maybe we should invent "society" to solve this. though I'm not sure the rurals will go for it

The old bargain was that the political coalition would deliver services and these areas would vote for the political coalition. Now, are we doing political deliverism for the areas destroying the country? A lot of people don't want to grapple with how to win this political fight.

Here's an idea... You live in a district with a Republican Congress person? Well sure, the Democratic party would be happy to provide. You just need to go visit the local field office first.

Ok then what are they gonna do about it?

What happened to personal responsibility y’all?

then let's hope their pet politicians haven't just cut off ~a trillion dollars in federal funding... oh, dear.

Bummer

If they had more property tax they could do something

The hypothetical where the federal government is shrunk down to just the military + functions necessary for interstate and international trade coordination and diplomacy, federal taxes are reduced substantially, and states raise their own taxes to compensate is… well, it’s hypothetical for a reason

Depends on the state. A lot of states have state-level limits on property tax levies and rural areas are already taxing at the max rate.

Indiana just changed it at the state level and blew up a LOT of local budgets. www.ibj.com/articles/as-...

Fewer than 10% of rural residents are engaged in natural resource extraction. If we depopulate the rural areas of all the anti-social lifestyle rurals, the amount of money needed will decrease dramatically.