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Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Moving To The Country

Scott Galupo draws our attention to an Atlantic report on a “rural renaissance” — how farming is making a big comeback. It’s not a paean to boutique farmers, don’t worry. This part grabbed me: Jim Rogers, who co-founded the legendary hedge fund Quantum with George Soros, told me he believes farming is “one of the […]

Scott Galupo draws our attention to an Atlantic report on a “rural renaissance” — how farming is making a big comeback. It’s not a paean to boutique farmers, don’t worry. This part grabbed me:

Jim Rogers, who co-founded the legendary hedge fund Quantum with George Soros, told me he believes farming is “one of the most exciting professions” in the world—and that the recent boom is likely to continue for a long time. “Throughout history, we’ve had long periods when the financial sectors were in charge,” he said, “but we’ve also had long periods when the people who have produced real goods were in charge—the farmers, the miners … All of you people who got M.B.A.s made mistakes, because the City of London and Wall Street are not going to be great places to be in the next two or three decades. It’s going to be the people who produce real goods.”

I’d love to read more about that.

As most of you know, I’ve been living in my hometown (pop. 2000, or thereabouts) for nine months now. It’s been great, and I’m really glad we’re here. The town is very different from an urban environment, but there’s a growing cultural diversity here, which I find really encouraging. I’ve asked a few people my age why things are so interesting here now, and they mostly credit the hippies who did the “back to the land” thing in the Sixties around here.

Anyway, I know I live in a pretty special town, but I’ve been thinking for a while now about places like this as homes for people who work online. Well, yeah, I would, because that’s what I do. I don’t make any goods, alas, but I do live here, and pay taxes, and spend my money locally. You don’t have things here like you do in the big city (movie theaters, a big selection of restaurants, etc.), but my eight-year-old kid goes out in the morning and rides his bike all over town with his buddies, and he’s just fine. The kids are always up for swimming at somebody’s house, and there are sports for them, if they want. My oldest kid spent much of his summer involved with a play, and will be working the lights for the Myrna Minkoff New Play Festival this weekend (hey, are you in St. Francisville, Baton Rouge, or the area? Then come on over for it!) There’s also a Hummingbird Festival in town this weekend.

The point is, there’s a lot to do, and some really fun people to do it with. For me, at 45, I don’t want the busy-ness of urban life anymore. I didn’t realize how much I would appreciate the quiet of small-town and country life until I had it. My favorite things to do are read, cook, and have a few people over to dinner. This place is great for that. Honestly, if not for the traumatic circumstances of our relocating here (my sister’s untimely death), I never would have imagined how pleasant and restorative this kind of life could be.

It’s not for everybody, of course, but I’ve come to believe that it’s for a lot more people than realize it now. It’s so much easier for me to write here, and get good work done. I’ve met several people in town who telecommute to their jobs far away. The airport is an easy 25-30 minute drive away, if you have to scoot. Not every small town has as much to offer as St. Francisville, but I’m thinking that the long, sclerotic economic period we’re expected to be living through might just cause some people to move to towns like this, where the cost of living is much more reasonable, and there’s a much less frantic way of life. The Internet has made this an easier choice, in that the kinds of things that a previous generation would have gone to the big cities for — in my case, books, movies, and certain foodstuffs — are easily available online.

Am I on to something? What have you been thinking about? What’s your experience been?

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