Kansas group tries to reverse exodus of young from rural America

[pstokely]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/27/us-usa-rural-young-idUSBRE93Q0AV20130427

"Most young people choose to live in urban areas because there are far more jobs and cultural amenities, said Laszlo Kulcsar, a Kansas State University associate professor who studies population trends.

Those factors, coupled with the steady decrease in the number of family farms, have sapped populations of the young in rural regions, he said.

In 1970, 23 percent of the 18-to-29 age group lived in rural areas, according to the U.S. Census. By 2010, only 14 percent of people in that demographic lived in rural areas, defined as communities of 2,500 or fewer people.

PowerUp member Julie Roller said only about 30 of the 88 graduates of her 2002 high school class in Chapman, Kansas, still live in that area. The population of Chapman is 1,343."

[RKP5637]

1. Good luck to them with that one. First, they need to look at the laughing stock KS has become with

the new political environment. Most people I know are leaving KS for more tolerant and friendly areas.

[pstokely]

4. Or are they just moving to Johnson County

nt

[RKP5637]

6. Of all the places in KS, I think Johnson County would be the most likely pick for many. It really

should be a separate state.

[pstokely]

7. It belongs in KS, just as red as the rest of the state, and full of beakers

Except the pukes there are suburban country clubbers. Dems didn't even bother to run a congressional candidate.

[RKP5637]

8. Yeah, that is true ... except it seems (did seem) more moderate than the rest of the state ...

however, after the last election, I think that moderate slipped more into the red/red zone. Dennis Moore was one of the last giving some blue to the area IMO.

[YoungDemCA]

2. The decline of rural America is a big issue...

Family farms have been pushed out by large agribusiness, manufacturing jobs have been automated or off-shored, and young people have been leaving in droves, as the article notes.

[Dawson Leery]

3. Young people are a diverse group.

Integrated, they do not buy into the race-baiting/fear mongering of their elders.

Kansas as well as Oklahoma are back-wards, even more so with the current government.

I have no desire to even visit either state.

[RKP5637]

5. There are far better places to be if you don't like theocracy and mind-numbing bigotry. n/t

[Baitball Blogger]

9. I'm over fifty and I had a discussion with in-laws that were in their sixties regarding race.

I told them I was tired of answering questions that had no reason to exist in the era of the internet. These over sixties told me that I was supposed to respect people who are older than I am and just accept it.

I replied, "No, I really don't."

They have no clue how they sap the life out of the rest of us. Do they really think I'm going to quietly wait another twenty years and wait until they die a natural death before I can begin to enjoy life?

[RKP5637]

11. What BS, respect people just 'cause they're over 60. What unmitigated BS. I respect people for

whom they are, not 'casue of their age. And many people of all ages are blabbering fools.

[Baitball Blogger]

12. This is exactly how they feel.

When you add their artificial merit systems on top of this expectation, you begin to see why our society has so many built in inequities.

[Marrah_G]

10. Can't live without a job.

[SoCalDem]

13. Since WWII (and probably even before)

young people have had more self-reliance and willingly have left the "family-home/business).

That first whiff of independence is a heady mix..

Living your parents' lives is no longer necessary, so why do it?

I am no "rebel", but I moved away from home at 18 to go to college and even when I dropped out after a year, I went home, got the rest of my "stuff"...my cat, my TV and clothes, loaded my ancient car, and headed out on my own.. I had $37 cash, a gas card with a $100 limit...no job and nowhere to live..

Turned out okay

[dogknob]

14. At the current level of KS crazy, they're gonna have to build a fence. n/t

[panader0]

15. "Nothin ever happened 'round my home town

and I ain't the kind to just hang around..."
Steve Earle--Guitar Town

[HiPointDem]

16. it's deliberate cleansing, the better to get the land cheap. the ptb use economics to move

us willy-nilly.

[RKP5637]

17. Wow, you make an excellent point. Make the place so

undesirable people don't want to be there, buy up the land cheap and instill corporate farms with automation. ... or whatever with the cheap land.

[HiPointDem]

18. i've come to the conclusion that it's deliberate after studying many cases and seeing it in

operation in my own community.

ghettoization is the same phenomenon.

[RKP5637]

20. Yep, it's really a variation on 'blockbusting.' ... except for

massive land areas.

[HiPointDem]

21. blockbusting is a tactic in a larger war. all capital needs to do to drive people away & destroy

value of assets is to remove capital from an area. leaving behind those too old, too poor, etc. to move.

[hatrack]

19. Well, good luck with that; having been to places like Atwood, St. Francis & Oberlin . . . .

Not many reasons to stay these days unless (A) you're well-connected locally (i.e., you don't have to leave to work - family business or inherited farmland) or (B) you lack any motivation or interest of any kind.

Anybody in between, gone.