Rural America makes up 90 percent of the country but holds less than 20 percent of the population, and those numbers continue to decline. Yesterday we looked at a book putting forth the argument that cities make us better, happier and healthier. But what about the argument for living in the country? 

Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan come from hill towns and farm country all across America – and when they return home, they bring their combat injuries with them. Traumatic brain injuries and missing limbs require sophisticated and constant treatment, and the Department of Veterans Affairs has a duty to treat them. But when roads are blocked by snow, or the nearest VA facility is hours away, giving veterans the care they’ve been promised can be a challenge.

China's economy continues to take hits as reports are in that their imports and exports fell for a third straight month. As China's population buys less, a recession looms and it is leaving over 20 million rural workers in China unemployed. For more, we are joined by the BBC's Chris Hogg who is in Shanghai.

They’re calling it the modern day equivalent of the electrical grid, or the interstate highway system. Seven billion dollars of the stimulus plan making its way through Congress right now is devoted to bringing broadband internet to under-served parts of the country. But technology experts worry that the multi-billion dollar tech plan will suffer if we don’t have more time to look at exactly what technology we’re getting. One of these experts is The Takeaway's technology contributor Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor at the University of Virginia, who joins us now to talk about these concerns.