Small towns are just inherently unsustainable in a globalized developed economy. Most of our economic activity comes from working with other people, that means the rational move is to move to where everyone else is, ie a city. Remote work can slow that process down, but it’s not reversing.

Yes, but you don’t need to live in a city of 8 million people to participate in the global economy anymore.

Globalism has made it easier to do global business in much of the US, logistics, transportation, and communication have changed dramatically since then.

People take for granted the fact that you can pop into any small town grocery store and find a vegetable grown in another country. That’s a relatively recent possibility.

But there’s also many cities of 100-300k residents with plenty of affordable housing and Fortune 500 offices.

I agree. What are your ideas on fixing that?

I watched my grandparent’s hometown (Newton, IA) become less and less desirable over the decades after Maytag moved the factory to China. They diversified a bit by adding a race track, but it’s a shell of its former self. Cheaper offshoring (not from one party or another, but encouraged by politicians on both sides) really wrecked the economy of small US cities and towns.