I grew up in a small, dying town in Texas. There was still Ambulance service, so really depends on how small (<800 people). There are generally no jobs, so th

I grew up in a small, dying town in Texas. There was still Ambulance service, so really depends on how small (<800 people). There are generally no jobs, so there are plenty of childcare providers from other young parents (who probably grew up there) to retirees who need some extra cash. Quality of childcare is of course, variable. Airport travel is probably only a good option for remote workers, I don't think I took a commercial flight till I was over 18. Most of the stable jobs are government related (town/county governement and school teachers) and often awarded via nepotism. Land is cheap, but winds of 50MPH are the nromal, tornadoes, snow, heat, dust. I don't think I could ever go back to living there permanently, and it will only get worse during economic downturns. I will also note that big box stores are probably detrimental to tax revenues, but my memory of the smaller stores was high prices and low inventory. We'd often drive 70 miles to the bigger city, as it was cheaper, wider selection. Nowadays I'm sure it's mostly Amazon or the big drive to Walmart, and no local store is going to change that. The Sears and Motgomery WArd catalogues were the general shopping tools, most of thee places I knew of peaked in the 50's, surged a bit in 80's with the Oil Boom, and then went back to dying.