Recruiting young tech workers to revitalize small towns in America's Heartland

Are you a maverick who wants to relocate to an area with tons of space, low rent offices and housing, and solid American values? The small towns of America's Heartland could be for you. Long shrinking, many are now revitalizing and changing with an influx of young people (some returning) and also immigrants.

Joel Kotkin documents that you *can* locate a tech company in remote small Heartland towns, thanks to connectivity in communications and economy via the internet. In the chapter "The Resurgent Heartland" of the visionary book "The Next 100 Million." He sees the Heartland as a key region for US future population growth--vast livable space, which many other major countries don't have as an outlet for population growth.

The Bloomerg article below discusses "rural-sourcing" i.e. recruiting young tech workers to revitalized small towns. Entrepreneurs can essentially build a whole company and carve a big niche in a small town. Many towns have perks for newcomers like tax breaks and student loan repayment. Commuting times? Not even a factor. Backyard sizes = huge.

Average rent for a 1 br apartment in Lincon, Nebraska = $635, less than half Washington, DC $1375.

Tocqueville noted how important America's frontier was in the 1800s as an outlet to relieve population pressures. Later, in the 1900s the US declared the American frontier "closed." No more free land through the Homestead Act. But now, the Heartland is, in a sense, re-opened thanks to a new level of livability through internet connectivity.

Interestingly, Kotkin sees a change in the role of towns on the future Heartland map: small towns were originall waystations on the pioneer and farm roads that criscrossed America, but in the future Kotkin sees these towns forming an "archipelago" of individual communities connected by technology and internet, thriving on industries not necessarily related to farming.

The Heartland Will Play a Huge Role in America's Futureby Joel Kotkin
http://www.newgeography.com/content/001504-the-heartland-will-play-a-huge-role-americas-future

longer treatment found in Kotkin's book "The Next 100 Million"
Youthful Migrants Lured by Perks to Shrinking U.S. Areas|by Jeanna Smialek
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-18/youthful-migrants-lured-by-perks-to-shrinking-u-s-areas.html