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The crux of the rural decay problem is that we've left it up to the global free market, and China/India/other developing countries have sucked up all the manufa
by lasagnaphil 6y ago
The crux of the rural decay problem is that we've left it up to the global free market, and China/India/other developing countries have sucked up all the manufacturing jobs (national labor cannot realistically compete with Chinese labor).
- _bxg1 6y agoSure, but that's still the free market. Free-market purists (many of whom live in rural areas) have to realize that this is what comes from taking a hardline stance against government action when it comes to the economy. Stuff just shifts to maximize efficiency, with no regard to the lives that break in the process. This is the unregulated force that they so blindly worship.
- jjeaff 6y agoMany conservative people in rural areas are not pure free market people. Hence the wide support for Trump. He's a populist and nationalist. Ask anyone in rural America and I guarantee you will be hard-pressed to find anyone that thinks the US should do nothing to stop jobs and production from moving overseas because they believe in the free market.
- _bxg1 6y agoI'm more pointing out that when they talk about that sort of thing, they're often being hypocritical after using "small government" and "free market" arguments five minutes before to denounce everything from social services, to capital gains taxes, to environmental regulation. There's a deep-cutting double-standard. I'd have more respect for it if they just admitted to self-interest, instead of preaching against deregulation except when it negatively impacts them.