SOCIOECONOMIC TRENDS CHANGING RURAL AMERICA

Three propositions summarize the winds of change now sweeping across rural America. 1. The trends of the times, consistent with dominant historical pat-terns in this society, are altering the economic and social structures of rural communities. 2. In the wake of these trends there is little question about the overall consequences for rural well-being. Rural America is in seri-ous trouble. 3. In rural policy, we, as a society and through our governments, need to put people first in rural development. Socioeconomic Trends A changing rural America has been the call to arms for the applied rural social sciences in this country for nearly a century and a fact of life for nearly five centuries. To be sure, a transformation is under-way in the American countryside in the 1980s and many rural peopl