Can Tech Save Small Town America?

theodp writes "Declaring that small town life no longer has to be separate from financial success thanks to technology, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos told North Dakota state officials to take hope in people such as Napster's Shawn Fanning. Interesting remarks, considering that Fanning conceived Napster in small-town Boston and the jobs Amazon's brought to rural areas don't exactly scream financial success."

Re:the answer to outsourcing

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't true in Canada, which is by and large pretty rural. Call centres are a big deal out in New Brunswick, which is as rural as it gets - cheap labour, lots of people with their high school, and not many jobs going, so the call centres actually get a lot of good people for cheapo pay.

Huh?

[AaronStJ]

I don't quite understand the editorialization on the summary. Theodp tries to make it sound like Amazon.com's hiring practices are bad for rural America. But his links don't support that. They talk about having to bus workers in from out of town (as far away as the next state) to work seasonally in the warehouses.

But it's not like Amazon is turning down local workers in favor of out of town workers. According to one of the articles linked "more than 85 percent of the yearly labor needs are supplied by the local labor pool. Staff management works with local employment agencies, recruits at colleges and works with high schools to provide jobs for graduating seniors," and "we first start with the local labor pool, then broaden our search." Amazon is employing the locals and out of town people (which also help the locals by staying in hotels paid for by Amazon and patronizing locals businesses).

Amazon has also set up education programs to help potential-workers complete their GED, and supported other local programs. "Amazon.com has partnered with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, Team Taylor County and Kentucky Adult Education to form the Go, Earn, Do program, which helps people earn their GED." According to an Amazon spokesman, "we've hired several graduates of the program so far and as the program grows we hope to hire even more."

So I really don't see Theodp's snarky objection to Amazon and Bezo's stand on how tech helps out rural areas. If anything, the articles he links actually support Bezos' claims.

Bezos' remarks on Shawn Fanning are on the mark, too. Sure, Fanning was in a Boston dorm room when he wrote Napster, but it's not like he needed the massive infrastructure of a huge city to do it, just an Internet connection. As Bezos points out, "that's the kind of thing people can do anywhere. They can do it in Seattle, they can do it in North Dakota."

So pretty much all of the editorializing in the summary is wrong, and doesn't seem to server any purpose other than to troll us. I guess I bit.

(An off topic ad hominem: theodp@ aol.com ? On Slashdot? Puh-leaze. I see September still hasn't ended.)

Screaming Financial Success

[crmartin]

Maybe it doesn't scream financial success to you, but the something like a call-center job is pretty good compared to a lot of small-town jobs.

Amazon in Campbellsville

[Anonymous Coward]

I grew up in Greensburg, KY, about 15 minutes from the Amazon location in that article. The main source of jobs in the area used to be a Fruit of the Loom plant in Campbellsville, and when they went out of business unemployment in the surrounding counties soared. Amazon is I think the largest employer in the area now, and people in the area are glad to have them there.

That article was talking about there being so many jobs during the christmas rush, that they can't fill all of them locally and have to bus people in from elsewhere. The locals who work there are happy with their jobs & pay from everything I've heard.

Re:still mostly an exception

[Anonymous Coward]

The downside is that with the lower cost of living, they won't have to pay programmers as much.

That's not really a downside as long as the scale is the same. Large nation wide companies have had regional pay differences for years, so while the absolute value of a rural salary might be lower not having to pay $300,000+ for a moderate house on a postage stamp size lot will compensate for it.

I know I'd much rather have a high tech job in a small town and have less pay than have the identical job in Seattle with more pay.

Re:Cultural Capital Issues

[technoCon]

i suggest that you tread carefully around the stereotype of the backwoods hick bigot lest you play into the city-slicker know-it-all stereotype. you have every right to disagree with the faith and values of Snakeville, KS and/or Islamabad, Afghanistan. but you would be wise to offer them the benefit of some doubt.

you can find competent knowledge workers among every race, creed, and sexual proclivity. i know some excellent software engineers who are "young earth creationists." their rational skills have been honed by virtue of defending their right to breath against eye-rolling Darwinists. in fact, out-groups are often the source of highly competent experts. it takes zero brainpower to roll the eyes and affirm conventional wisdom. and unless you're going to reengineer the Origin of the Species unconventional personal notions do not get in the way of the work.

i hope the a post-geographic society of smart folks collaborating where each person's talents are exercized regardless of their personal context. i tend to agree with you about Joliette and/or Gary (Grand Rapids, MI is quite comfortable), but if one can't work with a team-member from Snakenavel (and i'm not suggesting you can't), i won't want him on my team.

But we are talking past each other a little. I've focused on the local boy who chooses to telecommute from Hickville to the Big Apple, and you're talking about the city slicker who moves to Green Acres. If Snakeville, KS wants to prosper by attracting city slickers, then it had better make them comfy, otherwise they'll just up and move to Bugtussle. This dynamic could make for some interesting satellite communities...

Re:the answer to outsourcing

[Kymermosst]

It cannot be the answer, because in rural america people do not understand technology, but in India they do. Big difference.

That's the biggest line of bullshit I think I've ever seen. Typical of someone who hasn't spent a day outside of the city.

Having grown up in rural America, I can safely say that we understand technology just fine. Not just mechanical technology such as engines, combines, hay bailers, and other complex machines (which any farmer certainly knows better than you). There are plenty of examples [deere.com] of high-tech [caseih.com] equipment [newholland.com] that rural America understands better than you.

How about irrigation technology? With the price of water rights and well permits going up, farmers have to be especially concerned with water delivery systems. Farmers know what kind of irrigation systems deliver the most irrigation to the ground while minimizing evaporation. Do you?

What about the role of GPS in farming [texascattleraisers.org]? How about Zaurus PDAs used in cattle herding [newscientist.com]?

Shall we talk about milk [linuxdevices.com] next? Technology [fullwood.com] in that field is fairly advanced, too.

Yes, rural America understands technology. You clearly don't understand rural America.

Kind of insulting and a bit wrong.

[Liam Slider]

I live in a "rural area." There are lots of small towns around here, granted, they are a bit closer to the charming variety...they have shops and cafes and local flavor... I've been through "small towns" in other areas that are just...well...nothing but houses, a grain bin, and a church. Even when they are the same size! So I suppose it makes a difference what regional culture you are speaking of, as in some "small town" isn't exactly dead.

Now, around here...lots of small towns, not much in the way of "city." But we do have lots of good connecting highways which we put to good use, towns are a short drive from each other, and each is different. Very few can be considered dying, maybe some could be considered "sleepy" but they at least tend to serve a purpose. The smallest towns providing additional places to live for people to work in somewhat larger towns (say, population 5000 or so) where the industry is. But yes, industry...lots of factories and shipping and processing and industrial repair...or maybe oil industry, or coal. Of course, the big transportation hubs tend to be bigger, 12,000-16,000 people or so. Jobs are plentiful, and the economy is doing pretty well. I can understand those regions where they have nothing that the economy might not be so hot...but it's jumping here. Oh and we've had tech for years, ISPs, small town computer stores/computer repair, cellphones, etc...none of it "saved/saving" the economy...just one more necessity. Heck, even farming is high tech these days, and they need internet as much as the rest of us. But it's just one more service that's out there.

And so when we get some bozo who suggests that all of rural America is dying and that only tech jobs can save it. Don't be a little surprised if some of us aren't just a little bit insulted by him. Then again....those city slickers will believe anything. ;-)