Dying towns

Almost as if it is (has always been) class warfare.

It is discussed openly - how to do it again and again and again, discussed over and over ad nauseum, like Kansas going bankrupt repeatedly, or how other states hear how Florida is doing and say "wowie, lemme try that too!" (while expecting the exact opposite outcome, bc "this time will be different") If you don't want to take my words at face value alone, check out the YouTube channel Innuendo Studios that has some amazing content especially The Alt Right Playbook.

The problem is that collectively, as a society, we are very dumb. In fact it is entirely possible that we are too stupid to survive, but I guess we'll see. We cannot control others though, and it remains to be seen whether we will bother to control ourselves to do what is correct, i.e. to git sum edumacashun ourselves and make a better alternative.

We're talking local here, not national.

Even if they started taxing the rich, there wouldn't be many to tax in the area.

The median household income in Cumberland was $47,235 in 2021, which marked an an increase of 903(1.95%) from $46,332 in 2020. This income is 63.31% of the U.S. median household income of $74,606 (all incomes in 2022 inflation-adjusted dollars).

Top 5%: The mean household income for the wealthiest population (top 5%) is 302,286, which is 173.49% higher compared to the highest quintile, and 3113.14% higher compared to the lowest quintile.

https://www.neilsberg.com/insights/cumberland-md-median-household-income/#income-by-quintile

$300,000 is upper middle class, just barely enough to maybe call "rich". Even so, it's likely the only reason they live there is low taxes. We're not talking national taxes here, this is local, and they can be absolutely sure if they locally tax those wealthier people any more than they are, they'll move away.

They absolutely should do that, and give a firm middle finger to the back of the wealthy assholes as they move to their new mansion in whatever backwater they're moving to next, but it doesn't solve the inherent problem: the tax base is too small and too poor.

This is just a mountain town that has died slowly after the death of industry there post World War II, and frankly there is no good way to save it because there's no way to convince anybody to take their industries up there. The state can subsidize it but it's not going to grow.

What they're doing here is trying to use the new changes in remote work to potentially trigger a revitalization and expand the tax base. Even then, they're only giving it to 10 individuals, not anybody that moves there as the meme is implying. It may work, but I have my doubts.

It's actually much less conservative than the surrounding areas. Though admittedly it only takes a stone's throw to get into some pretty gruesome backwoods. The real issue is that there aren't any jobs in the area. It's too out of the way for tourism, all the factories have closed down, and the railroad just isn't what it used to be.

It was the lose of jobs as industry moved away, a trend started after WW2.

The culture probably helped but it's a much larger trend than people simply not wanting to live in a conservative town.

Where I live you have to pay a set amount for local infrastructure before you’re allowed to build.

Greetings from suburban Calgary, where we are currently both sprawling, and under a stage 4 water advisory for the month as our water feed main ruptured in June.

$21,000 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

This is a new thing that smaller towns are trying to do to take advantage of an increase in remote work.

The meme is also misleading because it's implying that this is something they're giving to everyone that moves there for a limited time, when it is only 10 people. It's also implying that there's not enough people there to pay taxes, which doesn't actually make sense because that's not how taxes work. There would definitely be enough tax income if they didn't care about the future of the town. What they're trying to do is revitalize the area and trigger growth, and they need more income to fund that revitalization.

No, it's to attract people with jobs. Explicitly.

I'm not sure why there's all this guessing and pontificating going on in here, you can just look the story up.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/08/30/cumberland-maryland-revival/

"I am Andrew Ryan and I am here to ask you a question."

I read the book "A Libertarian Walked into a Bear" and I found the range of Libertarian attitudes interesting — there was at least one Libertarian in the book who explicitly identified as communist.

I'm a school bus driver (in PA) and one of my colleagues is leaving to live and work in rural MD. The coolest thing about the gig there is that you get to take your school bus home at the end of your run, which generally picks up and drops off kids from the area you live in. In fact you have to take your bus home since they don't have parking spaces for them at the schools.

The uncool part is that the pay is shit with no benefits, but at least that keeps you in line with all the other residents.

Maryland is also crazy beautiful. Had to take a detour on the way to DC because traffic. Ended up on local, winding roads and drove past beautiful creeks with ancient oaks and old houses. It's the only time I've thought, "damn this is a really awesome suburb". And going out on the Chesapeake was a great birthday, it lives up to the hype.

At least 20