Yes. There is a tendency for some to grossly misunderstand the sheer scale of the USA. We have cities with populations of whole countries, able to support extre

Yes. There is a tendency for some to grossly misunderstand the sheer scale of the USA. We have cities with populations of whole countries, able to support extremely high wages, and remote sparsely populated areas completely unable to support any "upward mobility". The South areas being derided suffer relatively higher populations with no ability to support higher wages so there is no mobility other than move to Atlanta or the like, which does nothing for local wage increases. The Northeast has more world class cities to lift the surrounding counties, as does the West coast.