Madison, the most active area picked up 5.6% in the last 5 years. From a pro-growth point of view population loss is probably looked at as being pretty dismal, particularly, if your are the governor, and most obviously his critics. But in truth, there are many stories to this situation, even though for the bulk of the state citizens growth is necessary and the most wonderful thing in the world. No matter who you are, it is probably being viewed as if this is the end of the world, if not the local economy. Believe me, this cuts on all side of the political spectrum. Growth, growth, growth, that is all everybody wants---even though endless growth is not possible. .
But there is another side to the story, and while it is not well excepted, there may be some good news in it, but not good news for business as usual. What is clearly happening is jobs are drying up in many of the outlying areas. Where there used to be extraction industries, there is now close to nothing. No more farming, except with a few very large dairies, some corn and bean cash cropping maybe, but no mining, no lumbering, not even much pulp cutting as many of the paper plants have moved over-seas or simply closed because of interweb communications. There simply is not much to do. Maybe some recreational/tourism related businesses, now there are even trappers, and some folks literally living a subsistence operation with odd jobs on holiday cabins.
This has been going on for some time and really hit when much of tourism was set back starting in '06. Clearly, in driving north it is easy to see some very depressed communities and lots of folks living in no more than Uni-bomber shacks.
Of course, many of those that vacated the remote places move to cites, or suburbia where they thought they could find work. Most of the jobs found were low paying, part time and with little opportunity. It is a general drop in the standard of living for what was a middle class.
It is beginning to look like this is a pattern world-wide. It is in the news everywhere, even in China and India. Here in Wisconsin . however, we may have an odd benefit in that as the people leave, it takes pressure off the environment. The forest recovers, the native plants have a way of sneaking back in and even fish populations might return--there is now a movement to get the Lake Trout back in the lake Michigan and Superior. With fewer people in these areas, it is making some breathing room for the natural world. Yes, the cities are becoming more crowded, and that is their problem because it puts more pressure on social services, crime rate, and taxes.
What it comes down to, is while some complain of this loss, others, like me, might rejoice the return of the native ground, or return to a more sustainable use (but I don't have to work). If indeed, we were to get another down-turn as may predict, the vacating of the remote areas will become greater still.
Wisconsin is fortunate in that this part of the country has only really been ravaged a few times since first settlement,so it can come back unlike many places in the world, where it has been ravaged for thousands of years there is virtually no hope. The middle east and North Africa are examples of this and the population is now flooding out of these regions as there is no way to find food, water
or shelter--there simply isn't any.
We are fortunate and I don't really see population loss as a bad thing, maybe in the long run a good thing. .
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