Yes - public goods. Even some private goods where irrational behavior might lead to them being under provisioned.

I am generally an economic utilitarian. I just can't see any utility gain from subsidizing rural folks.

I like not having to grow my own food. And I think rural people appreciate all the technology and media, enabled by population density, that we send their way. It's a nice symbiotic relationship.

This will probably continue to be the case until someone figures out how to make vertical farming competitive.

Indeed - its a nice symbiotic relationship enabled by trade and market pricing signals.

Why would market pricing fail in the case of letters when it seems to work so well (as you notes) for package delivery, food production and technology?

Note that this subsidizion can be a private, capitalist decision too. At least the package and mail carriers in my country do not charge by the mile, they charge by weight, so this is probably a non-issue.

> I just can't see any utility gain from subsidizing rural folks.

Ah, so it's "government subsidy" and you have a hard time imagining how that is good for society. Understood, you really are trolling.