Thread by @minethatdata

I lived in a highly rural area for eight consecutive years (2009 - 2017).

There are a lot of subtleties to living in a rural area that some of you proposing solutions out here do not understand.

Internet access is beyond awful. At my house I had 10mbps DSL, and it was down often.

I installed satellite at 25mbps for data downloads and paid $50/mo for the right to do that. You really couldn't use it to surf online due to latency issues.

I paid for supplemental insurance so that if I had a stroke and needed real health care a helicopter would transport me to Seattle and I wouldn't be saddled with a six-figure bill not covered by regular health insurance. Most people cannot afford that, much less insurance.

We had so many trees that we couldn't get access to high definition television via satellite.

We had to work with neighbors to limb trees to even get access to normal satellite television.

Again - streaming TV at 10mbps is not an option.

The USPS is your lifeblood to the real world. FedEx vans don't want to deliver to your home. UPS trucks don't want to deliver to your home. Your mailbox is actually important, and you have a real relationship with your mail carriers.

It's not like there is a Walgreens on the corner of Happy & Healthy in your town. The USPS is a very important way to get prescriptions.

In some towns, grocery has been run out of business. You're left with getting vegetables at your local Dollar Store. You don't have a Walmart out at the freeway interchange ... there is no freeway.

You might meet with a Nurse Practitioner for a general health issue.

Need a ventilator for COVID? Get ready to travel 30-90 miles. Same issue if you need to see a specialist for a gall bladder issue.

$88,000/year professional jobs? Good luck!

Plenty of jobs in the $16,000 to $30,000 a year range. Take one for you, one for your spouse, and now somebody needs to work another job just to make it.

Because you have to drive everywhere, your car (pickup truck) becomes really important. You aren't part of the Lyft/Uber/gig economy.

That's not to say that there isn't a gig economy there. Quite the opposite. Need a guy to trim limbs off of a tree? There's a guy for that. Need somebody to weed whack thorny nonsense from the side of the road? There's a woman for that.

There are core areas in towns that are important.

City squares.

Drive-in style restaurants and unique diners.

There's generally a newer health-care facility.

Sometimes a fairgrounds ... the county fair is a big deal.

Stock car races at the fairgrounds.

High school football.

Churches play a key civic role in rural communities ... often working in fellowship with each other.

These areas frequently have a community college that provides a vital role in giving people a "step up" in life. If no community college, then a technical college ... just as important.

You can visualize some of these towns for yourself.

Glasgow, MT: google.com/maps/place/Gla…

Tucumcari, NM: google.com/maps/place/Tuc…

Look at a larger city in a rural area ... Garden City, KS: google.com/maps/place/Gar…

US-400 and US-83 are both offered bypass routes around the city so that outside dollars never funnel into the city. This kills off the city economy while growing the bypass economy via "brands".

Without access to decent retail ... dollars flow out of the city to Amazon.

And your package is delivered in 2ish days instead of in 6ish hours. To you, 2ish days is a blessing.

But your town is constantly bleeding economic $$$ to outside entities.

Your downtown store slowly dies while the bypass Walmart (if you are big enough to warrant a Walmart) hoovers up money and sends it out of your town. Amazon hoovers up your money and sends it to Seattle.

How do dollars move into the rural town? It's hard for that to happen.

I know, you're the smart Twitter reader, so you'll offer a solution like "well, just move out and get a job in Seattle, or Austin, or Raleigh".

Easier said than done. Where will 1st/Last month rent and deposit come from?

And you can't tell me that giving Wyoming 3 electoral votes and two senators and more federal dollars flowing in than flowing out makes things fair.

The system is fundamentally structured to hurt rural areas and the individuals who live there.

Anyway, when you see people out here ... especially people in rural areas ... freaking out about the USPS, this is why.

It doesn't matter which political party is or is not helping/hurting them. The system constantly hurts them. And when the USPS is attacked, it's personal.

P.S.: A few add-ons.

If you want to see what being in a rural community is all about right now, take a look at Eastern Iowa.

Half of the state was literally wiped-out by a once-in-a-generation derecho on Monday.

Seriously ... the state was simply flattened by 100mph winds.

The Federal Government is not coming to help.

Oh yes, you'll read about how the National Guard arrives (in Cedar Rapids, not in Animosa or Monticello).

You have no money, and you are on your own.

Your power will be restored last. Last. Same with your cell phone towers.

The electrical panel on your house was damaged. You won't call a large brand to come solve that problem ... you need "a guy" and that "guy" has you in the queue as job #94 out of 147 jobs.

You and your neighbors will clean up your community ... one limb at a time.

You and your neighbors will repair homes ... one tarp at a time.

Churches self-organize and provide resources.

But make no mistake - you are in rural America. You are on your own. Good luck.

And this repeated injustice ... being on your own, seeing dollars flow out of your community ... and having to figure it out for yourself ... this angers and frustrates you ... but it also angers & frustrates you when "somebody else" gets the handouts or assistance or help.

I realize you'll tell me that the solution to being in a rural community is to get the heck out of a rural community.

That's "a" solution. And brain drain happens there (constantly).

Another solution is to figure out how to move money back into a rural community.

I lived in a rural town that had a movie theater. It was owned by a rich man from Seattle. He operated the movie theater at a loss, so that the rural community had a gathering place & access to big-city entertainment. He moved money back into the community.

We had an actual theater. Each year they ran a fundraiser during tourist season, and money from outside the economy helped fund the theater for the whole year.

I wrote three plays that were performed there. That couldn't happen without outside money coming inside the community.

In rural America, money going in is greater than money going out.

Building a Ramada at the freeway exit sends money out.

Building a VFW hall in your town square sends money in.

And who are you going to trust in a rural community?

a) The church groups (i.e. your faith) who helped you tarp up your home after a once-in-a-generation derecho?

b) A Government program?

Who will you trust?

a) The church program that paid $300 so that you could have an MRI on your knee?

b) Government squabbling about how to pay for health care?

Is it any wonder faith is so important in a rural community?

Who would you trust?

a) Government telling you churches aren't safe (even if they aren't) due to COVID-19 issues.

b) Local communities allowing churches to remain open to fund all of the programs that churches fund in rural communities to keep rural communities moving forward.

Oh, I know, there are a ton of folks who are about to @ me about churches and child abuse, and my goodness that happens.

But x1,000 you get all the stuff that happens that is positive and is never shared. Those things leave a long-term impact on people in rural communities.

And this doesn't have to be about rural communities.

The exact same things happen in urban communities ... on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle or Cave Creek Arizona. It's just on a different scale, with different issues.

A few final thoughts about "rural" and the USPS.

One is with "Defund the Police". In a rural community, getting a police job is a huge way to move up the ladder. Imagine people who (for good reason) tell you that your step up should be truncated. Right/Wrong, it's painful.

And a USPS job is a huge way to move up the ladder. You can live a upper-middle class life on a USPS job in a rural community & earn a pension. So tearing down the USPS is upsetting in rural communities as well - and having big city elites mock you about the USPS doesn't help.