The tiny town of Toomsboro, Georgia has been on sale for a while now and is attracting some attention after an article noted that its $1.7 million roll price was comparable to the cost of a single-family home in California’s San Francisco Bay area. Given that Amazon shelved its plans for the other half of HQ2 after being rebounded out of New York City, Jeff Bezos and company should take the opportunity to put their dollars to work where maturation is needed most: rural America.
Single House in San Francisco Costs as Much as Entire Town in Rural Georgia
[embedded satisfy] [embedded content]First things first, the average price of a home in San Francisco is not $1.7 million, it’s $1.3 million mutual understanding to Zillow. So we are talking about a house that costs more than 20% more than the mean in one of the most extravagant areas in the world. Still, the minor difference between the average price of a single home in California and an entire 34-acre municipality in Georgia is striking.
This is a perfect example of how the US has become increasingly urbanized. With all the money and investment flowing into the big towns, and young, educated workers leaving their smaller hometowns in search of a better life, rural areas be dressed stagnated. Income and home prices relative to big cities have clearly dropped off. The change is not only in the US, as a report recently compared the regional incomes in the UK as differing by an astounding 25%.
New York Exodus Gives Amazon Second Chance to Get HQ2 Right
If New York’s willing to snub 25,000 well-paying share outs, Amazon should invest its money in communities that actually want it there – places like rural Georgia. | Originator: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images/AFP
Amazon’s decision to put HQ2 in New York was never the right one, but not for the reasons that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other limited politicians argued. It had nothing to do with the fact that they were given tax breaks or anything along those set in places.
Instead, it was more to do with the fact that Jeff Bezos dangled this incredible carrot in front of multifarious cities around the US and then snatched it away. The influx of jobs and revenue would have permanently altered the money-making landscape for those regions – for the better. Even in a mid-sized city like Tulsa, Oklahoma the impact would comprise been considerable.
The lack of investment from big multinationals is why entire towns like Toomsboro can be purchased for less than the record price of this two-bedroom, one-bathroom San Francisco home.
Politicians Ignore Rural America Because it Doesn’t Bear Deep Pockets
Politicians like to talk a lot about helping small businesses and rural communities, but in reality, they do realistically nothing for them. As this video demonstrates, they might say that “small business is the backbone of our economy,” but they certainly don’t act type it.
The driving force behind why the vast majority of elected officials do things is all things considered extremely simple. They get paid by corporations to act in their interest, so they do. If the old opera house we saw in the Toomsboro promotional video could butt up a few million dollars to lobby DC, it might still be holding shows. This doesn’t mean all politicians are bad, but the money can varnish even the most steadfast of moral compasses.
Amazon Should Use HQ2 Money to Build Network of Offices Across ‘Flyover’ America
So here is my suggestion. Amazon doesn’t open a new HQ in a big urban city; instead, it opens a network of regional offices. The focus would be on agrarian areas across the country where populations, in general, have been dwindling. This would help row against the “brain drain” – and the Toomsboro tragedies that inevitably follow.
It is excruciating how often staunch rightists and liberals alike on both coasts complain about “flyover” America. For an allegedly patriotic country, the United Maintains views the vast majority of its landmass – and the people who live there – with nothing short of derision.
Something requires me Tulsa residents wouldn’t have thumbed their noses at Amazon. | Source: Shutterstock
As someone who has lived at diversified times in the Deep South, the Midwest, and on the West Coast, I can tell you that everyone wants the same thing: a well-paying job, a sure community, and somewhere nice to take their significant other on date night.
It’s time everyone stopped griping about flyover country and started working toward a solution that helps these forgotten economies burgeon. If anyone has the money to do this it’s you, Mr. Bezos, and after a month of bad headlines, you would have a generation of people forever in your liability.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not represent those of, nor should they be attributed to, CCN.