"What a beautiful place to live..."

"Wonder what you do for work out here though?"

I've made those statements, or something similar, thousands of times. Seems every time I drive through a here-to-fore unknown part of Arizona or even in my home-state of California, such things escape my lips. How do people in Smalltown, Any-state, USA support themselves anyway?

Yesterday's Republic featured a piece that examines that question. The conclusion reached is that here in Arizona rural counties face serious challenges in fostering local economies that can support residents. Though there appears no simple answer to the problem, the piece did detail a few things that can help these counties "catch-up" to the likes of Maricopa and Pima counties where per capita income is highest.

While not able to provide much in the way of detailed "plans" for addressing all the issues it discusses, I thought the piece was an interesting discussion-starter.