personal and social disruption; and a social crisis that truly can be
called a crisis of community.
The income gap between rural and urban segments of the national
population apparently is not cyclical and it is not receding (Henry et
al., p. 35). In fact, there is evidence of an increasing gap in the 1980s.
In 1985, the poverty rate for nonmetropolitan counties (Brown and
Deavers, pp. 1-6) was one-third higher than for metropolitan coun-
ties (18.3 percent compared to 12.7 percent). A gap is shown both in
estimates of per capita income and in survey data on unemployment
and underemployment (U.S. Congress, pp. 144-157).
This is a matter of crucial importance given the logical require-
ment that jobs and income be the initial focus of any analysis of rural
problems. Rural development or rural revitalization simply cannot
start if it does not start with jobs and income. While there are excep-
tions, such as in the Northeast where poverty tends to be at a higher
rate in urban areas than in rural areas, the national picture is one of
rural economic distress. In many rural areas, jobs simply are not
available to meet local needs. Furthermore, the rural economy is
highly unstable, as shown in the recent histories of the two predomi-
nant rural industries, agriculture and manufacturing. At the heart
of the problem is the lack of diversity in local rural economies. Diver-
sity is needed to give stability in the face of shifts caused by global
economic and political forces.
Jobs and income, however, are not all. Services and amenities also
are sadly lacking in rural areas, and the rural infrastructure for
economic development of roads, bridges, communications facilities
and the like, is far from adequate to meet the current and future
needs of people. Problems of distance, density and poverty have com-
bined to deny adequate levels of health care, child care, education
and related services to many rural Americans.
In the rural South, for example, rates of illiteracy and infant mor-
tality are at Third World levels and a big part of the reason is inade-
quate resources and services to meet human needs (Beaulieu). Where
services are lacking, deficits in human capital are profound, as shown
by the problems of attracting jobs and venture capital to areas such
as the rural South.
In all regions, distance from urban centers increases the cost of
service delivery, and for many people it decreases the likelihood that
services will, in fact, be delivered. Rural communities therefore must
struggle to provide police and fire protection, sewage treatment and
disposal and other municipal services, not to mention planning and
management services to meet local problems and plot the future of
the community. Increasing demands for services—an almost univer-
sal theme in municipalities today—are not matched in most rural
communities by any increase in resources to provide services.
Inequality is another rural problem, one receiving far less atten-