[ethbro]

Between Walmart and Amazon, I'd rather have Amazon win, but at some point we're going to optimize away all the on the ground jobs.

Less of a deal for cities, but some of the small towns I drive through for work don't seem to have any other employment than trades/Walmart/service/trucking/maybe "the local plant".

What kind of world are we creating for small towns when 2.5 of those disappear in the next few decades?

[ericd]

Maybe there's not much of a world for small towns? Perhaps the only people who will live outside of big cities at some point will be remote workers looking to get away from so many people.

The Caves of Steel series sees all of terrestrial humanity living in huge hives, for example, with only robots outside of those, doing all the farming and mining.

[Moru]

Here in northern Sweden we are starting to see people coming back to the small towns. There is even a large amount of germans and other nationalities coming here and setting up their new life. Common jobs involve tourism aimed towards their old home-country. They pull in more people that sees the benefits of living less crowded (but still low cost 100 Mbps unlimited broadband).

The price for a house with land and forest can be as little as 1/100-th the price of a house in Germany so not uncommon that they buy more than one, restorate it and invite the kids/grandkids too :-)

The postal service works pretty well, we have had a few incidents while living in a bigger city where packages was marked for delivery failed, not home while being home the whole day. But those got sorted out after a phonecall and haven't had them since. Apparently all the delivery companies hires the same local people to do the actual deliveries so you don't get around the problem by switching company.

[petra]

>> The price for a house with land and forest can be as little as 1/100-th the price of a house in Germany

Can you please share prices ?

[Moru]

One friend bought a few houses for 500 euro each

[sunshiney]

Excellent share. Good to know.

[sunshiney]

I so hope not. I live on the edge of a very small town. We have fiber! We also have clean air, clean water, no crime, a helping community, strong social connections and no congested traffic. I work online. I fish in the evenings or do other outdoor activities. In 30 minutes I can be at a university. I hail from Los Angeles where all of my younger well-paid siblings have had health issues or dealt with crime etc. Small towns have benefits that have vanished in metro markets. I am calmer and enjoy life more here ..and am healthier.

[ericd]

Oh I totally sympathize, I'm thinking of moving to a smaller town. But as a thought experiment, it doesn't seem inconceivable that economic activity will continue to concentrate into the big cities, leaving mostly tourism and a smattering of remote work for the smaller towns.