I just watched a linked video over on tails. Nice Hot rod taking off. Driving out of town are the town square. What really caught my eye was the empty building windows. It is not just that town either. All across the country the main streets of most towns, large and small, are disserted. You have to go to the edge of towns to where the SUPER Walmarts are and other strip malls to find many business. I can remember being able to buy EVERYTHING you needed for daily life right in my town. You might have to go to Dubuque for a dress suit but everything else you could buy right here. Also 95% of the time it was a business that was owned by the same person that was waiting on you or 100% locally owned. Now it is almost all chains that some Corporation own ten states a way.
YEs I can BUY Chinese JUNK cheaper but you have a hard time finding quality good anymore. An example: I needed a good 30 amp 12 volt toggle switch. I wanted and US made one as the Chinese ones would not last more than a few weeks. I was not able to find a US made switch. I found US companies selling switches but they where imported as well.
The everyday things we need to live are too many times 100% imported now. So where are the young folks today going to work in the future???? Government mandated minimum wage jobs?????
I was able to start working for PAY at 14 years old in a feed mill. I bagged feed every evening form 3 PM top 9 PM and all day Sat. That income allowed me to help my family out. Then later get married and provide for myself an my bride. Now you can not hardly hire anyone under 18 for any type of job around machinery. Direct farm labor is the one place and that is getting more regulated.
It really saddens me. There is a much less vibrant community because of these social changes.
PS: My wife is visiting her Mother. There is not a grocery store within 30 miles. This is not in the middle of now where either. There are four towns that all used to have stores until the last few years. These are all towns with populations of over 1000. So she need some milk and eggs for cooking. Had to buy it at the gas station ore drive forty miles. Her home town had TWO stores until 2000 and the last one closed last year. The "NEW" four lane highway was finished ten years ago. So the locals all have flocked to the Walmart/Aldies stores fifty miles away. So the local store was slowly choked out so they can same ten cents on a can of corn/ gallon of milk. So there went some more local jobs and business owners.
YEs I can BUY Chinese JUNK cheaper but you have a hard time finding quality good anymore. An example: I needed a good 30 amp 12 volt toggle switch. I wanted and US made one as the Chinese ones would not last more than a few weeks. I was not able to find a US made switch. I found US companies selling switches but they where imported as well.
The everyday things we need to live are too many times 100% imported now. So where are the young folks today going to work in the future???? Government mandated minimum wage jobs?????
I was able to start working for PAY at 14 years old in a feed mill. I bagged feed every evening form 3 PM top 9 PM and all day Sat. That income allowed me to help my family out. Then later get married and provide for myself an my bride. Now you can not hardly hire anyone under 18 for any type of job around machinery. Direct farm labor is the one place and that is getting more regulated.
It really saddens me. There is a much less vibrant community because of these social changes.
PS: My wife is visiting her Mother. There is not a grocery store within 30 miles. This is not in the middle of now where either. There are four towns that all used to have stores until the last few years. These are all towns with populations of over 1000. So she need some milk and eggs for cooking. Had to buy it at the gas station ore drive forty miles. Her home town had TWO stores until 2000 and the last one closed last year. The "NEW" four lane highway was finished ten years ago. So the locals all have flocked to the Walmart/Aldies stores fifty miles away. So the local store was slowly choked out so they can same ten cents on a can of corn/ gallon of milk. So there went some more local jobs and business owners.