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Is it a right or a privilege to live in a rural area?

If you want to live in the sticks, fine, but why should the folks in towns have to provide highways and other expensive infrastructure to support their decision?
windinhishair · 61-69, M
Most food isn't grown or raised in the cities and towns. Roads exist to provide transportation for goods and people between cities, towns, and rural and suburban areas. You can't drive or transport goods from Chicago to Denver without passing through rural areas. So town and city dwellers benefit from roads and other infrastructure.

I've lived in both urban and rural areas, and prefer to live rural. In my state, my taxes overwhelmingly support large cities, not the other way around.
windinhishair · 61-69, M
@hlpflwthat One state that where rural areas pay a disproportionate share of taxes for the benefits received is New York. Upstate is rural with a few cities thrown in, but New York City is heavily subsidized and receives most of the benefits.

The 16+ million acres is just for corn and soybeans. There are millions more acres in Minnesota used for other crops, as well as for hay and foraging. Minnesota is a great state--have done work there and hope to do some canoeing in Boundary Waters.

I have no problem paying taxes, as long as the money is used wisely. We're all in this together, and there is never going to be a situation where one group or another won't benefit relative to others. That's what our social contract with each other addresses.
monte3 · 70-79, M
SKI-U-MAH right back at you! 😊. Row the boat.@hlpflwthat
hlpflwthat · M
@windinhishair You and I seem same side of most issues, so please realize I'm coming from a place of respect and sincerity. I once assumed that outs-state areas always took a screwing/back seat to metros & cities. But some digging on the matter showed me that it's almost always the opposite. It's a myth that - frankly - is being used to turn rural areas 'red' politically. Property taxes stay local, and almost every penny of other taxes are generated by people. That revenue comes from 'where the people are.' That's why I asked for examples you might have.

[i][i]"70 percent of the income tax that the state collects happens to come from Westchester, Nassau, Suffolk and New York City"[/i][/i]
— Robert Mujica, State Budget Director on Thursday, January 18th, 2018 in a radio interview

[i]The total for those in New York City and the three counties came to $31.3 billion, or 66 percent of the state total. Another $7.8 billion came from non-residents who commuted into New York state for work. Most of those filers worked in New York City, according to a spokesperson from the agency. If you add the revenue from non-residents to that of New York City, Westchester, and Long Island filers, the share increases to 82 percent of the state total.[/i]

https://www.politifact.com/new-york/statements/2018/feb/01/robert-mujica/do-downstate-ny-residents-contribute-more-income-t/

Here's another that debunks a western New York Republican's claim that they're paying more than they get.

https://www.politifact.com/new-york/statements/2016/oct/14/chris-jacobs/state-spends-more-western-new-york-it-receives-tax/

I have family in dairy, beef, pork, corn, beans & beets. I'm not at all anti-ag and have as clear a picture of land-use here as most. The most generous estimate of Minnesota farmland(MN Beef Producers) puts it 27 million acres. Even if we don't deduct all the un-tillable acres on farms here in The Driftless, that's only half our 54 million acres. So Tasty is correct that much of our outstate area - the north in our case - is not big at tax generation. He knows it cuz he lives it.

But please [b]do[/b] treat yourself to a week or two in the BWCA before your dirt nap rolls around. The solitude and beauty and fishing - and mosquitoes - you'll never forget. And if you own a boat, spend a long weekend camping the islands of the Mississippi down here in The Driftless. It's like a free National Park no one knows about. Midweek is even better :)
SW-User
The people who live in the sticks also pay taxes. A substantial chunk of my property taxes go to the township, and the township maintains the roads.
hlpflwthat · M
Because we all do better when we all do better.
Everybody that pays taxes from gas pays for the highways.
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