nostr:npub1syf88qrutdky8hl7f63s8sznazrr4pehcp9nlpnfqffkz6ptpr2ssqmzey Cities have always been important. The US was healthier when the wealth was more spread out.
Small and mid-sized cities used to play a big role in the US economy. For trade, manufacturing, even design/innovation and white collar occupations, smaller cities played a big role. The US economy was more diverse. Today, we’re very reliant on a few ‘industries’ which aren’t really productive (tech, finance, health, government), which produce the majority of our GDP and are concentrated in a few cities. If one of these failed the others would likely go too.
The barrenness of huge swaths of what used to be an amazingly productive country, even back to the 19th century, isn’t something to brag about.