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Comment by addicted44 | Hacker News Reader

Except if you look at the actual political discussion, that's not the idea you will get.

The vast majority of American political discussion is centered around the idea that "real Americans" are those living in rural areas, when in fact a few years ago the majority of Americans live in urban zones.

But further, there is a pervasive belief that it's those rural areas that are keeping the US economy going, and pretty much all political economic discussion is based on the idea of catering to rural areas economic needs, when in reality, as this article shows, the overwhelming majority of the US's economic output comes from urban areas.

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“Urban” is a broadly defined term. According to the Census Bureau, Sibley Iowa (pop. 2,800) is an “urban” area. So are the suburbs and exurbs of Des Moines. Most Americans don’t live in what you’d usually think of as an “urban area.”

I also disagree with your characterization of our political narratives. There is probably a disproportionate focus on rural areas. (Although, that accounts for 20% of the population, which is pretty remarkable when you consider that the small towns in rural areas are classified as “urban.”) There is also a big media focus on rust belt cities and the like. (The famous “Cuyahoga County”). That encompasses secondary cities like Cleveland and their suburbs. That is where most Americans live.

As I've said before, the census definition of "urban" makes sense in the context of the vast areas of the US that are truly middle of nowhere rural. But most places that are classified as urban have very little in common with a city core where you can walk out of your apartment to the corner store. I live in an urban area between an apple orchard and a Christmas tree farm.

Bad rhetoric like this is why rural people hate coastal elites. Monopoly pricing power and financial engineering for capture of economy profit does not equal value created. Video games and food are not equally important.

And why would you need to cater to the economic needs of the least needy part of the economy?

Rural America accounts for a significant portion of global crops and livestock. As someone who enjoys having cheap and available food, please do not disparage the hardworking Americans who make that possible

There's a lot of rural America that's not in agriculture[0]. I mean yes many of the other rural folks provide services to farmers but I wouldn't say the assistant manager of a McDonalds in Small Town America is involved in farming just as I wouldn't say the assistant manager of a Starbucks on Wall Street is involved in investment banking.

I can't find data on it but I would not be surprised if public sector (all levels) employment and employment with companies that mostly contract for government, as a percentage of total employment, is pretty high in rural areas and small towns, actually.

[0] Looks like that's around 1.41% of the US population from World Bank data, fairly flat since the early '00s; stat includes forestry, fishing, and hunting jobs, so is likely more inclusive than what most people usually think of as "agriculture" as in mass food production, though I can't suss out whether it includes stuff like farm equipment sales & servicing, or people running grain elevators, stuff like that.

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