of course you see signs and gas stations, because you are driving through the towns on the highway...
- scruple 7y ago
  And, where else are people "driving through" supposed to get fuel, exactly? If not for the towns they pass through? Good grief...
  - vineyardmike 7y ago
    Oh please. Fuel? Fast Food? Its right next to the highway, so you can pass through without spending too much time in town. The statement was offensive, and they were called-out. Lets not nit-pick unnecessarily.
- grawprog 7y ago
  Well they must have been hidden from the mapbook and Google maps too, because couldn't find them there either.
tathougies 7y ago
That's because most of the country is wild and rural which non americans do not seem to get. This is a good thing and something without precedent in Europe where the wilderness has been stamped out
- jnwatson 7y ago
  That's simply a function of usable land. There is very little desert in Europe. Much of the Alps and the Nordic region is "wild". Much of Southeastern Spain is fairly desolate. Much of the US "wild" area is simply not economically useful for major settlement, with the possible exception of the Pacific Northwest and far Northern California. A drive through rural France looked much the same as a drive through Texas, in terms of how often you'd encounter a town and the setup for a particular town. The major difference being that the transition from major city to rural is a lot faster since France has restricted urban sprawl quite a bit more.
rayiner 7y ago
You just described most of the Midwest. That geographic structure is just the product of the large agricultural sector. But on many objective measures (home ownership rates, homelessness rates, poverty rates, median purchasing power, school quality, homicide rates), Iowa, Nebraska, Idaho, Minnesota, etc., significantly outperform California or New York. Bleak is a relative term. I’d call it “bleak” if young people have to leave the place where they grew up just to be able to afford a house in a decent school district. Where people are tied together by little more than what industry they work in or maybe the fancy gym they go to.
- dmode 7y ago
  How can you compare states with little population to a state with 40 mn people ? Of course numbers will look better in a smallish state. Also, how do these states perform when it comes to healthcare access, LGBT rights, environmental changes, renewable energy, immigrant rights ? School quality ? Comparing mostly white states with a state that has 50% 1st or 2nd generation migrants, with non native English speaking parents ? Homicide rates ? SF is on track to have the lowest homicide rate in 50 years. On average, California performs far better than any of the states you mentioned and that is proven by the population differences
  - rayiner 7y ago
    > How can you compare states with little population to a state with 40 mn people ? Of course numbers will look better in a smallish state. These are percentage rates, not absolute numbers, so it's not obvious why the numbers will look better in a smaller state. > On average, California performs far better than any of the states you mentioned and that is proven by the population differences California performs worse on many metrics even accounting for demographic differences. For example, in Iowa, Hispanic children score an average of 273 in NAEP's 8th grade math test. In California, they score just 262. In Texas it's 274. Median income for hispanic-headed households in California is about $46,000, versus $48,000 in Iowa. (Adjusted for cost of living, Hispanic households in Iowa have 30% more purchasing power than Hispanic households in California.)
  - notfromhere 7y ago
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
dang 7y ago
Please don't start doing this on HN again. Nationalistic and regional flamewar is off topic here. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16279406 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16279406

s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago

I wonder why that never goes well, because it's an incredibly offensive and out of touch statement. Yes there are schools, pharmacies, and grocery stores, you just didn't see them because you were passing through. That is nowhere near the level of homeless shooting up in the street, it's just a small community. Of course you see signs and gas stations, because you are driving through the towns on the highway...

scruple 7y ago
And, where else are people "driving through" supposed to get fuel, exactly? If not for the towns they pass through? Good grief...
- vineyardmike 7y ago
  Oh please. Fuel? Fast Food? Its right next to the highway, so you can pass through without spending too much time in town. The statement was offensive, and they were called-out. Lets not nit-pick unnecessarily.
grawprog 7y ago
Well they must have been hidden from the mapbook and Google maps too, because couldn't find them there either.

tathougies 7y ago

That's because most of the country is wild and rural which non americans do not seem to get. This is a good thing and something without precedent in Europe where the wilderness has been stamped out

jnwatson 7y ago
That's simply a function of usable land. There is very little desert in Europe. Much of the Alps and the Nordic region is "wild". Much of Southeastern Spain is fairly desolate. Much of the US "wild" area is simply not economically useful for major settlement, with the possible exception of the Pacific Northwest and far Northern California. A drive through rural France looked much the same as a drive through Texas, in terms of how often you'd encounter a town and the setup for a particular town. The major difference being that the transition from major city to rural is a lot faster since France has restricted urban sprawl quite a bit more.

rayiner 7y ago

You just described most of the Midwest. That geographic structure is just the product of the large agricultural sector. But on many objective measures (home ownership rates, homelessness rates, poverty rates, median purchasing power, school quality, homicide rates), Iowa, Nebraska, Idaho, Minnesota, etc., significantly outperform California or New York. Bleak is a relative term. I’d call it “bleak” if young people have to leave the place where they grew up just to be able to afford a house in a decent school district. Where people are tied together by little more than what industry they work in or maybe the fancy gym they go to.

dmode 7y ago
How can you compare states with little population to a state with 40 mn people ? Of course numbers will look better in a smallish state. Also, how do these states perform when it comes to healthcare access, LGBT rights, environmental changes, renewable energy, immigrant rights ? School quality ? Comparing mostly white states with a state that has 50% 1st or 2nd generation migrants, with non native English speaking parents ? Homicide rates ? SF is on track to have the lowest homicide rate in 50 years. On average, California performs far better than any of the states you mentioned and that is proven by the population differences
- rayiner 7y ago
  > How can you compare states with little population to a state with 40 mn people ? Of course numbers will look better in a smallish state. These are percentage rates, not absolute numbers, so it's not obvious why the numbers will look better in a smaller state. > On average, California performs far better than any of the states you mentioned and that is proven by the population differences California performs worse on many metrics even accounting for demographic differences. For example, in Iowa, Hispanic children score an average of 273 in NAEP's 8th grade math test. In California, they score just 262. In Texas it's 274. Median income for hispanic-headed households in California is about $46,000, versus $48,000 in Iowa. (Adjusted for cost of living, Hispanic households in Iowa have 30% more purchasing power than Hispanic households in California.)
- notfromhere 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

dang 7y ago

Please don't start doing this on HN again. Nationalistic and regional flamewar is off topic here. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16279406 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16279406