> Sure, but I'd wager that the rural folk would be fine if all the city dwellers disappeared, and that the opposite is not true.
As much as I like rural folks and like to spend time with them (and despise folks who look down on them), the farmer is just as reliant on the financiers who ensure a steady cash flow for the multinational which delivers him his fertiliser, his fuel, the parts for his tractor, his clothes, his food &c. &c. &c.
But do you think your medicine, qualified doctors, medical equipment, internet, computers you use, movies and tv series you watch, trucks you drive and tons of other things besides grow on trees?
Cities really, truly, have historically predominantly invented, produced and designed those things (including designing and paying for the factories seemingly in the country).
Not many medicine schools, pharma corps, research labs, car manufactures, tech companies, tv and movie studios, etc operating out of rural Idaho, or South Dakota, or Alabama, or what have you...
In the United States, if the "city dwellers" all disappeared, the "rural folk" would go from barely getting by despite being heavily subsidized by everyone else to some kind of devolved state that looked like an Amish version of The Road Warrior.
If the opposite happened, urban areas would buy their food somewhere else and eventually save some money thanks to the increased competition in the market and the lack of agricultural subsidies, not to mention all the other ways we subsidize rural America's inefficiencies.
If you want to go back to subsistence farming, sure. The world is filled with places like that. Don't forget that your machinery is largely designed and built in urban environments. Don't forget that your serious medical care comes from urban environments. And, most importantly, don't forget that your customers largely come from urban environments. If the cities went away, so do your clients and your manufacturing and transportation sources. So, back to subsistence living for you...
I grew up in the city and spent summers on my uncle's farm and have seen both sides. Gods, I am tired of this fucking stupid rural vs urban debate. They need each other, and can't exist in a modern world without each other. Move to the countryside and I hear stereotypes about how shit the people in the city are. Move back to the city and hear stereotypes about how shit the people in the country are. Both sets of stereotypes are largely wrong. Likewise, the people whose jobs straddle both urban and rural environments are not the people who use these stereotypes.
