[screwturner68]

I don't want to live anywhere where I can see my neighbor. These people are choosing this lifestyle. These same people are a massive tax on society because we have to subsidize this lifestyle because it's very expensive to provide services to places where nobody lives. Why would you build a hospital where only 10,000 live? Why spend $5000 to drag fibre to someone's house so that they can pay $50/month for internet access? How can you afford to pave a road where one person has 800ft of frontage and pays $1500 a year in SALT?

Again, at the end of day this is a choice and their choice costs everyone. I can't really feel sorry for these people, it's what you get when you want to go it alone.

[trallnag]

Shouldn't you use "we" instead of "these people"?

[shiroiushi]

Yes, his first sentence is incongruent with the rest. I think he meant to add quotes around it, as it's a stereotypical thing that rural dwellers would say. The rest is an accurate argument, complete with dollar amounts, about why their lifestyle is unsustainable and needs subsidization to continue.

[abduhl]

We need places where nobody lives to produce things. You cannot farm acres of land where everybody lives, it has to be done where nobody lives. You can’t raise cattle where people live because the cattle has to live there.

I suppose the converse view is that city dwellers are externalizing the cost of their existence and so we should see huge increases in prices for staple goods until rural dwellers are paid appropriately and we have equitable outcomes with respect to mortality between rural and urban populations.

[shiroiushi]

Oh please, not this dumb argument again. Have you actually ever visited or lived in rural American areas? These people are not farmers. Building a road to a farm is fine, but there's a huge network of roads out there just to service non-farmers who choose to live rural lifestyles and expect everyone else to subsidize this lifestyle for them.