Coming Soon: Forced into Cities

Here are some predictions of what the next ten years will bring. The root prediction is that environmental excuses will be used to attempt to force rural populations to change their way of life, and even abandon it.

I predict that taxes on gasoline will go up, while rural road maintenance will go down. Some of the money from the increased fuel taxes will likely be used to subsidize some form of mass transit that could not stand on its own economic feet without taxpayer subsidies. The most likely form this will take will be a light rail system.

Unfortunately the idea of letting local people run their own lives has fallen into disfavor. Giant capital cities now make decisions for the small town heartland. They look around their big cities and see that light rail works for them and that they don’t need cars (except for a few at the top) and so they decide that the rest of us don’t either. I see government policy increasingly aimed at forcing Americans out of their automobiles and onto public transit. They will do this by raising the costs of driving your own vehicle in order to subsidize mass transit. That won’t be its only form though. They will push bicycle paths, supposedly for “recreation” but they will build them right through to commerce areas. They are planning for a future where much of the population does not have a personal automobile.

I also see coming efforts to make rural life more difficult. This will be done through what appear to be local entities like Beaver Lake Water District, but the marching orders will come from far away. They will relentlessly seek to increase their power to regulate land owners so that while you may still own your property, you must seek permission from them in order to use it for anything.

The Beaver Lake Water District could already fix the only legitimate water-quality issue we face- sediments during lake turnover. Other water districts apply safe and inexpensive chemicals to deal with the problem. Ours could too, but it would lose a lever to get people to accept more control over their land.

The so-called “Food Safety and Modernization Act” may or may not pass, but if it fails they will try again. It would end farmers markets and roadside stands. Agri-business loves it because it will hamstring the small farmer. Control freaks in government love it because all food sold would need their permission.

While all this is going on, government will continue to tax rural residents and send the money to cities. Cities will get one government hand-out after another. Rural areas will get more regulations, lose more schools, and find personal travel to be more expensive. The overall effect, and intent, will be to push people into cities.

It is hard for a normal well-adjusted person to understand the bent psyche of the control-freaks that infest government. The average person just does not sit around dreaming up big plans for everyone else’s life. But some people do, and when they get some authority, it’s scary. Consolidation of schools, policies that drive people into cities, and loss of individual travel freedom are all measures that make populations easier to control. Whatever the stated reason for these coming changes, control is the real reason.