At the time the movie was set, real people desperately wanted to connect their towns to the railroad, as it allowed an explosion in living standards. Once you had access to a railroad, you were not trapped within 30 miles of the place you were born, like most people effectively were. You could import goods from around the country, and export them as well. Disney teaches that people wanted poverty not much improved from the middle ages.
The sequel will probably be about a small town that banned internet access and Wall Mart because they gave the town access to the world outside the town.
It’s why liberals love children’s minds. They have no history and no experience base for skepticism or doubt. They cannot understand why someone would move to a city slum and work in a sweat shop because they never had to milk a cow at 4AM with a 20 degree windchill or spend hours trying to save a lamb only to have it die anyway. Farm life is harder and that’s why people willingly moved to “better” conditions that liberal teachers frame as hell holes. Sure they were “bad”, but people don’t freely leave better for worse.
You’d like this book: http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Robber-Barons-Business-America/dp/0963020315
and this documentary: http://www.amazon.com/Mine-Your-Own-Business-Environmentalism/dp/B0019A35G6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331693402&sr=8-1
They’ll never be read or watched in a government school.