Re:America’s Need for Skilled Immigrants Isn’t Going Away
by thrmsforbfast on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @07:02PM
(#18297223)
> These cities may as well be "coastal" relative to their regions.
IF KC and Pittsburgh aren't "middle america", then the term ceases to have much of a meaning and we might as well stick with "rural".
Re:America’s Need for Skilled Immigrants Isn’t Going Away
by brandonmenc on Wednesday October 24, 2018 @08:47PM
(#18297747)
KC and Pittsburgh metro areas have populations over 2M.
There are a lot of smaller metro areas that are far rural, but aren't big cities - for example, my hometown - Erie, PA, which has a metro population of just over 275k - is very much a city - but is too far from Pittsburgh to benefit from their economic growth. Pittsburgh is fine, but Erie is in decline.
If "middle america" refers to every non-rural city between the coasts, then it is a meaningless term. There is too much economic variation to lump them all together for a single analysis.
These cities may as well be "coastal" relative to their regions. There are a lot of hurting small PA towns less than 100 miles away from Pittsburgh experiencing a brain drain, for example.