5 ms·

Oh for sure, but stores focused on bringing high margin cheap imported goods and base minimum wage jobs into communities that formerly bought locally produced g

Oh for sure, but stores focused on bringing high margin cheap imported goods and base minimum wage jobs into communities that formerly bought locally produced goods does not exactly help this problem. Dollar General's expansion would burn if the minimum wage were raised.

war1025 7y ago
That would be a pretty strong incentive for certain groups to oppose a minimum wage hike then. In my experience, a small town in the midwest is likely to have 1. A grocery store, 2. A hardware store, and 3. a Dollar General. If you come along with a plan that is going to shutter one of the three remaining businesses where you can buy actual day to day goods, people aren't going to be too thrilled.
- AgloeDreams 7y ago
  Very much so.
kd0amg 7y ago
communities that formerly bought locally produced goods How long has it been since these communities actually did that? Small towns can't really support the diversity of industry it takes to buy more local goods than shipped-in goods in a modern-day lifestyle.
- bluGill 7y ago
  Never for most of rural areas. By the time most towns in say Iowa were getting setup the industrial revolution was underway: the town wasn't making anything, the blacksmith was taking mass produced horseshoes and fitting them to the horse. What the town did produce (example: brooms...) wasn't for the town it was for the whole country. The newspaper was produced for the town. Everything else was either services that can't be mass produced or the town was doing their own mass production for export.
- AgloeDreams 7y ago
  Sorry, by locally produced, I'm referring to (mostly) foodstuffs, additionally, local small retailers that were resellers.
  - msla 7y ago
    > Sorry, by locally produced, I'm referring to (mostly) foodstuffs, additionally, local small retailers that were resellers. A town in the Great Plains doesn't have a climate fit to make most foods locally, unless you call taking shipped-in ingredients and cooking them "making" food.
    - PeterisP 7y ago
      It certainly can (and did) make most food locally, it's just that it has to be different food - you eat what you can make from locally produced ingredient and don't eat what you can't. The type of food we eat has changed a lot, and the expectation to have "ethnic" food with products grown on another continent, or to have the same vegetables available year-round instead of them being seasonal - that's a relatively recent thing.
      - msla 7y ago
        > It certainly can (and did) make most food locally, it's just that it has to be different food - you eat what you can make from locally produced ingredient and don't eat what you can't. No. Not in eastern Montana. There are regions where you can't live off the land year-round like you think.
msla 7y ago
> communities that formerly bought locally produced goods The communities I'm thinking of here never bought locally produced goods for most things. The communities set up along the railroads in the late 1800s never had enough of their own industry to make most things, and a lot of them in the Great Plains never had a climate fit to grow much beyond wheat and cattle. They owed their entire existence to the railroad, and the relatively lucky ones were able to transition to owing their entire existence to a highway when the rail industry bottomed out.
- smileysteve 7y ago
  Revitalization of a rail network, especially commuter, could work for some of these. If you add a stop that's a 30 minute high speed (150 mile) rail away from 2 major cities, that town, and towns around it would boon.
  - msla 7y ago
    > If you add a stop that's a 30 minute high speed (150 mile) rail away from 2 major cities, that town, and towns around it would boon. And the majority of towns that aren't near that one stop would falter even faster. And if you added one stop per town, your rail isn't high-speed anymore.
undersuit 7y ago
"After President Barack Obama expanded the program, limited-service convenience stores began moving into neighborhoods where low-income people already lived, in order to get some of the $68 billion spent through SNAP every year." https://psmag.com/social-justice/to-save-a-neighborhood-ban-a-dollar-store https://psmag.com/social-justice/to-save-a-neighborhood-ban-...

war1025 7y ago

That would be a pretty strong incentive for certain groups to oppose a minimum wage hike then. In my experience, a small town in the midwest is likely to have 1. A grocery store, 2. A hardware store, and 3. a Dollar General. If you come along with a plan that is going to shutter one of the three remaining businesses where you can buy actual day to day goods, people aren't going to be too thrilled.

AgloeDreams 7y ago
Very much so.

kd0amg 7y ago

communities that formerly bought locally produced goods How long has it been since these communities actually did that? Small towns can't really support the diversity of industry it takes to buy more local goods than shipped-in goods in a modern-day lifestyle.

bluGill 7y ago
Never for most of rural areas. By the time most towns in say Iowa were getting setup the industrial revolution was underway: the town wasn't making anything, the blacksmith was taking mass produced horseshoes and fitting them to the horse. What the town did produce (example: brooms...) wasn't for the town it was for the whole country. The newspaper was produced for the town. Everything else was either services that can't be mass produced or the town was doing their own mass production for export.
AgloeDreams 7y ago
Sorry, by locally produced, I'm referring to (mostly) foodstuffs, additionally, local small retailers that were resellers.
- msla 7y ago
  > Sorry, by locally produced, I'm referring to (mostly) foodstuffs, additionally, local small retailers that were resellers. A town in the Great Plains doesn't have a climate fit to make most foods locally, unless you call taking shipped-in ingredients and cooking them "making" food.
  - PeterisP 7y ago
    It certainly can (and did) make most food locally, it's just that it has to be different food - you eat what you can make from locally produced ingredient and don't eat what you can't. The type of food we eat has changed a lot, and the expectation to have "ethnic" food with products grown on another continent, or to have the same vegetables available year-round instead of them being seasonal - that's a relatively recent thing.
    - msla 7y ago
      > It certainly can (and did) make most food locally, it's just that it has to be different food - you eat what you can make from locally produced ingredient and don't eat what you can't. No. Not in eastern Montana. There are regions where you can't live off the land year-round like you think.

msla 7y ago

> communities that formerly bought locally produced goods The communities I'm thinking of here never bought locally produced goods for most things. The communities set up along the railroads in the late 1800s never had enough of their own industry to make most things, and a lot of them in the Great Plains never had a climate fit to grow much beyond wheat and cattle. They owed their entire existence to the railroad, and the relatively lucky ones were able to transition to owing their entire existence to a highway when the rail industry bottomed out.

smileysteve 7y ago
Revitalization of a rail network, especially commuter, could work for some of these. If you add a stop that's a 30 minute high speed (150 mile) rail away from 2 major cities, that town, and towns around it would boon.
- msla 7y ago
  > If you add a stop that's a 30 minute high speed (150 mile) rail away from 2 major cities, that town, and towns around it would boon. And the majority of towns that aren't near that one stop would falter even faster. And if you added one stop per town, your rail isn't high-speed anymore.

undersuit 7y ago

"After President Barack Obama expanded the program, limited-service convenience stores began moving into neighborhoods where low-income people already lived, in order to get some of the $68 billion spent through SNAP every year." https://psmag.com/social-justice/to-save-a-neighborhood-ban-a-dollar-store https://psmag.com/social-justice/to-save-a-neighborhood-ban-...