I’m reminded today that while big cities die in a dramatic urban collapse, small downs die by a thousand policy cuts designed to benefit urban centers and big business.
Detroit was once the jewel of America and after just a few years of riots born out of poor leftist management, everyone with the means had fled and only the destitute remained. The city collapsed into rubble and wastelands in the blink of an eye.
My small town, however, has no such dramatic collapse. Instead we lose a little bit everyday as politicians make policies that benefit urban centers at the expense of the countryside and big businesses pen sweetheart deals that starve out the small businesses that hold small towns together. The heart of these small towns gradually weakens, starved of equal treatment and opportunity, until it stops.
Today’s one of a thousand cuts is change in my insurance. They removed my local hometown pharmacy from being a preferred provider which means I either pay the total cost out of pocket or I bow to big pharma and drive 30 minutes into the next town and do business with a mega-chain. Sweetheart deal that starves the local pharmacy by redirecting business and in doing so, starves the local community of an institution.
It’s just a pharmacy, you say. Not true. It’s one of a very few local employers. It’s a sponsor of the town’s local events and booster for the local high school. It coordinates and runs the local foodbank. It’s a lynchpin of the town. A lynchpin made just that much more brittle by bad policy and unequal business dealings.
I’ll do what I can reasonably do. The meds that are cheap enough to pay full price for, I’ll pay out of pocket for. I don’t mind paying extra…not really. It’s important to support the local community. For those that are higher priced, I’ll have to bow in submission and make the hour-long round trip into town and pay the mega-corp, taking business away from the small town.