Your comment is ignorant and myopic. The area I come from has switched from being hugely important to completely worthless multiple times over the past few centuries.
Even then, being profitable is not the same as being useful to society.
So we should be subsidizing every small town in the hopes that maybe some day they begin contributing back to society? Can I go into the mountains and demand a sewage line and hospital be built next to me?
Did you grow up in one and not enjoy it? You seem extremely passionate about this issue. I can kind of relate, but although I left a small town in favor of city life, I don't think it's necessarily the ideal, or that the richness and complexity of cities makes smaller scales redundant.
Even then, being profitable is not the same as being useful to society.