I was just commenting to a friend of mine that the trend towards remote workers may reverse the shrinking of small towns. Not everyone wants to live in a big city, and if they can work for a company that is not located there, some will prefer smaller towns. Making sure that all of American has broadband will be as important as RFD was in the day to preserve our rural areas. For those who don't know what RFD is, it is Rural Free Delivery, and it meant that people in rural areas didn't have to pay to have their mail delivered. It completely revitalized the rural areas. Sears & Roebuck prospered because they could sell to the whole country. Today, broadband internet access is needed for everyone. I live in a rural area, and reliable, fast broadband has just become available. I have a remote job, and broadband makes it possible for me to stay living here. I can see where pockets of remote tech workers would want to live in the same place, maybe having a co-working place to go to. I have a co-working office I use several days a week that is all technical workers. It's the perfect balance for me between being home all the time, and having an office with other remote workers to work with.

If people can live in these communities with an income that is middle class, they will help the communities to prosper, which may help reverse the trend towards suicide and drug use. I sometimes eat at the restaurants and shop in the stores of my small town. Our insurance agents and lawyers are there, and we do our banking there. Having real opportunities to maybe open a store, or work at the insurance office for the residents there might help their lives improve.

My cousin's son died of a heroin overdose, and he was the nicest, funnest guy. Everyone loved him. Do city people think that those who are suffering are just losers who deserve their fate? That is simply not true. Many have families who love them, and the potential to have a good life, but heroin is such a strong addiction. They need help, not condemnation. I think the de-criminalizing it is essential to solving the crisis. My cousin's son would maybe have survived and gotten help if his friends would have brought him to an ER. I think they were afraid of getting arrested and having their place raided by police, and they rationalized that he would probably be ok by morning. If they didn't have the threat of legal problems over their heads, they might have called 911 when he was unresponsive. Instead, they decided to wait it out, and he died.

These are not easy problems to solve, and it will require people to challenge their ideas about who needs fast internet, and who the people affected by the heroin epidemic are.