Yup! I live in a small village in rural Michigan, and we are most definitely a food desert — except during August and September when Amish farmers sell their produce directly from their farms.

My neighbors tell me there used to be locally owned grocery stores around here. Not anymore. To buy food, I have to drive 30 minutes to a small city, where I can shop at Walmart or a different, regional big-box store. All of us have to do that, and all the profits from our grocery shopping fly away as soon as we pay.

In return, we get a few minimum wage (or close to minimum wage) jobs.

If we don't want to drive all the way to Walmart, we can shop at Dollar General, with its limited selection, lack of fresh food or produce, and high prices. Shrinkflation deceptively makes some items at DG look moderately priced, but an observant shopper will notice that the opposite is true.

And what happens if we shop at Dollar General? Once again, the money is sucked right out of our region.

Also, nobody wants to work there, turnover is incredibly high, because they don't pay a living wage.

But, hey, fat cats somewhere are living high on the hog off of exploiting us. So, yay for them!? I guess? They learned all the right lessons in business school?

Wow.

This is what we got for not having effective governance it looks out for the interests of everyone, not just the interests of corporate fat cats.