Does staying in a rural community mean young people must sacrifice economic and educational opportunity? A new study looks at an old dilemma.

Financial Times writer James Kynge describes an incredible economic transformation in rural China. "Reforms in rural finance, the monetisation of agricultural land and social welfare appear poised to turn China’s countryside from an indigent backwater to a driver of national economic growth over the next five to 10 years," Kynge reports. 

The biggest change is the opening of a market in land. Until recently, rural land was an "inert asset," according to Kynge. Beijing is now encouraging the sale of land and as a result rural land is now being accumulated into larger parcels. This is "spurring the creating of larger, more mechanized and more profitable farms, boosting the sales of both agricultural machinery companies such as First Tractor and farming enterprises such as Zhongpin." Small farmers are starting to use land as collateral to borrow money and expand their operations. And this is increasing the number of new companies being formed in rural areas. The Chinese government is also backing loans to farmers and this is increasing productivity in rural communities. In one peculiar Internet venture, an entrepreneur is buying pig farms an then broadcasting his pigs development to pork buyers in cities.

"Already this year the growth rate in rural retail sales has outpaced that in the cities," Kynge writes. "It remains to be seen if this can be sustained but the rollout of a rudimentary social welfare system – including an ambitious plan to provide healthcare in every village and pension cover for all rural residents by 2020 – might free up disposable income."

We often wonder here at the Yonder why some places make it and others don't. Everybody looks for some program or step-by-step guide, when what they really need is a good dose of Canadian — as in Canadian, Texas.

“We specialize in being audacious,” Laurie Ezzell Brown, the editor of The Canadian Record, told New York Times reporter Jere Longman.  “We haven’t accepted the fate of most dusty Panhandle towns. At some point, we decided not to curl up and die.” Longman wrote about Canadian's football team — now 4-0 after years when it never won a playoff — but the story is really about a town that refused to go away. There are no programs mentioned, no grand state or federal grants, no Toyota plants or industrial parks. What Canadian seems to have are a lot of people who try things to make the town better, and who keep trying. The downtown is restored. The town has made investments in eco-tourism. It's a commodities trading center. The richest guy in town has a broom and dustpan in the back of his pickup to sweep up trash he finds around town.

“We’re 100 miles from any place you can buy underwear,” said Tresea Rankin, 50, owner of the Bucket sandwich shop, who supplies seven restaurants across the Panhandle with her celebrated sourdough bread. “You make a choice. You can be of the world or have your own. We choose to have our own.” There you have it -- the key to rural economic development.

We spend too much time worrying about jobs that come and go when the real wealth of a community can be found in the things that last.