Travel

Ever wonder why everyone seems to love small towns? Why is it that small towns are often able to self regulate without the need for endless laws, regulations, and policies? What allows them to function without most of the complexities of “advanced” metropolitan mega cities? It’s not even just that they seem to function smoothly with less crime, less liter, and more happiness – have you witnessed how visitors from big cities almost immediately profess how cute, nice, and peaceful they are. This feeling doesn’t seem to transfer well in the inverse. People from big cities are often relieved to head out of town and dread coming back. Smaller communities seem to fit well with the following social psychology theories broken windows theory, bystander effect, tragedy of the commons, and lastly behavior normalization. Power (political and economic) ends up being decentralized as the community self regulates and dulls extreme behaviors. The average citizen and the “decision makers” are also much more likely to come into contact. The downsides are few from what I’ve witnessed but for a balanced perspective, I list them below: – tradition will often trump new ideas and innovation – fewer niche/speciality services and product available – claustrophobic feelings – bad for profit – quality of life ends up being moderate instead of at the extremes (unlikely to produce many Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or homeless camps) We’re left to wonder if people would even want to live in big cities if it weren’t one of the few places they could earn an income (aka sell their labor).