Well, agriculture hasn`t had any impediments to growth, there`s no shortage of Quadtracs, 36 row planters and 10,000 acre farmers. The rural communities are what have died, the schools consolidated, 2nd hand stores occupy former mainstreet bank and hardware store buildings, the one`s that aren`t boarded up.
But a 10,000 farmer can drive 50 miles to get parts, he doesn`t need the hardware store that carried hay rope pulleys and stroke pump leathers. And Caseys has taken place of the coffee shops (Bigshots don`t like coffee shops because that`s where everyone talked about them....or maybe they do like being talked about 🙂 ).
Nope, there`s no going back to the good old days, maybe if we had a good old depression to reset the economy, but the Keynesians figured out how to make depressions obsolete. Some communities fix up and run the old theater, get high end boutiques and destination restaurants to renovate the old boarded up buildings on mainstreet. And that`s how some will survive, they won`t be the same of the glory days of the 70`s and 80`s, but they`ll figure a way to draw outside money in their community.
If they score a small factory to start up, that is ideal, to get living wages and truck traffic in the community again. That`s where making small businesses competitive again through the US exporting but not importing so much and lowering taxes.
