Ideas in Development

Today’s rural communities in United States are very different from those in the past. No longer boasting a predominately agriculture economy, they are in many respects facing the same competitive challenges that other places do. Low-wage foreign competition, accelerating product cycles, and the application of information technologies throughout the economy will continue to generate lots of economic change, for the better and the worse. As will changing workforce demographics and the widespread adoption of the logistics and outsourcing techniques, demonstrated successfully by Wal-Mart and others.