In case you missed it, Buzzfeed last week published an essay I wrote about our project. The headline might come off as a bit pessimistic, and I hope that doesn’t distract from what we’re trying to do, which is start a new kind of conversation about our economy and politics. If the truth of the American rural economy is a land of Wal-Marts and prisons and hospitals, with $12/hour service jobs, then no amount of sloganeering can change that. If that’s not the world we want, we should talk about what we do want, and how to get there. And, we think, telling the story of how we got here is a good way to start.
John W. Miller