Re:MIT economist believes U.S. is shifting to be more simila...
by tptacek on Monday May 22, 2017 @10:54AM
(#14394053)
Bombay Beach? Wonder Valley? I had to look both of those places up, and both are places with tiny populations. Can you help me understand why I should be thinking about places like those and not, say, Youngstown Ohio?
Re:MIT economist believes U.S. is shifting to be more simila...
by tryitnow on Monday May 22, 2017 @11:20AM
(#14394292)
Good question. I had never heard of Bombay Beach but it's a fascinating story:
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/salton-sea
Having said that, I think it has absolutely nothing to do with the article.
Wonder Valley also has an interesting story: https://www.citylab.com/equity/2014/12/the-last-homesteads-o...
There's a theme here of Southern California desert wastelands.
Re:MIT economist believes U.S. is shifting to be more simila...
by prawn on Monday May 22, 2017 @10:40PM
(#14398436)
They were just two that I could easily remember driving through and with easy-to-Google names for anyone who wanted to see. We were driving through 25 states in two months with a couple of toddlers, so details are all over the place. Obviously as a visitor, you are taking in a whole range of things - ruinporn, state of urban areas (footpaths, cleanliness), retail, etc - rather than relying on data.
Re:MIT economist believes U.S. is shifting to be more simila...
by alexandersingh on Monday May 22, 2017 @12:38PM
(#14394982)
I don't know about Bombay Beach but I was just in Wonder Valley in January and that town is a unique place with a self-selecting population that values isolation.
There are larger towns and cities in the U.S. which more accurately depict the broader economic challenges the country is facing.
I have visited the US most years out of the last 5-10, including a trip through 25ish US states a couple of years ago. It's easy to get the impression that competing interests maintain a problematic or worsening status quo - infrastructure that has to be OK until it collapses because no one wants to prioritise the money to fix it (many roads in California are shocking). A voting system (as mentioned by @kristofferR) that makes it difficult for a viable third party to emerge. Health, education, private prison industries, etc.
There are parts of the United States that feel like they are struggling to survive - including areas that are quite eye-opening like Bombay Beach and Wonder Valley.
In Australia, we see lobbying groups dictate terms increasingly often too and I don't know that our country is better for it.