[mechhrt]

Small towns rely on B&O tax revenue from small businesses though. So for the sake of streamlined access to cheap goods now there's no money to provide police protection, roads, parks, libraries, etc. that are paramounts of small-town life.

[mabbo]

I suspect the common political crisis of most small towns over the next decade is going to be raising property taxes. Years, decades of everyone elected fools who refuse to raise taxes has lead to infrastructure that is falling apart, no money for local services, no money for parks and libraries.

Now as small businesses all fall to e-commerce (often in part because their taxes were raised to compensate lowering residential property taxes) residents of small towns are finally coming to realize that all these services they've been provided actually cost money.