Lower prices? I live in silicon valley, and if your income and net worth are under a certain threshold you might as well consider yourself walking dead.
Lower prices for what? Routinely, the cost of goods in rural areas are higher than in cities, as the stores have less foot traffic yet still need to generate profit, necessitating higher mark-up on products. Gas is more expensive and becomes a necessity due to lack of walkable alternatives. Commute distances are far longer, compounding the more expensive gas prices. What little savings you get are quickly eaten up by the over-time costs of needing to live in a rural area.
So yea, it only appears cheaper at first glance, when in the long term you’re burning more money for unnecessary reasons simply because you live in a rural area which wouldn’t be an issue if you lived somewhere with proper urban planning and density. That’s exactly how people get trapped in poverty living in rural areas.
Just living and existing in a rural environment alone you may as well consider yourself walking dead. At least in the city you have a chance of not being so, but the barrier to entry is the main issue, once you cross that, it is significantly cheaper in the long run, allowing those who can to have the potential for growth, whereas those in rural areas have all of their wealth funneled away from them, exploiting the fact that people living there most likely cannot afford to move away. This is not to say those in the city also aren’t having their wealth funneled away, but the nature in which it is allows one the possibility of growth while the other is being consigned to a life of poverty.
Lower prices? I live in silicon valley, and if your income and net worth are under a certain threshold you might as well consider yourself walking dead.
Lower prices for what? Routinely, the cost of goods in rural areas are higher than in cities, as the stores have less foot traffic yet still need to generate profit, necessitating higher mark-up on products. Gas is more expensive and becomes a necessity due to lack of walkable alternatives. Commute distances are far longer, compounding the more expensive gas prices. What little savings you get are quickly eaten up by the over-time costs of needing to live in a rural area.
So yea, it only appears cheaper at first glance, when in the long term you’re burning more money for unnecessary reasons simply because you live in a rural area which wouldn’t be an issue if you lived somewhere with proper urban planning and density. That’s exactly how people get trapped in poverty living in rural areas.
Just living and existing in a rural environment alone you may as well consider yourself walking dead. At least in the city you have a chance of not being so, but the barrier to entry is the main issue, once you cross that, it is significantly cheaper in the long run, allowing those who can to have the potential for growth, whereas those in rural areas have all of their wealth funneled away from them, exploiting the fact that people living there most likely cannot afford to move away. This is not to say those in the city also aren’t having their wealth funneled away, but the nature in which it is allows one the possibility of growth while the other is being consigned to a life of poverty.
Damn, that makes a lot of sense.
I guess that lines up with what my father used to tell me (he teaches economics):
“An individual’s access to affordable transportation is the single largest factor in them evading poverty.”