[AlwaysRock]

The major reason my small ruralish home town has a brain/talent/youth drain is the lack of high quality jobs. I'm pushing to move to my partners small ruralish town now that we can work remote but her fear is the lack of like minded friends.

It's sad because it is much more enjoyable and realistic to live, raise a family, and buy a home in these types of areas as compared to a city.

[mac01021]

What qualifies as a like-minded friend? Same hobbies? Same political ideology? Same profession?

[AlwaysRock]

Some glob of all of those. Someone we'd be interested in spending significant amount of time with. People who we'd be okay with them being our primarily in person friend group.

[silexia]

I moved from Los Angeles to the rural area I grew up a year ago. The biggest thing I miss is the people. There are a fraction of the people here that there were in LA and the average education, income, and general approachability here is much lower. Plus almost everyone I have met out here is refusing to get the Covid vaccine because of conspiracy theories.

[AlwaysRock]

Yup. It's funny I describe one of the biggest downsides to smaller areas as only having 1 of a given restaurant/retail option. Like Chinese food? There is probably 1 restaurant close by. In the city you had 15-100. Grocery store? 1.

I havnt thought about it before but it's probably very similar with the people. People who enjoy the same type of music as you and that you'd want to hangout with? 1. People who enjoy playing boardgames and have time to play them? 1. Potential life partner? 1.

The options just drastically decrease which is hard to cope with for a lot of people.