More of the people in those states are employed doing the things that have to get done every day ... wait the tables, make the beds, feed the cows. Jobs that do

More of the people in those states are employed doing the things that have to get done every day ... wait the tables, make the beds, feed the cows. Jobs that don't go away but also don't enrich. With pockets of exception, they don't have nearly as many technical or research or development or education or arts or entertainment jobs ... and those they have got usually couldn't pay any less. "Perpetual misery" might be a caustic, but appropriate, description. (Spent much of my life in them.)