cars would be number one. generally the bigger the city, the better the transit. Its usually denser allowing for things you need to get to being closer like stores or schools or libraries. that is the carrot side and on the stick side you have more expensive parking or flat out a lack of parking and usually at least one fee on cars and things are more expensive including gas. so easier to get by without a car and having a car is a larger burden.
Number two is opportunity. Goes back to the density. A large enough city has most anything. You can do most anything when you live there. In the most rural areas you do not have many things you might want to go to and if you do have them you have less options to choose from. In the most extreme like crazy remote places you might have almost nothing and have to take these long stock up trips and grow or hunt for supplementing food and such.
There are likely others but nothing pops out like those two for me.
Urban poverty is something that happens to people or sometimes neighborhoods but is possible to escape or correct.
Rural poverty is something that crushes entire areas and generations.
Obvious diversity. While rural areas can be diverse, it is much less obvious. In urban US one runs into a wide variety of people every day. In rural areas you don’t run into nearly as many people, and often the differences between them and you are minimal.
Not just diversity but the speed and amount of change people expect.
The joke about Manhattan is that if you don’t like how it looks, come back tomorrow and it’ll be different.
yep, this is it.
that lack of contact reduces empathy so its easier to vote for the person on tv who is going to hurt the people the tv scares you into hating.
The more populated an area is, the more people have to coordinate and cooperate in order to thrive and survive. The less populated an area is, the more people have to be independent and self sufficient. I suspect this tends to make city folk more liberal as they need functional government and regularly see different people and approaches to life. While rural folk may be more conservative as they get little benefit from government and by necessity have to be more concerned with the well being of themselves and their kin.
I feel that this is the stereotype that is portrayed, however this isn’t true. I’ve lived in a very rural place growing up and rural areas tend to rely more on government assistance.
For example, in a study from 2017 shows people from rural communities are more likely to receive Medicaid than urban communities. https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/the-role-of-medicaid-in-rural-america/
Additionally, SNAP also has a higher percentage use in rural communities. https://www.fb.org/market-intel/snap-it-aint-just-for-cities
The reason I bring this up is as someone coming from a rural community, there is this belief that the government doesn’t help you. This is part of the reason why trump came to power. This idea that bloated government programs only exist for cities. This isn’t true and this shouldn’t be perpetuated. People from these communities need to understand their reliance on government programs because they are all under threat right now.
The amount of govt/public people and programs. In cities there is almost always a dedicated department or committee to get things done. It doesn’t mean things are perfect of course but mostly if a person in a city has a problem there is someone they can call
In rural areas you have volunteer fire and ems instead of paid departments. Law enforcement is scattered with a handful of officers/deputies to cover large areas. Response times are EASILY 10 minutes or more so that means people have to rely on themselves and each other until help arrives. That’s also a huge reason why rural areas like having guns around.
As for the cultural side, few articles have hit the nail on the head like this one from 2016
Understanding is all well and good, and the local elite absolutely do not understand most of America is practically a third world country, but that doesn’t excuse the animals. The rural way of life is dying is because it’s objectively awful and always has been. These animals want to drag the world into a dark age so everyone can die as alone, repressed, cowardly, and sad as they are.
I have spent my entire life in a rural shit hole, i can say from experience accepting their bullshit is a choice each and every one of them made. Yes we need to do something, preferably simply making it impossible to live in these dying dead end villages, but sympathy is off the table.
Police don’t typically arrive in under 10 minutes for calls in urban areas either.
Fantastic article.
You’re everyone’s punching bag, one of society’s last remaining safe comedy targets.
Except not anymore. The side that was ignored and ridiculed is now in charge.
