Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
A Wall Street Journal story over the weekend headlined “Rural America is the New Inner City” concludes that rural America, not central cities, is now the focus of poverty and despair.
In short, America’s breadbasket is now also its basket case.
Quay County is a textbook example, as are surrounding counties.
I learned this recently by summarizing statistics for the East Central New Mexico Stronger Economies Together initiative that involves Quay, Guadalupe, De Baca and Torrance counties.
We’re getting help from U.S. Department of Agriculture, New Mexico State University and Purdue University and others.
First, the counties have to figure out where they are, and my work was part of that effort.
After reading the Wall Street Journal story, I find that our rural counties in New Mexico reflect the rule of U.S. rural counties, not the exception.
Average earnings per job in the ECNM region are only 60 percent of the national average. Guadalupe County is 51 percent of the U.S. average. Quay is 57 percent.
The Wall Street Journal found that average wages are one-third higher in urbanized areas than in rural regions.
Over the past five years, the Wall Street Journal reports, rural areas overall have been losing population
Between 2000 and 2015, Quay County lost 14.3 percent of its population. Guadalupe lost 3.3 percent. De Baca lost 9.8 percent and Torrance, 6.3 percent. The U.S. gained 12.5 percent in the meantime.
The Wall Street Journal also emphasized the aging of the rural population as evidence that younger, more productive and ambitious people are moving elsewhere.
The average age in rural America is 41 years. In Quay County, it’s almost 47. It’s just over 47 in De Baca County.
Quay County has recorded some dismal numbers in rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease and chronic lung disease, which are consistent with what the newspaper study has found in rural areas throughout the U.S.
The Wall Street Journal was short on advice about what rural communities can do about their difficulties.
It reports rural America helped elect President Donald Trump. Rural Americans have pinned their hopes for prosperity on Trump’s promises to reduce regulations, trade agreements and illegal immigration, as well as his pledges to return manufacturing jobs and increase infrastructure spending, the Journal reports.
In east central New Mexico, we’re not waiting for these promises.
We are focusing on workforce development, agriculture, tourism, transportation, health care and energy production as possible areas in which the counties can cooperate for mutual benefit.
Steve Hansen writes about our life and times from his perspective of a retired Tucumcari journalist. Contact him at: [email protected]