Wal-mart sells cheaper. You can see a bit of the future here in Meta and hundreds of places like it. This is a place where relatively low-skill workers toil at labor intensive jobs to turn out the products of other Americans buy without a second thought. Rex Campbell, a University of Missouri professor of rural sociology, says that Meta defines what he calls the end of the friction of distance. Because of improved transportation, improved communications, people can live anywhere today.
People don t have to be in New York City to be in the stock market.
They can be in Meta, Missouri, and be in the stock market, or wherever, and so people have much more choice now on where they live. Almost overnight the perception of distance in rural America has changed. Not so long ago a trip to the nearest big town, Jefferson City up the road, meant a jarring two-day ride in a wagon behind a team. Then came a Model-T, quicker, but fraught with problems. Even a 1977 Chevy Impala wasn t entirely worry free.