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I did abandon cities though. Cities are sirens. They attract you with the promise of lots of economic and social activity, then you wind up locked on a treadmill full of people navigating around you like an obstacle. You wind up isolated, having to wait in traffic for extended periods to go anywhere, paying outrageous sums to live. The natural world is mostly dead in them. I can get Netflix and tinder and all that other virtual stuff anywhere, which seems to be all there is in cities anyway, plus when I go outside there are butterflies and fire flies and weird birds everywhere and people leave me alone about my business, they're not used to being packed like sardines so they don't navigate around you like an obstacle, they are usually eager to be friendly. And you can make a decent life happen with very little money.
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That may not sound like much to many of us, but compare that with say, TN, where you'd pay closer to 2k in taxes AND have much better weather, amenities, and scenery.
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In dense and popular areas, it's the land prices that contribute to high housing prices. In less popular areas, it's construction prices that dominate the cost.
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This throwaway factoid in the article is supremely important: > small towns in north central and northwest Kansas are usually 90%+ white.
This kind of extreme homogeneity breeds racism and xenophobia.
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There's an old downtown area that's pure blight. Businesses that were just abandoned 10+ years ago and were never filled... and some still-operating businesses that look like they were abandoned 10 years ago. All local jobs are menial. Factory work dried up 50 years ago. 5 people I went to high school with (that I'm aware of) have died from overdoses. The education system is mediocre at best and there are lots of racists and bullies.
If you go more rural it gets better simply because you're living in the woods. At that point you're dealing with well water, septic, satellite internet (maybe starlink?), frequent electricity loss after storms, and general isolation. Maybe I'll retire to a place like this.
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Local school probably doesn't have AP classes or anyone to meaningfully help with SAT prep. Or a computer science teacher. Got to hire tutors to do all that or send the kids to boarding school.
Probably cannot get childcare. Got to import a nanny if you want full time childcare. And the nanny will need a car as nothing is in walking distance.
Airports. You are going to spend a bunch extra flying out of whatever little regional airport is nearby. No low cost carriers in these small towns.
Then there are the things that cannot be replicated, like ambulances:
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/there-s-shortage-...
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Went to Boston after college in Kansas, worked for five years moving up in title, came to the Bay Area, started as a staff engineer and quickly moved up to principle, and after working a total of 15 years, retired at 37 back to Kansas. Lived in the smallest studio he could find the whole time he was in the cities and had $1M+ saved up, which was more than enough to sustain his lifestyle in Kansas after spending $100,000 on a house (land + construction).
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Any sizable plots north and east of Kansas out to Ohio (not including West Virginia), is pretty easy to sell, since you can lease it out to farmers for the foreseeable future.
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Australian country towns offered land for AUD 1 (USD 0.72). It has also occurred in Spain and even Japan. Japan is destroying hundreds of empty houses a year.
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Free land isn't enough; it shouldn't feel like I'm moving backward in time.
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I used to be somewhat upset at the ECB bailing out Greece but then I realized all that prime real estate coast line for Northern European boomers lol. Who has the last laugh?
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> Then, in 1862, Abraham Lincoln pulled the ultimate Manifest Destiny power move with the Homestead Act.
That's⦠not how my history book says it happened. Wikipedia seems to agree, though it doesn't go into much detail:
> The act depleted the Native Americans in the United States of much of their land and natural resources as a result of it being allocated and sold to settlers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Acts#Homestead_Act_o...
I'm no history buff, but I'm pretty sure the Homestead Act of 1862 violated some treaties in a major way, and soldiers were involved.