The “White Rural Rage” authors are incapable of understanding this. They do not get why rural people would oppose Biden’s mega-spending when (supposedly—I’m not convinced this claim is true) a larger proportion of the waste goes to “rural” areas. It’s because we aren’t for sale; we don’t want the spending and we don’t want whatever it was being spent/wasted on.
Our state (CT) is a good example.
The rural areas are heavily subsidized by the state.
But—then the legislature does stuff like mandate tampons in school boys rooms—and they wonder why we think they are nuts.
Rural populations include much higher rates of homeowners - so they directly pay for local services (at least here in NJ). Urban areas include many tenants who often don’t see the direct line between local costs and local rents (especially of there is rent control - because there is no such line).
The permanent underclass avoids rural areas because much of the “free” sh!t disappears; people need to be more involved in providing for themselves than you’d see in urban areas.
“It’s because we aren’t for sale; we don’t want the spending and we don’t want whatever it was being spent/wasted on.”
This was why many areas opposed Obama’s plan to hire so many new teachers early on; his party is the political arm of the teachers’ unions, so naturally he wanted more of them (contributions from taxpayers are transferred directly to Dems through that union). The problem was he offered fed money for the first year or two, then the hosts had to feed the parasites themselves - and (at least here in NJ) they are VERY EXPENSIVE (for 180 days of work - not even 9-5).