--- title: Why We Don't Talk About Rural Poverty description: The downside of 'moonshots' for scientific innovation, why we don't talk about rural poverty and more. canonical: https://time.com/4182256/rural-poverty/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-15T17:50:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:35.302Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why We Don't Talk About Rural Poverty og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4182256/rural-poverty/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why We Don't Talk About Rural Poverty twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Why We Don't Talk About Rural Poverty by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 15, 2016 5:50 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 15, 2016 5:50 PM UTC **1\.** [**Why curing cancer is not a ‘moonshot’**](http://time.com/4178742/cancer-moonshot-obama/) By Jeffrey Kluger in TIME **2\.** [**Why don’t we talk about rural poverty?**](http://inthesetimes.com/rural-america/entry/18526/why-the-left-isnt-talking-about-rural-american-poverty) By Lauren Gurley at In These Times **3\.** [**What’s stopping Pakistan from eradicating polio? Terrorism.**](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the%5Fslatest/2016/01/13/suicide%5Fbomber%5Fattacks%5Fpolio%5Feradication%5Fcenter%5Fin%5Fpakistan.html) By Joshua Keating in Slate **4\.** [**Tell consumers about added sugar.**](http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-01-14/add-a-little-sugar-to-nutrition-labels) By the Editors of Bloomberg View **5\.** [**Can national service solve stubborn long-term unemployment?**](https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/report/2016/01/14/128837/expanding-national-service-to-address-long-term-unemployment/) By Harry Stein and Shirley Sagawa at the Center for American Progress  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4182256/rural-poverty/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4182256/rural-poverty/"},"headline":"Why We Don't Talk About Rural Poverty","datePublished":"2016-01-15T17:50:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:35.302Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4182256/rural-poverty/","keywords":["Innovation","Cancer","poverty","Unemployment","Terrorism","Sugar"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4182256/rural-poverty/","name":"Why We Don't Talk About Rural Poverty"}}]}] ```