This chapter addresses the myth that rural America is a relic of history and that rural contributions to society are no longer as critical as they once were. This chapter argues that rural America is the current and future site of essential national amenities and services. These underappreciated rural amenities include agricultural land and clean energy production, as well as rural regions’ status as the national safety net for a society that will need to migrate inland from the coasts where much of the population is concentrated today. The chapter makes the case that agricultural land, clean energy production, and rural infrastructure should be treated as commons resources, stewarded for our society’s collective benefit. Reconceptualizing rural America as a commons helps provide broad normative guidance for the challenging governance task of reconciling local entitlement to rural resources alongside regional and national entitlement to them. The chapter proposes five principles that would help better govern rural America as a more resilient commons, including recognizing more rural work as work in the public interest, building capacity to avoid boom–bust cycles, democratizing rural resources, pursuing racial justice as central to resilience, and recognizing that investing in rural infrastructure benefits society as a whole.

This chapter addresses the myth that rural regions are unsustainable due to challenges with economies of scale and the perception that rural life must be “subsidized.” While urban life is commonly viewed as dynamic and efficient, rural life is often considered a waste of resources. These views cause skepticism about investing in, and supporting, rural life more robustly. There are several problems with the myth of rural unsustainability. First, it neglects urban–rural interdependence and the fact that cities are subsidized by rural provision of food, energy, fibers, and other natural and processed resources. Second, the myth discounts the decades-long tradition of utilities and common carrier regulation in the United States. Economic regulation, which was more substantial prior to the deregulatory era since the 1980s, was designed to help facilitate geographic convergence, guard against concentration of resources in mega-cities, create a cohesive national economy, and make the distribution of resources and opportunities across landscapes more equitable. The chapter interrogates the concept of economies of scale, explores overlooked urban dependency, and reviews legal history and legislative debates surrounding transportation and telecommunications regulation, such as through the Interstate Commerce Commission, to make the case that rural communities should and can be sustained, and are thus “sustainable.”