Friday, November 29th, 2019
Stephan: Except for the people who live in rural America few in the country seem to realize the degree to which life in those areas is becoming more difficult, more dangerous, and less comfortable. Hospital are closing by the score because they aren't profitable enough or, as a result of criminal Trump's immigration policies, because the foreign-born physicians and nurses that staffed rural hospitals are no longer coming to America.
A rural American who has a heart attack may not be able to get to a hospital in the "golden hour" thus putting their survival at risk.
A rural pregnant woman whose water breaks may live more than 100 miles from a hospital and end up delivering her baby in a car before she can get to a facility where she can get the care she needs, and this is just the beginning.
Now banking for rural Americans is being degraded in a massive way, as this story describes.
The factual reality is that because everything in the United States is calibrated to profit, and rural areas aren't that profitable, the quality of life for those who live there, particularly in Red value states, is becoming problematic.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Add one more thing to the list of rural America’s ails: diminished access to banks.
Driving the news: The shuttering of branches across the U.S. had a disproportionate negative effect in certain areas, according to new research from the Federal Reserve.
- Underbanked rural communities were left with even fewer banks in the span of five years.
- Urban communities didn’t see the same substantial declines.
Why it matters: Lack of banking services could help propel the issues plaguing rural America — including population declines (as more people move to urban areas) and economic malaise — and exacerbate the rural-urban divide.
- Access to banking services is crucial to “build a cushion of wealth that can provide stability and support economic opportunity and mobility over the long term,” per the Fed.
The latest: The Fed identified 44 counties that had 10 or fewer branches in 2012 and then lost at least half of those banks by 2017. 89% of those counties are rural, including places like Cochran County in Texas […]
