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Nobody Gets Off In This Town
“The Greyhound stops and somebody gets on, but nobody gets off in this town.” – Garth Brooks
Kevin Williamson recently set off the journalistic equivalent of a nuclear device at NR in his article about the travails of the white underclass. The article has been mischaracterized by many as Williamson expressing hatred for the subjects of the article, and some outlets blatantly mischaracterized the piece and tried to demonize its author. Williamson’s basic thrust is that — for those living in dead and dying small towns — the best option is to avoid self-destructive behavior and to move to where opportunity can be found. The response to the article has been intense and it raises some real questions about what can be done, if anything, for those left behind.
This is not a new problem. Towns have been dying since at least the beginning of the industrial revolution. Most towns came into being for economic reasons: proximity to a port or railway line, access to a natural resource, to support local farms, to support workers at local factories or mills, etc. But once that economic reason is gone, the town dies.
Many, many towns have died or are in their death throes because of the mechanization of farming that began to rapidly accelerate in the Thirties (Oklahoma’s Greer County had a population of 20,000 in 1930; today’s it’s about 6,200). And it’s continuing still. It isn’t hard to imagine remotely controlled farm equipment, or the use of drones to check on cattle in distant pastures. The same is likely in store for other industries, including oil. The construction of the interstate highway system led to the death of many towns along the older highways. There are now few kicks to be had on Route 66.
So what is to be done? The answer, perhaps, is nothing. As conservatives, we must recognize that not all problems have solutions, and that grim reality must eventually be faced. There is no possible government policy that is going to bring people back to Greer County.
I’ve seen it suggested — by Williamson in fact, in a different article — that we restructure unemployment benefits so that you get paid a lump sum for getting a job before the benefits run out and/or have Uncle Sam help pay to relocate workers to where the jobs are. These aren’t solutions, but ameliorations, but they’re likely the best we can do for folks in those towns. Maintaining them there in dependency should not be in consideration.
One idea suggested by some is to prevent factories from moving overseas in order to save those jobs and towns. Should that be tried, it isn’t hard to predict what would happen: Either the factories will close because they can no longer compete, or they’ll automate their production reduce costs. Either way, it doesn’t result in new jobs.
What about protecting the industry? If we apply tariffs, it may save the local jobs for a time, but would almost certainly invite retaliation, costing jobs elsewhere. It just moves the problem to a different community, and makes us all a bit poorer into the bargain.
It seems there is no good solution, other than to do what humans have been doing forever when local resources run out: Move.
Published in General
I can see why the temptation for a state politician would be to spend money to hold them in place, though. I’d imagine no one wants to end up being a state senator who represents an empty county. Or, for that matter, a U.S. congressman from an empty district, hence the temptation to stir Federal money into the mix.
You know, it isn’t difficult to see how the strings get tangled!
First off, good post. I agree that as conservatives, we recognize that not all problems have solutions: That is a stark reality even those on the Right do not want to recognize.
But what if urbanization is the new economic reality? What if it is where the free market will direct and allocate resources? Should we create an environment through intervention that counters this?
Also, a state may decide that the risk of insolvency is less than the risk of irrelevance. A reasonable person could conclude that the U.S. government will intervene before a state declares bankruptcy, so the moral hazard to overspend is significant.
If the Democrats were to declare open war on the working class I don’t know what they would do differently.
I’m not sure that is possible. The conditions that created all of those towns in rural America–lots and lots of small farmers, oil-field workers, miners, etc. are not coming back. We simply don’t need as many people to do those jobs now. Reducing and eliminating the regulations restricting growth in those industries would help, but would only solve a small part of the problem. Automation is the main driver.
Will you please take over the Health and Human Services department? Because your experiences and prescriptions for change are very close to mine in working with the social services agencies in caring for a mentally person.
I have been a fan of the relocation assistance notion for twenty years now. It makes no sense to me to bring in immigrants rather than move Americans around.
However, we first have to address the rental housing shortage in this country to make this happen.
But there is one other thing that needs to be folded in to our thinking about poverty and relocation: caregivers. Caregiving is a full-time job and then some. And caregivers are locked into a place. We need to keep that mind.
Some poverty is caused by a personal sacrifice.
I just want to add something to my last point, comment 97:
I wish that, when the conservative politicians and pundits rail against the undeserving people who take SSI and other charity from the government and taxpayers, that they would preface those remarks with praise for the millions of caretakers in America who save the taxpayers billions of dollars each year in providing free services for the disabled that the government would otherwise have to pay for. (Assuming that we don’t wish to be barbaric and kill the disabled outright, in which case, the contribution of the caregivers is moot.)
Tell me how places like this come back:
http://lileks.com/bleats/archive/16/0316/031716.html#main
They need to figure out how not to be poor but it’s not a secret. Economies are organic and require a special effort to keep from growing. Did our and other countries’ foreign aid help poor countries become non poor? No, on the contrary, it helped keep them poor. They are poor because they have poverty inducing and preserving policies and those that stopped those policies grew faster than the rest of the world. All of them.
*dons tin foil hat* Wow. The government made a tornado? That’s pretty awesome. Not as awesome as W making Katrina hit NO cuz he hated black people. *doffs hat*
You’d be surprised what a lick of paint will do. I wonder when was the last picture show in that town.
I live in a very small town whose original economic reasons for existing (train stop, mine, factory) are now either gone or greatly reduced. And my theory on how to bring them back from the edge is a very simple one: work, take care of your family, behave responsibly, set a good example, and – above all else – DON’T MOVE!
This last part is the most important. Stay put, accept that your financial horizons are not unlimited if you do, make the best of it, and enjoy living in a place with little crime where everyone knows their neighbor. Be the example, work at making it a better place, and good people will eventually join you. Or that’s been my experience in any case.
Actually, Electra has a lot more neat buildings to work with than my town does. And you would be surprised what can happen not only with paint, but with extremely low rent and some effort at recruiting non-location specific business that work mostly off of the internet. My small company makes its home in a former medical clinic, and keeps its warehouses on a ranch outside of town. All thanks to the modest small town miracle of very, very low overhead.
Being close enough for people to work in WF could help keep Electra alive. Tougher for more remote places.
The welfare state is one enabler of bad work ethic.
Why marry the child’s father when you can marry the government.
We’re conservatives, not central planners.
Agreed. Tax credits or enterprise zones or any other nudge from the state won’t do it. Towns fade; people move on. But I think we’re better off when small towns – and their Main Streets – thrive instead of wither. The culture and history of small towns is bound up in the American story as much as the culture and history of Manhattan or San Francisco.
Why, one might even say more so.
Their old role was simple: provide the big cities with fresh expatriates who would bring sturdy small-town values to the Mammon-loving Metropolis, and keep American culture from being too too cynical. The people who stayed behind would be solid citizens banking the nation’s moral capital. That may have been a conceit, but it wasn’t a bad one, and we seemed to do all right when Mayberry et al were regarded as the spiritual center of the American ideal. As opposed to, say, San Francisco.
The city in the link above (and that’s just a small portion of the sprawling, wrecked, empty downtown) is innumerably replicated across the country; I’ve been doing that “Main Street” feature on the website for a year or so, and the number of dead downtowns exceeds the live ones by at least 5 to 1. Maybe 10 to 1.
It was probably inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any less depressing. If you grew up in a smaller town with a healthy downtown, you might know what I’m talking about. The good news is that it’s not always permanent; I watched downtown Fargo die, and now it’s booming. And everyone’s happy it came back, because losing your unique city center to an expanse of suburban stores and chain restaurants feels shameful, in an odd way. The heart of your city perished, and you know you had a hand in it.
I agree with everything that you wrote about this. I’m working on a couple of posts that I think touch on the subject.
I look forward to it! If you want more of the Main Streets on Google Street View project, you can start here.
http://lileks.com/urban/main.html
What a fantastic website.
I love small towns. That sounds like a crazy thing to love, but I do. :)
Thank you.
And thank you for visiting. The Main Street feature is updated every Thursday at the Bleat – that’s http://lileks.com/bleats if you wish to bookmark. And why wouldn’t you. ;)
I agree with Kevin Williamson’s diagnosis – obstinate denial of reality and reluctance to relocate in pursuit of opportunity. The treatment, from my socio-economic viewpoint is as simple as a U-Haul (perhaps facilitated in some manner by tax credits or lump-sum benefits).
However, I recognize that mine is not the only point of perspective, and am reminded of this great presentation to the AEI by Megan McArdle on the differing nature of social and economic capital. The logic of social capital perversely tends to keep people locked into bad situations, and the phase transition from relying on social capital to relying on economic capital is jarring. Learning how to navigate that transition is a legacy once embodied in the “Protestant work ethic”, one of the cultural gifts of western civilization.
Before I leave this discussion I want to make one pragmatic point about all of it. Dying towns may live again if they are well located, (not too remote from large urban centers), have climate, rivers, outdoor life etc. good transportation, but they will not be rebuilt by the people still there or by the last forced to leave. It takes new entrepreneurial effort and good reasons, and different people technology and new visions, then it just requires all government to get out of the way. That’s true of most things. If it makes sense it will happen if governments get out of the way
I have driven through many parts of the country on the U.S. highway system shuttling my kids around to the colleges they have attended, and one thing I’ve noticed is how many towns have built up areas adjacent to their main towns, and these areas are devoted to a collection of the big-box chain stores. These new areas appear to be modern and thriving, some communities have insisted on decent landscaping, and they are all easily accessible to the older parts of the communities they belong to. Clearly the money is made in these chain store areas to preserve the beautiful charming old town centers. I think that it is a good preservation scheme. Rochester, New York, home to the Rochester Institute of Technology as well as the Kodak-Eastman School of Music, is like that.
We have saved some of the grand old towns. :)
My bicycling destinations are usually rural, but your Adrian MI page got my attention because I’ve taken photos of the downtown there. See http://www.spokesrider.com/2011/08/20/adrian-reflections-and-other-photos/
You learned about the Page Fence company before I did. I recently learned that a great-grandfather was the St Paul sales agent for that company before he incorporated his own iron and wire company in St Paul in 1901. So I went on another expedition there a few months ago to look for info in the archives in the historical building shown in your first photo.)
I like the way you let an old advertisement get you started, but if you accept suggestions you might also find that you like Coldwater MI, Oxford IN, Connersville IN, and Jonesville MI to name just a few. (Jonesville is right next to Hillsdale, but I tell people there aren’t any roads that go to Hillsdale.)
Do you know about the Ghost Towns of North Dakota web site? I’m writing a post about the one I linked to above – a place of which I have fond memories.