They are. The small towns in the western corn belt (IA, MN, Dakotas, NE, IL) are better than the rest of the country by a noticeable margin.My opinion but this isn’t unique to Iowa, small towns everywhere are hurting. I actually think because of the agriculture in Iowa, small towns are doing better here than many parts of the country.
And by "better" I mean that they tend to be doing better economically. The towns are maintained, and people have a comfortable existence/relatively high quality of life.
Outside of tourist areas, most of rural America is struggling a lot more, and the strong ag economy here is a big buffer against that struggle.
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