Homesteading 2.0

摘要

IT STARTED AS a joke. Beth Dow received an article from her husband about Vermont paying workers to move to the state. But the jest soon became reality. Within a few months, Mrs Dow and her husband had left their home in Denver for Bennington, a town of 15,000 in southern Vermont, and were paid $5,000 to cover their move. Vermont is one of many states with a population that is dwindling. Around 80% of counties across the country-largely those clustered in the north-east and Midwest-lost working-age adults from 2007 to 2017, according to the Economic Innovation Group (EIG), a think-tank. Some 65% will lose working-age adults over the next decade. The scale of this decline is new, precipitated by an ageing workforce, falling fertility rates and less immigration. Population declines affect housing markets, municipal finance and local economies. Fewer people means less housing demand, tax revenue and business.