Drove hundreds of miles through some very rural New England, USA today. Most areas were very nice with well kept homes and cute, small city centers (mostly only a couple of brick, commercial buildings).
What do people do for jobs out in the “middle of nowhere”? As an engineer who works closer to city areas where more jobs exist, I just can’t fathom what people are doing for jobs out there? How is everything paid for?
Edit: I should clarify there’s minimal farm land out in rural New England. So, not very many farmers at all.
Is forestry happening in the area? A few thousand hectares of well managed forest creates hundreds of jobs. A couple of timber mills and all the labour that powers them, mechanics and saw doctors for those.
Trucks to haul the lumber, machines and operators to cut and extract it, and the mechanics for those. Machines to prepare the site for replanting and the operators and mechanics for those. Ground crews to plant trees. Foresters to manage the forest and all of the beaurocracy and hierarchy that comes with that. Fire management crew, science and research crews, plot measurers, tree markers…
Then you need another whole industry to keep this small army plied with booze and food.