Private Mars Rocket II

In my ongoing quest to remind people that small towns are no more or no less moral then big cities, I present: Town of 250 people has 50 cops on the payroll. Most of said cops didn't even live or work in the county - they used their badges to work as bounty hunters in Houston, the nearest big city.

ETA:

“It looks like to me like it’s a fraternity that wants to carry concealed guns,” said State Rep.Bill Rehm, who is a retired Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Captain and also a member of the BCSO Reserves." - New Mexico town of 430 has 100+ police - most of whom don't even live in New Mexico. (BTW, the "chief" was getting paid $400 per year by each of those "police.") Hat tip Tamara Keel

On the occasion of having come back from a visit to one small town, here are my thoughts on rural American.

It’s fashionable in some circles to complain about the ongoing decline of small town America and to attempt to offer solutions. I think it helps to understand why small towns are in decline. Small town America has been in decline since the 1920s, and it was and is being killed by the internal combustion engine.

Most small towns existed as a place for farmers take their output to sell and to buy what they didn’t make themselves. As tractors became mechanized, it took a lot fewer people to produce a bushel of corn then it did when horses did the work. A horse is not a motorcycle with hair – it requires rest. So, farms slowly consolidated and fewer people were employed in farming.

The second effect of the internal combustion engine was that one could travel farther to get to a market. When going to the store involves looking at the south end of a northbound horse traveling at 5 miles an hour, you want the market to be close. When you jump in your Model T and go 20 miles an hour, that’s a different story.

The small town I’m most familiar with, Westville Illinois, was a coalmining town. It was built when the miners had to walk to work. Now they don’t – they drive. Also, the same factors that changed agriculture changed mining – it takes a lot fewer people to dig up a ton of coal.

Fewer people = fewer reasons for a market town. Although modern "work from anywhere" technology appears to offer hope for a reversal of this trend, I wouldn't bank on it. The typical tech worker wants amenities that aren't available in small towns. They can get all the advantages of small-town living in smaller cities of 50,000 to 100,000 people. In short, the decline of rural America is permanent.

In America, we fetishize small towns. But we don't live in them, a fact that my most recent trip home to Westville made clear.

While downstate, I read the local newspapers, and saw that several high schools in Vermilion county had signed cooperative agreements so they had enough players to field a football team. When I was driving home along Illinois Route 49, during a holiday Monday with good weather, you could have shot scenes for a zombie apocalypse movie right in the middle of town. They were that empty.

Meanwhile, the nearest "big city" of Champaign, IL (with its sister city of Urbana, total population is around 120,000) was holding a bond referendum to expand their high schools, both running 150% of capacity. The trend was obvious - people were moving out of the small towns and to larger cities. (Says the guy who moved out of the small town in 1985 and hasn't moved back.)

We're due to get into the upper 90s today, so no thinking, just linking.

A) A reminder that small towns are not all Mayberry RFD - small-town judge spends 4 years trying to frame his lover's husband. Also, county judge dies of cocaine overdose during coke party with fellow judges. They bought their drugs from the county probation officer with the knowledge of the county's chief judge. Moral of the story - small government is not inherently better or worse than big government.

B) There's not much to say: food stamps saved my life and made me a productive, tax-paying citizen.

C) A reminder that, in war, the enemy gets a vote too, or, sometimes you do have to destroy the enemy's army to win.

D) Why did nearly all ancient societies think women were inferior? Answer: back in the day, child-rearing and housekeeping were full-time jobs, and it made sense.

ETA: E) This Armored Lady Won the Longsword Competition.