The Rural Crisis,and What to do about it

Abstract

The broad decline in world prices of primary commodities is a major reason why the U. S. is in danger of becoming a bicoastal economy. America's rural economy has been a commodity-based economy, centered on agricultural and raw materials. As world prices have declined, rural America has suffered the results of this decline. The author asserts that the way to revitalize the U.S. rural economy is not to preserve primary commodity production by heavily investing in rural America, but to ease the transition of a rural economy out of an almost exclusive reliance on primary commodities and into more competitive, more specialized production. In conclusion, the author presents four key barriers that must be overcome to form a strategic approach to rural economic development, after which, rural America could shift from primary commodities to small batch manufacturing and specialized services.