A few reasons (which I pulled out of my ass. I’m not a social scientist. I am a person who fled some pretty ass backwards areas in the US):
Feelings of hopelessness. Maybe it’s the people in power. Maybe it’s the culture. Seeing cops act a fool and get zero punishment, or voting and watching some corrupt folks refuse to accept the results really does a number on people.
Allowing morons in charge. During the pandemic, I watched the neighboring state put a lot of COVID denial policies in place. Psychopaths were literally running into hospitals making demands. Healthcare professionals left to work somewhere less hostile. Expand that to other industries, groups of people. You now have real smart people who are leaving - shrinking the conversation pool even more. I didn’t even bring up police.
General culture. I was told to “Go back home” or “This place isn’t for you” just walking around living my life. That country song “This won’t happen in a small town” which is filled with inaccuracies just strengthens the belief that small towns are for a certain “type” of person.
There’s a lot of other factors.
So you have all those issues, followed by being pretty low/the lowest in ranking for many things like education and quality of life.
The shining stars are college towns who are much more active at change. But I’m not going to expect much
A few reasons (which I pulled out of my ass. I’m not a social scientist. I am a person who fled some pretty ass backwards areas in the US):
Feelings of hopelessness. Maybe it’s the people in power. Maybe it’s the culture. Seeing cops act a fool and get zero punishment, or voting and watching some corrupt folks refuse to accept the results really does a number on people.
Allowing morons in charge. During the pandemic, I watched the neighboring state put a lot of COVID denial policies in place. Psychopaths were literally running into hospitals making demands. Healthcare professionals left to work somewhere less hostile. Expand that to other industries, groups of people. You now have real smart people who are leaving - shrinking the conversation pool even more. I didn’t even bring up police.
General culture. I was told to “Go back home” or “This place isn’t for you” just walking around living my life. That country song “This won’t happen in a small town” which is filled with inaccuracies just strengthens the belief that small towns are for a certain “type” of person.
There’s a lot of other factors.
So you have all those issues, followed by being pretty low/the lowest in ranking for many things like education and quality of life.
The shining stars are college towns who are much more active at change. But I’m not going to expect much