Gee, I thought part of the appeal of living in a small, out-of-the-way town was that you ARE NOT connected to the "outside world", but I wonder if any of these people complaining have heard of the Internet, and should try using THAT instead of having taxpayers subsidize their plane flights? 

The "federal Essential Air Service program" was initiated back in 1978 before we had Internet and cheap long distance phone connections, Amazon.com to deliver whatever you want etc... It's time to mothball this idea as it is now obsolete and replaced by technology.