Hugo Nebula wrote:
On Thu, 8 Jan 2009 10:29:34 +0000, a certain chimpanzee, TheOldFellow
randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

The point is that even if we wished to pay more to get the same service
as the poor townies, granting that the costs are higher, we can't 'cos
the infrastructure can't support it.

I live in a suburb of one of the 'core cities'; we have high crime
levels and the insurance premiums to prove it; I live less than a mile
from a motorway junction yet it takes ten minutes to get onto it in
the mornings; the bus takes forty minutes to get into the city centre.
On top of that, my broadband connection struggles to get 2Mbps. It
sounds like I need to move to the countryside to get better
communications and a lower cost of living.

Yup.

We live a mile from the village shop and petrol station. And the surgery.

Our local hairdresser comes by car and cuts our hair for a fiver.

I get 3Mbps broadband.

It took a few years to get the exchange enabled though.

To 'enjoy' city life I have to drive 25 miles, to get ripped of fo
parking, and spend the last 20 minutes of the 40 minute journey, getting
from the outskirts to the center. Breaking my suspension on speed humps
all the way.

I pay just as much council/income tax as the city, but get zero back for
it.

Fortunately. I don't want speed humps, chicanes, street lights, gay day
centers, or anything like that.

The water that falls on thelad here is ultimatley drunk my teh good
citizens of teh downstream towns. We don't charge them for it.
The barley and wheat that is grown here comes the milk, the beer, and
the vodkas drunk by those cities. They don't even pay enough to make it
profitable.

I can buy a lamb or a half pig, butchered for £100. In the supermarket
it tastes of nothing, and cost 3-4 times as much.

But it does come wrapped in plastic waste.