This came up in @Empty_America’s comments earlier. I think people wrongly believe that these places (incl towns in America) need to have an economy around “something”. The reality is once you have a large enough number of people subsidized by the state - that is the economy 1/x

The typical small town is basically like an oil state, except the money comes from the government in the form of pensions, healthcare (even in the US), schools. That money then trickles into the local economy propping up service businesses. 2/

What small towns have going for them is that if costs are low, government transfers go a long way. A town of 5,000 probably needs a medical center. You have a dozen doctors now paid entirely by Medicai(d/re). Staff included that’s optically $20M injected into the local economy 3/

That’s $20M into a nominal GDP of $380M (actually much less). Social security, disability, HUD and VA probably inject another $50-100M. State funded construction work and education adds more. 4/

Now throw in a few dozen email jobs, one or two small industrial operations, a farm and you got yourself a nice little economy. There’s enough for stores, barbers, restaurants and some entertainment.