Engineering For Smallville

A paragraph to ponder from Neil Shah, Smallville, USA Fades Further, in the March 27th issue of the Wall Street Journal:

"Nearly 60% of rural countries shrank in population last year, up from 50% in 2009 and around 40% in the late 1990s.  In all, almost eight in 10 of the countries that lost population over the past three years were outside of metropolitan areas, according to an analysis of Census data by William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution.  Over half of those counties were heavily dependent on farming, manufacturing or mining, he said."