The Dollar General Theory of Money and Employment

[douglas9]

For the last month and a half I've driven the backroads of southern Indiana, criss-crossing the unglaciated hill country 40 miles south of Indianapolis and 40 miles north of Louisville. It’s mostly forested here, large remarkably unbroken stretches of deciduous woodlands, thick with red oak and shagbark hickory, tulip poplar and black walnut, white ash and wild cherry, American beech and sugar maple. The soil is largely red clay, not productive for farming (or septic systems), but quite satisfactory for morel mushrooms, homegrown weed, and copperheads. The towns are small, little more than villages, clustered near the railroads and old blue highways.

I spent my summers here for 20 years and lived here for a decade. We raised both of our kids here. And since moving to Oregon in 1990, we’ve come back every year or so. For most of that time nothing much about the landscape, the people or the towns changed. They were much as they were in 1982 or 1972. To the north, the suburbs of Indianapolis gnawed up more and more farmland and woodlots, including the 40-acre farm of my mother’s family, which dated back to the 1820s. The fields are now covered by a super-drugstore, a Kroger, a Chick-Fil-A, a furniture store, and a church with a vast parking lot, where carloads come in search of salvation. The place is Jesus mad, though few could tell you more than a couple garbled lines of his teachings. I can’t bear to go back without wanting to blow something up.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/08/29/the-dollar-general-theory-of-money-and-employment/

[abqtommy]

1. I like those words "Jesus mad". When I lived in south Dakota I couldn't help

but notice that there are various churches everywhere and yet there's little love to be
found in public policy. It's a sad reality that there appears to be a connection there.

[UpInArms]

2. I respectfully disagree

The death notice is not the dollar general …

It is when the others stores fold and close …

When the food pantry’s food day is common knowledge

when the big day is not the Fair, but the monthly court date

[Chainfire]

4. I grew up in one of those dying small towns.

If you are going to make a decent living, you have to move out. I moved out, lived in places like Chicago, Tallahassee, and Miami, and once I was financially able, I came back to retire. I bought some inexpensive property out of town and built a home.

The Town started shutting down before I left home. (1970) When I left we had a high school, (K-12) two restaurants, two hardware stores, two grocery stores, a dentist, a TV repair shop, three churches, a barber shop and three gas stations. The big employers were a fertilizer and a feed mill. (the movie theater had shut down before I remembered)

The little town now has one church, one Dollar General and one sleazy non-branded gas station. everything else has evaporated. The place still has a tiny Post Office, but I suspect that it has a target on its back. There is not even a sense of community left, it is just a collection of single family dwellings. Even the volunteer fire department shut down a few months ago. Groceries, fire, ambulance and Sheriff are twelve miles away. To go to the doctor, hospital or a movie it is 40 miles. And, it goes without saying that there is no public transportation available.

With all of the things we are missing, it is still home.

[3Hotdogs]

3. Im figuring it was around 2008. Visiting relatives in Temple, Tx.

It seemed like the town center was boarded up. There were maybe two store selling something. A couple of miles away was the highway with WallyWorld and a couple of other box stores.

This brings me to two observations. One is about the town I live in, Maplewood, N.J. The downtown is thriving as is the case with most northern N.J. towns. Not so much with southern N.J. (Pine Barrens), south of US. 287. Jesus? Well he don't do much business in our town. One of the two Catholic Churches closed down 10 years ago for lack of interested population. The other main stream denominations are probably just getting by. No storefront Jesus shops in our towns.

and the entire region is relatively high income. Maplewood, in particular is a bedroom community for TV and Broadway performers because the express commuter train makes it to Manhattan in about 1/2 hour. Nearest Walmart is 5 miles and 30 minutes from here.


The second thought brings me to the annual marathon of Gene Shepherd's "A Christmas Story," with the Ohio town decked out in Christmas lights. I wonder how many small towns and mid sized cities still have that type of festivity. Has Walmart killed that off? Maplewood and surrounding towns still have holiday stuff going on and it feels good.

[Xoan]

5. It's a shame Jesus didn't save these folks.