Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#211

Post by nitrogen » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 2:34 AM UTC

TulliusCicero wrote: post #198

justin66 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Rural productivity is vital to urban concentration. Raw material does not come from the depths of the subway system, nor do the land and seaports magically produce goods. Food, fiber, fuel, etc come from the rural reaches. We pay a premium to buy food from the rural US in the form of common import tariffs that stifle or eliminate competition at the expense of the consumer and to the benefit of agricultural interest…

Exactly. It's bizarre how often you see people arguing as if a lack of rural or farm subsidies would suddenly mean food disappearing.

Consider this scenario:

1. The US drops all agricultural subsidies and tariffs.

2. The US begins importing most of its food from elsewhere.

3. "Elsewhere" goes to war with a US ally and stops selling food to the US.

4. The US then wishes it hadn't given up its abilty to grow food.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#212

Post by bombcar » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 2:43 AM UTC

nitrogen wrote: post #211

TulliusCicero wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. It's bizarre how often you see people arguing as if a lack of rural or farm subsidies would suddenly mean food disappearing.

Consider this scenario: 1. The US drops all agricultural subsidies and tariffs. 2. The US begins importing most of its food from elsewhere. 3. "Elsewhere" goes to war with a US ally and stops selling food to the US. 4. The US then wishes it hadn't given up its abilty to grow food.

The amount of “the worlds economy is so interdependent that no country would go to war” argumentation seems to have died somehow.

Also I don’t know how “we will get food from even further away rural communities argues against food coming from rural communities”.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#213

Post by nitrogen » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 2:44 AM UTC

solveit wrote: post #201

mmckelvy wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some rural areas that fit your description, but many that do not, and are quite nice places to live. Also, urban areas generally have very high concentrations of uneducated, addicted, and poverty stricken individuals as well, and the proportion of the population that fits this bill has increased dramatically in the past few years.

>the proportion of the population that fits this bill has increased dramatically in the past few years. Wait really? Source?

The number of tents, needles, etc. found on sidewalks and in parks/open areas.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#214

Post by bombcar » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 2:45 AM UTC

TulliusCicero wrote: post #200

sojournerc wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you say unsustainable when rural communities are where food comes from ? Mass famine is unsustainable...

I wouldn't call them "unsustainable" because even though I disagree with the subsidies I think they're pretty easy to sustain. But your reasoning makes no sense. You don't need subsidies to have food. Here's a study on farm subsidies that found that removing them would increase prices only slightly for most goods: https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.agri-pulse.com%2Fa... > The impact of premium subsidies – whic…

The argument is you can’t have cities without rural areas supplying what they need.

To disprove that you need cities that are self-sufficient.

Subsidies don’t matter in that question.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#215

Post by bombcar » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 2:46 AM UTC

julianlam wrote: post #53

mdasen wrote: post #48

> I've heard that people tend to be very different to those you find in a city In a lot of cases this is true - and it's not just about tech. Rural communities are often more religious, more conservative, lower income, lower educated, and have a lot less access to opportunity. Cities also mean that there's often a critical mass for many interests and minority groups. Are you LGBT? Are you a religious or racial minori…

It seems peculiar to me that there is no standard process for the winding down of city governance when population dwindles. It's probably just the human element. I don't mean to be promoting some sort of libertarian "self-governance is great!" philosophy, just thinking out loud. Imagine a city building game where city expenses increase with each population milestone (due to new positions in local government, new depa…

There’s no standard process because it’s a separate thing each time.

But cities do die and usually bequeath everything to a nearby city or the county.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#216

Post by geocrasher » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 2:48 AM UTC

manacit wrote: post #82

toast0 wrote: post #23

Some of the Seattle 'suburbs' get fairly rural, lots of trees, at least some lots are a couple acres, a few working farms, lots of hobby farms, but still have a lot of tech workers. If remote work is important to you, check out internet options. There's a chance of Comcast and CenturyLink, but both get shifty about actually servicing homes in places (Comcast won't run a drop to my house even though their cable is on…

Very much agree with this, I know a number of people that commuted (pre-pandemic) to the East Side (Redmond/Bellevue) that live in North Bend, Monroe, Sultan, etc. These are all cities that are very much part of the 'Seattle area' and are not really considered rural, but would tick many of the boxes. If you want to go farther out, there are plenty of parts of WA that are really rural - but you might not find things l…

I live in Rural WA, between Olympia and Aberdeen. I live right in town and there's no problem getting 100mbps Internet via Comcast. Centurylink is very nearly a scam. If you go 2-3 miles out of town, things get more difficult, depending on the direction you take. Several friends are on DSL or worse. Hughes-or-whatever-they-are-now is awful for anything except very light use. Starlink is an option. Rent is expensive like anywhere else, but still less than the Seattle metro area. But, this is becoming a closet community for Olympia and Lacey, driving up housing prices.

If there's a tech "scene" here, I'm unaware of it.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#217

Post by bombcar » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 2:50 AM UTC

TulliusCicero wrote: post #194

jbullock35 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's also hard to know what you mean by "rural" since the distinction between suburban and rural is hard in the US. > Maybe you're looking for a place like Saratoga Springs or Ashville, NC or Burlington, VT or Charlottesville, VA. I can't speak to Asheville, Charlottesville, or Saratoga Springs, but I can say a little about Burlington. Burlington is a city of 45,000 people with a lot of commercial activity for a U.…

I imagine that a lot of people from bigger metro areas, when they talk about going "rural", are imagining living on the outskirts of a city like Asheville or Burlington, or somewhat close by to the city, not full-on "the nearest major grocery store is 50 miles away".

If all the roads to get to your destination are paved, you ain’t rural heh. You’re just exurb.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#218

Post by watersb » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 2:51 AM UTC

I had great fun and intense tech time working for astronomers.

Ideally, the telescopes are located in remote areas. This led to the engineers and programmers out there, too, or perhaps the nearest college town.

https://NRAO.edu

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#219

Post by dannykwells » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 2:53 AM UTC

glial wrote: post #90

nextos wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any examples of micropolitan towns?

Decorah or Grinnell Iowa, or Northfield Minnesota.

Go Northfield!!! A wonderful little town with great school(s)!

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#220

Post by coryrc » Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 2:53 AM UTC

stevenicr wrote: post #152

julianlam wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems peculiar to me that there is no standard process for the winding down of city governance when population dwindles. It's probably just the human element. I don't mean to be promoting some sort of libertarian "self-governance is great!" philosophy, just thinking out loud. Imagine a city building game where city expenses increase with each population milestone (due to new positions in local government, new depa…

I'd love more info about these kinds of things, I find it quite fascinating to read about places going through it and watching parts of town locally dealing with it. Also - pensions! I feel we need more education for citizens about how public pensions and other retirement benefits work - as they can be a huge drain when the money is good, even more of a piece of the pie when the money goes down.

Yup, I think government should be forbidden from making any contract where they owe money in the future for wages paid today. Today's taxpayer pays for services rendered thirty years ago and today; no wonder our services get worse every year.

For example, Seattle had a mayor Ed Murray. His couple year tenure resulted in the state needing to pay $80k/year more until he dies, so probably $3 million. That should have come out of that year's budget. The city should not have been able to obligate others to pay that.