The Death of Small Town America

by Bruce Allison

I started my 3 day journey on the Greyhound bus early Sunday afternoon. I was taking the bus from San Francisco to get to the US Social Forum in Atlanta with Seniors Organizing Seniors. Along the way, I noticed the death of small town America.

There are very few family farms left in middle America. Farms have died. They have been killed by the corporations. Main St. America, too is dead. There were vacant houses and bulidings for miles. Signs everywhere read for rent or sale.

This is due to the building of big box stores like Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Their low-cost and imported products are locking people into poverty all across America. Low pay and non grossing jobs as greeters and clerks at these big box stores also force people to stay in positions of poverty with limited education. These folks are also prohibited from earning livable wages and actions such as striking that might lead to livable wages. This is how the serf class has been and continues to be created in America.

The death of middle America has also been caused by big corporate farms. You can see this clearly in Texas. These large corporate farms pay low wages to employees and often use prisoners as laborers.

The death of the working class in middle America signals the rebirth of the middle ages where the chamber of commerce rules.