Rural Diversity: An American Asset

Abstract

Rural America is an exceedingly diverse place, and this diversity constitutes a national asset. Diversity can be documented by an examination of any social or economic attribute one wishes to choose—educational attainment, per capita income, occupation, and ethnic background provide examples. This diversity shapes both the public policies applicable to the countryside and the opportunities of rural communities and rural people. Highly centralized public programs and policies, unless they provide for local adaptation, are unlikely to be successful. Many existing federal programs have outlived their usefulness. Federal entitlement programs continue to be enormously important to rural people and can be made even far more effective by recognizing rural differences. Not all rural areas will flourish in the future; the supply of rural places that would like to attract economic activity far exceeds the demand for such places. Exogenous forces that will improve the prospects for some rural areas include an increase in the number of people of retirement age and with a retirement income as well as growth of outdoor recreation and tourism activities. Entrepreneurship will continue to be of great importance as diverse rural places discover ways they can serve an increasingly urban and global society. The cost of distance and the benefits of space are key parameters in establishing the economic framework within which economic development will occur.

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References

David Holland , Bruce Weber , and Edward Waters , “Modeling Economic Linkages between Core and Periphery Regions: The Portland Oregon Trade Area” (Paper delivered at a meeting of the Western Agricultural Economics Association, Colorado Springs, July 1992), available from the Western Rural Development Center, Oregon State University.

2. Donald C. Dahmann and Laarni T. Dacquel , Residents of Farms and Rural Areas: 1990, Current Population Reports: Population Characteristics, ser. P-20, no. 457 (Washington, DC: Department of Agriculture and Department of Commerce, Mar. 1992).

3. For a similar analysis, see Emery N. Castle , “Rural Policy Needs Good Dose of Realism,” Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy (in press).

4. Ronald Oakerson , “Institutional Diversity and Rural Development in America: An Institutionalist's Approach to Rural Studies,” in National Rural Studies Committee Proceedings, ed. Castle and Baldwin (1990), pp. 43-53.

He makes an important point to the effect that some public policies seem designed to bring about economic development in every hamlet in the nation. Clearly, this is unrealistic. If attention is directed to people, rather than places, according to Hite, they may be prepared and encouraged to reach their desired potential regardless of geographic location. I do not argue with this point of view. Even so, most of the geographic space is to be found in rural places, a proposition true by definition. How it is managed and who has access to it are important questions of public policy. See Oakerson , “Institutional Diversity.”

6. Theodore W. Schultz , Restoring Economic Equilibrium: Human Capital in a Modernizing Economy (Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1990), p. 6.

7. Edwin C. Mills , “Large Metropolitan Areas: Their Functions and Prospects,” in National Rural Studies Committee Proceedings, ed. Castle and Baldwin (1993).

8. Peirce Lewis , “The Urban Invasion of the Rural Northeast,” in National Rural Studies Committee Proceedings, ed. Castle and Baldwin (1991), pp. 11-21.

9. Edwin C. Mills , “The Determinant of Small Area Growth,” Lectures in Economics (Oregon State University, University Graduate Faculty of Economics), lecture 1 (Oct. 1987).

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10. Statistical Abstract of the United States (Washington, DC: Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1991), p. 532, tab. 871.

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Christina E. Gringeri, “The Nuts and Bolts of Subsidized Development: Industrial Workers in the Heartland,” in ibid., pp. 81-88.

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12. Edgar S. Dunn , Economic and Social Development: A Process of Social Learning (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971).