quicksandfarmer
Veteran Member
And I think without meaning to you are making my point.
Since the founding of the republic the federal government has subsidized people moving to and living in rural areas. In the 19th century it was the Homestead Act and the Railway Act, in the 20th century it was farm subsidies, rural electrification, universal telephone service, Medicaid and Social Security and Social Security disability. In the 19th century it was seen as a matter of national security, if we didn't occupy all the land we bought from Napoleon in the Louisiana Purchase the British or the Spanish or the French or the Russians could swoop in and take it from us. In the 20th century it was more about stabilizing agricultural production and preventing the kind of mass migration that happened during the Dust Bowl.
What all these programs had in common is that they were designed so that for the people benefitting from them they didn't feel like charity. So, for example, instead of the federal government directly providing electricity to places where the population density was too low for a commercial utility to provide service profitably, they paid to set up cooperatives, paid some of their capital costs and continue to pay some of their operating expenses. But as a rate-payer, unless you're particularly curious you'd never know this.
