I think you have cause and effect backwards. I've talked to a few friends who came from small towns like these: they put in the effort needed to get good jobs s

I think you have cause and effect backwards. I've talked to a few friends who came from small towns like these: they put in the effort needed to get good jobs so they could get out of their hometowns. They were all unhappy growing up in a town where there's nothing to do but opioids and where being LGBTQ+ or anything other than an evangelical protestant would get you ostracized by the community at best or violently assaulted at worst. Getting a good job was just their method of getting the hell out of that environment.