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Launching the Rural Guaranteed Minimum Income Initiative

blog.codinghorror.com

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Re: Launching the Rural Guaranteed Minimum Income Initiative

#21

Why rural Americans? The same amount of cash will go a lot further and likely be more effective in rural areas of other countries. The source of Atwood's wealth (Stack Overflow etc) is global, not American.

Why not rural Americans? When helping someone in my community, I don't first stop and analyze whether my time/money could be better allocated to maximize some sort of utilitarian loss function, I help them because they're there, need my help, and I'm able to help.

Rural Americans are responsible for the situation they're in.

Re: Launching the Rural Guaranteed Minimum Income Initiative

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deindustrialization has hollowed out most American cities outside of major cities, and the corresponding anti globalism tantrum contributed to the current political situation. Because of the apportionment of House and Senate seats, these people hold most Americans hostage with their disproportionate voting power, and paying a ransom seems better than the alternative we are living through.

Nope. Globalism has made America richer than pretty much any nation in the existence of human history. The election of leaders who prioritize the distribution of wealth from the poorest to the richest rather than vice versa has hollowed out rural America. And rural America disproportionately votes for such leaders.

Technically you're not wrong, but without globalization, deindustrialization wouldn't have happened and unions (and strike threats) would probably be strong enough to prevent the poor to rich redistribution.

So even if globalization made America richer on average, it also destroyed the fair redistribution mechanism.

Re: Launching the Rural Guaranteed Minimum Income Initiative

#23
> all we want to do is advance the concept of direct cash transfer

I love the simplicity of this. I've been thinking a lot about generosity myself.

And while I don't have $100m, our family also has everything we need. What ideas, resources and tools are there for folks like me who want to be as generous as possible with what we have?

To start, I've set up a Donor Advised Fund because I learned that it's a great way to do something with a bunch of appreciated stock that I don't want to pay taxes on. What other tips do you all have?

Re: Launching the Rural Guaranteed Minimum Income Initiative

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not rural Americans? When helping someone in my community, I don't first stop and analyze whether my time/money could be better allocated to maximize some sort of utilitarian loss function, I help them because they're there, need my help, and I'm able to help.

Rural Americans are responsible for the situation they're in.

Aren't we all?

Re: Launching the Rural Guaranteed Minimum Income Initiative

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not rural Americans? When helping someone in my community, I don't first stop and analyze whether my time/money could be better allocated to maximize some sort of utilitarian loss function, I help them because they're there, need my help, and I'm able to help.

[flagged]

You don't think there are blacks, gays, atheists and commies in rural US?

Re: Launching the Rural Guaranteed Minimum Income Initiative

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not rural Americans? When helping someone in my community, I don't first stop and analyze whether my time/money could be better allocated to maximize some sort of utilitarian loss function, I help them because they're there, need my help, and I'm able to help.

It gives me serious "steal from the poor and give to the rich" vibes. Rural Americans are richer than the majority of humans, and Stack Overflow was a fairly global website. Rural America also has a government that is fully capable of taking proper care of it's underprivileged; most governments across the world are not.

These statements paint with a rather broad brush. There are parts of the US that are so impoverished that it defies belief and more closely resemble pre-industrialization countries than they do what most associate with the United States.

They also ignore that even if other rural areas are technically speaking more rich than the rest of the world, still struggle with an extreme shortage of opportunity, upward mobility, and sense of purpose.

I speak from experience, having been raised in one such area. Had I not moved to a tech hub in search of greener pastures (which is not something everybody is capable of), my life would look so different now as to be unrecognizable. Instead of earning the upper end of the salary band for my line of work with numerous upward trajectories to pursue and a solid bit of retirement stuck away, I'd be working a job earning maybe ~20% as much that doesn't keep track with inflation with zero mobility and an even smaller fraction of retirement funds, and that's one of the best possible outcomes in that region and inaccessible to most.

I've not aligned with the area I hail from politically for a long time now, but clearly it needs help.

Re: Launching the Rural Guaranteed Minimum Income Initiative

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gives me serious "steal from the poor and give to the rich" vibes. Rural Americans are richer than the majority of humans, and Stack Overflow was a fairly global website. Rural America also has a government that is fully capable of taking proper care of it's underprivileged; most governments across the world are not.

These statements paint with a rather broad brush. There are parts of the US that are so impoverished that it defies belief and more closely resemble pre-industrialization countries than they do what most associate with the United States. They also ignore that even if other rural areas are technically speaking more rich than the rest of the world, still struggle with an extreme shortage of opportunity, upward mobility…

I grew up on a farm. I'd far rather be rural poor in America than middle class in the third world.

Re: Launching the Rural Guaranteed Minimum Income Initiative

#29

[flagged]

Your point with regards to criteria has merit, but this is unlikely to move the needle as Rural America continues to hollow out, so it's their funds to run the experiment. West Virginia has one of the oldest populations in the country (3rd [1]) while having the lowest birth rate (~16k/year and falling), for example (one of their pilots was in Mercer County, WV). Similar for Mississippi (highest out migration in the U…

"Agriculture dies" makes zero sense. Have people stopped eating food and plants? There are hundreds to thousands of plants with commercial value that are grown around the globe. You're trying to tell me that WV can't grow one of them profitably. Or maybe it's because they've so thoroughly and irreversibly poisoned their soil and water to where nothing good will grow anymore.

Re: Launching the Rural Guaranteed Minimum Income Initiative

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your point with regards to criteria has merit, but this is unlikely to move the needle as Rural America continues to hollow out, so it's their funds to run the experiment. West Virginia has one of the oldest populations in the country (3rd [1]) while having the lowest birth rate (~16k/year and falling), for example (one of their pilots was in Mercer County, WV). Similar for Mississippi (highest out migration in the U…

" Agriculture dies " makes zero sense. Have people stopped eating food and plants? There are hundreds to thousands of plants with commercial value that are grown around the globe. You're trying to tell me that WV can't grow one of them profitably. Or maybe it's because they've so thoroughly and irreversibly poisoned their soil and water to where nothing good will grow anymore.

Average age of a farmer is 58, China has reconfigured their imports towards South America for trade stability. "Agriculture dies" = Rural America agriculture, which is needed to sustain Rural America economies.

Farmers also commit suicide at ~3.5x the rate of the general public; it is too early to tell imho how much of the strife I enumerate below will lead to changes in that statistic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_West_Virginia

https://usafacts.org/articles/us-agricultural-exports/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmers%27_suicides_in_the_Uni...

https://www.propublica.org/article/utah-farmers-therapy-ment...

Former Farming Leaders Warn U.S. Agriculture Could Face ‘Widespread Collapse’ - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/us/politics/us-agricultur... | https://archive.today/dDebF - February 3rd, 2026

China to favour Brazilian soybean imports in 2026 H1 despite renewed US inflows - https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-favour-brazilian-s... | https://archive.today/NXFCC - January 27th, 2026

$12 Billion Farm Aid Package Not Enough, Farm Leaders Say - https://farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2025/12/12-billion-farm-... - December 12th, 2025

Farm Bankruptcies Rising in 2025 - https://farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2025/07/farm-bankruptcie... - July 15th, 2025

Q1 2025 U.S. farm bankruptcies exceed 2024 - https://www.uaex.uada.edu/media-resources/news/2025/july/07-... - July 7th, 2025

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