re: #144 goddamnedfrank

They want our tax dollars though. Rural America operates on a myth of self reliance when in fact they take far more than they give.

They want our tax dollars because their way of life is no longer sustainable. The days of the factory town and the mining town are being left behind. They really started dying after WWII, when the centralization of manufacturing began to wipe out the small family-owned factories, then accelerated when later presidencies saw the US opened up to a larger world market full of countries looking to industrialize on the cheap. The days when you could get by on a basic education ended the moment companies began incorporating computers and robots into the factory line, replacing task after task until now the only guy who can get by is the delivery driver and even his days are quickly being numbered.

The old ways of life are over and they’re not coming back. The people who live in small towns may do so because they like being away from the “rat race,” but they’re delusional if they believe their “way of life” is in any way supported by more than the folks living in those big cities they despise and deride.