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Bernanke and the Rural Economy

It's interesting to watch my own habits changing, now that I can't walk five minutes to a grocery store. But at the moment I'm more interested in what effect Bernanke's intentional debasement of the dollar is having on people who live in places an hour drive from the nearest real grocery store. Here in Datil NM we are 60 miles from the nearest one.

And yet people still talk about how they drove to the big city last weekend, even though it is 150 miles away. So much of the rural lifestyle involves driving long distances in giant pickup trucks. It's true they do more of the maintenance on vehicles themselves; that helps some, but the nearest real auto parts store is still far away. One tire shop told me he made a run into the big city one day per week to load up on tires. So maybe that's how a lot of survival takes place: you renounce the idea that everything must be available every day of the week.

Say, maybe I should do that with the internet.

I wonder if rural people follow business and economic news much. Maybe they blame inflation on "them Arabs" instead of villains far closer to home.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Here's a retort, not that I ever listen to the guy... he yammers on, so it's not exactly a retort either.

http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?post=2759036d-1f9f-478c-965e-c322929907a9

Tom in Orlando
Anonymous said…
On a more serious note, I wonder about Datil's population. There are so many factors that go into the decision as to where to live. It would be interesting to know if the locals there feel pressed economically or not. Is day to day living getting easier or more difficult. What kind of person chooses to live so far from Walmart?

Tom in Orlando
I'm not a good interviewer when I travel. Wish I was. I overheard the waitress say that she quit her job in Albuquerque because she thought the other waitresses -- all Mexican -- were snotty to her.