4 ms·

It’s a great idea. The vast majority of cities and towns in America are far too small and too sparse to support a basic quality of life. Yet we all pay for thei

It’s a great idea. The vast majority of cities and towns in America are far too small and too sparse to support a basic quality of life. Yet we all pay for their ridiculously inefficient infrastructure and are slowly dying of their vehicle-miles-traveled. Many of their economies would collapse in weeks without federal transfer payments. Consolidating this sprawl into fewer, larger, more sustainable, more productive places would be a huge improvement for most people.

logicalmonster 5y ago
giantg2 5y ago
Any info on that? Many cities get large federal aide as well. It seems the areas with housing issues are the largest/densest ones, right?
codingdave 5y ago
You have that backwards. The cities economies would collapse without all of us living in sparsely populated areas, using our land to grow your food. The consolidation already occurred, over the last 100 years as the farming was made more efficient, people did move to cities, and what is left in the country is the minimal amount of people needed to support everyone else. We'd actually get better if more people came back - the small towns would have more customers, their economies would improve, small town main streets would be revitalized, and we'll have to drive less miles because our local shops would have what we need instead of doing weekly/monthly trips to town to stock up on the things we don't grow and make ourselves.
- closeparen 5y ago
  10% of American workers are in agriculture. I’ll admit that’s higher than I anticipated. 50% of Americans live in metro areas smaller than Birmingham, AL or Rochester, NY [0]. Although some of these places do have picturesque old main streets, they are also highly decentralized, and we’re talking about the metro area. So most Americans are even more dispersed than that. Farmers are not infantry soldiers; it would be very surprising if they needed 5:1 non-agricultural support staff. Many of these places are not about farming anyway, but about some industrial plant, old-economy corporate headquarters, prison, military installation, etc. which may or may not still be around. [0]: https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-median-voter-is-a-50-something?s=r https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-median-voter-is-a-50-someth...

logicalmonster 5y ago

giantg2 5y ago

Any info on that? Many cities get large federal aide as well. It seems the areas with housing issues are the largest/densest ones, right?

codingdave 5y ago

You have that backwards. The cities economies would collapse without all of us living in sparsely populated areas, using our land to grow your food. The consolidation already occurred, over the last 100 years as the farming was made more efficient, people did move to cities, and what is left in the country is the minimal amount of people needed to support everyone else. We'd actually get better if more people came back - the small towns would have more customers, their economies would improve, small town main streets would be revitalized, and we'll have to drive less miles because our local shops would have what we need instead of doing weekly/monthly trips to town to stock up on the things we don't grow and make ourselves.

closeparen 5y ago
10% of American workers are in agriculture. I’ll admit that’s higher than I anticipated. 50% of Americans live in metro areas smaller than Birmingham, AL or Rochester, NY [0]. Although some of these places do have picturesque old main streets, they are also highly decentralized, and we’re talking about the metro area. So most Americans are even more dispersed than that. Farmers are not infantry soldiers; it would be very surprising if they needed 5:1 non-agricultural support staff. Many of these places are not about farming anyway, but about some industrial plant, old-economy corporate headquarters, prison, military installation, etc. which may or may not still be around. [0]: https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-median-voter-is-a-50-something?s=r https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-median-voter-is-a-50-someth...