Why The South Is Broken
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 มิ.ย. 2023
- The Southern United States is arguably the most complicated, continuous, and historically fascinating region of the U.S. That's because the South was once the epicenter of American economics and population growth. Back when the South's agricultural industry served as the backbone to U.S production and foreign relations. However that was centuries ago, and the South has been broken for longer than you might have thought. Honestly it's more than just the countless little towns eroding away in states like Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, or the loss of industrial jobs there, or corporate farming, poverty, and a crumbling infrastructure.
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Thank you for watching my video on the struggling Southern United States. This isn't a video about why the South is a good or bad place, but a deeper look at how the region is hurting.
As an Australian looking in from the outside, I'd say your voting choices would be a large part of the problem.
@@CombatMosquitoTrainerno the voting choices are a symptom of the problem.
@@CombatMosquitoTrainer How are all things in Oz? I hope you are still there, Mr. bogan! Those in glass houses . . . .well you know the rest, right? There voting choices actually mirror those of sane, respectable Americans everywhere, PARTICULARLY with people who live in areas where progressiveness has ridden off the rails. I fully respect my southern cousins FOR their voting choices (as an urban northerner)!
@@inconnu4961 Progress is inevitable mate, You ain't gonna stop it. So you might as well elect someone who can manipulate it for the betterment of the people. Australia's politicians are a pretty average bunch but some of your southern ones mate, are dumber than a bag of grasshoppers.
The reason I'm throwing stones is, your last dumb southern politician got us into a pointless war with Iraq and Afghanistan.
@ianfromfnq Yep, the southern states (plus the central states of Arkansas, West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri) routinely support the more radically-conservative (and deranged) Republican candidates.
They woefully underfund their public schools, and have atrociously high rates of obesity, drug abuse and domestic violence.
The poor are trapped in a no-win situation, where wealthier residents vote Red to keep the status quo.
Arkansas is unquestionably the deep south
Yeah, and Maine in the deep north.
Arkansas is a transition state. I wouldn't call the Ozarks deep south it is considered the greater Appalachia culturally, but unquestionable east and south Arkansas are very deep south.
Kentucky also, though the people in the northern half probably consider it more as the Midwest.
@@JonasMatthewBahtaNo they do not.
Quite right. I would classify the states he mentioned and Arkansas as "very Southern" and the neighboring states of Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky, and Virginia as "somewhat Southern." American regional boundaries are often gradual shifts rather than hard boundaries. Texas, in addition to having its own famously unique identity, is a transition state between the South and the Southwest. Oklahoma is a transition state between the South and the Great Plains. Missouri is a transition state between the South and the Midwest. Kentucky is a 3-way transition state between the South, the Midwest, and Appalachia. And finally, you could argue that Virginia is another 3-way transition state between the South, Appalachia, and the Northeast.
The problems discussed here are not limited to the south. Small towns are dying everywhere
yes!!!
Rural areas have been dying nationwide for 60 years. You can’t look at poor southern towns and think “that’s the south” while ignoring atlanta or charolette . 60% of georgias residents live in the atlanta area. 6 million of 10 million people live in that city. North Carolina has like 5-6 million people juggled between Raleigh and charolette. The metro areas of the south are huge and population dominant
Um 😐 There are metro areas that are hurting right now in the South and other places as well. Namely ,New Orleans,Shreveport population dropped by 25,000,Jackson Mississippi and its water problem. Others as well. Also there are some rural areas that are Growing Ruston La, Nachitouches La,Minden La probably more.
The thing is, this entire video suffers from a serious lack of scholarship, not only in its definition of what is meant by "broken," what the regional boundaries are and the lack of nuanced characteristics, but also at its core when it proports to explain WHY the region has failed.
Jesus Christ how do you correctly spell Raleigh but misspelled Charlotte
Had this thought too.
Exactly
I'm Southern borne and bred. I've spent almost my entire life minus 3 years in it. I'm also a pretty harsh critic of the South. And even I have to call BS on a good bit of this video. Among many things, Atlanta, Nashville and Charlotte metros aren't the only prosperous areas. There's RTP in North Carolina and Greenville-Spartanburg in South Carolina and Huntsville in Alabama, just to name three more. And this video makes it sound like only the South's rural areas are struggling. Rural areas are struggling in most places in the country. And in the world.
Agreed. Go to the central valley of California, and a lot of people don't know know that the state of New Mexico has highest poverty rates.
Not to mention urban areas like Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, & Flint... As I mentioned in another comment, he gets very selective in his analysis. If it's prosperous, it obviously isn't in the South.
That would be like saying that Michigan & Ohio State aren't in the Big 10, because having good football teams, that isn't like the rest of the conference. The real Big 10 is Northwestern, Indiana, and Rutgers.
100% pick on south but failing to look in mirror and see same problems all over country
The 10 Poorest States in the U.S..... Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arkansas, West Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, and Oklahoma.
You can leave anytime.
The rural south suffers from the same problem as many other struggling areas in America. Corportization of everything which smashed small business and sent millions of manufacturing jobs over seas. The southern textile industry is just one example. These companies deserted small towns, took their jobs with them and nothing has come to replace it for ordinary people who need to live and support their families.
I currently live in the southern textile capital, and it's actually growing. This video makes the horrible assumption that because things broke thanks to nafta, it can't be undone. But I've seen first hand that manufacturing in the south is returning, even if just slowly. And it's probably because Atlanta is the transit capital of the south
I live in New England and the same thing has happened outside major areas; one could observe industry leaving as early as the mid 1970s.
@@aceroy9195 Dalton?
@@willp.8120 yeah.
@@aceroy9195 If that is your picture, then you could be Kenny's Chesney's twin (from a decade or two ago).
I figured you were in or near Dalton given your description. The only other consideration I thought of was Calhoun, but they are nowhere as large as Dalton in textile manufacturing.
As someone from GA. I would say you pretty accurately explained what most of us here consider the south. Florida and Texas have interesting histories that make them both similar and different to the south. The Florida panhandle is definitely the south though!
East Texas and Northern Florida would be considered the south. My ancestors were enslaved in Texas. Texas was a confederate state.
I mean it does have the MOsT anti-minority pro-white racist town in all of America, Harrison¡
Im from south Florida (fort Lauderdale/Miami) and we have a saying here that our south is the north and our north is the south
Texas a very regionalized as you move East to West. Midland, El Paso, Dallas, Austin San Antonio and Houston are different vibes.
@@user-sy4fg1wp4d Texas is last place in the United States that had enslaved people it's the deep south especially East Texas I'm speaking I45 and East. For those that don't know it's the freeway that connects Dallas and Houston.
I feel like this video is on the cusp of a really interesting point. Youre illustrating a very real divide, but its not between the south and the rest of America, but between urban and rural. The Popular understanding of “southern” is probably a lot more linked to “rural” than the literal geographics of the south, so it urabnizing feels like a more distinct move to something different
Yeah, I think that's where it messes up a lot. It's really interesting to notice how the rural-urban divide is truly the strongest in the country, but he neglects the big metros which dominate the states of the deep south, and still further neglects the rural areas of even the Midwest that he discusses in another video which is arguably more important.
I think he wanted to touch on the south, but he didn't really understand it at all.
This. I grew up in a rapidly expanding southern town while my grandparents hometown fell apart
I grew up in jersey, lived in arkansas for 7 years and now in georgia. arkansas is easily one the most southern states culturally. Huge miss
You should come to Georgia
Amen, grew up there and it's as southern as could be.
This dudes an idiot and he clearly has something against Southerners he keep making videos about why the South is “failing” when we’re the most prosperous region rn. Everybody is moving here
This was just 8 minutes of some guy expressing his opinion and bias that the south is so bad.. You didn't really say anything about the south actually being broken. And I've never known southerners to "work twice as hard". Its just a different lifestyle and different economy. Its not broken, which is why southerners are not fleeing the south.
He definitely supports his claims. Sorry it hurt your feelings. He acknowledges that the geographic and cultural lines can be blurred but his general point is absolutely true. Lump the south/southeast together and you got one heaping pile of garbage.
@@bender9222222222 - Check who is leaving what areas. Southerners aren't the ones abandoning blue shitholes!
@@bender9222222222 Uneducated bigot detected. You cannot even locate the South, nor the US on a map. I’m embarrassed for you.
Do better.
It's broken;always has been; you're just in denial.
Most southern states are heavily dependent on federal tax dollars. That weak $7.25 minimum wage won't let them move out of the south. Slowly slipping into life before the 1950s.
Defining the south purely on state boundaries isn’t very accurate. For instance east Texas is most definitely the south but El Paso is most definitely not. The cultural, culinary, and dialects don’t just suddenly stop when you hit an imaginary line. My wife is from south east Texas right on the Louisiana border and guess what they have Cajuns there. She is from Cajun county just as much as someone from south Louisiana.
I divide up Texas sort of based on what kind of barbecue you can get in each part. Based on that, East Texas is the South, West Texas is the Southwest, North Texas (especially the panhandle) are kind of with Kansas and all of that (I don’t know what that region is called. Western Midwest?) Then Central Texas and South Texas are kind of doing their own things, but quite differently from one another.
Yeah it's incredibly difficult, thats why I went with the average of about 5 different public polls that looked at what thousands of Americans considered to be the South. You could easily argue that Northern Florida, Southern Virginia, most of Arkansas, and atleast some portion of Kentucky should be considered the South as well.
I agree 100%. I have been to east Texas and it is 100% a part of the South
I agree 100 percent with you. I live in El Paso
....I grew up in Virginia. I have family and friends in North Carolina. I was stationed in San Antonio and I have friends in Killeen. Texas didn't give me south vibes in my opinion. It gave me Texas vibes, like it's own thing.
I've seen areas in the Midwest and Northeast that were just as economically deprived as areas in the South.
Yes, and those areas are just as backward, too.
For sure. I'm a Southerner in Vermont; drive back roads of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont ... rough and poor! Same in rural parts of New York State ... which is completely carried by NYC. They can't see the log in their own eye because they are looking at the splinters in the eyes of others.
I thought the Midwest was worst honestly but I never been to know for sure lol
@@dominicfaison5889 The difference is scale in population. The midwest is usually considered the Mississippi river network north of the mason dixon line. There's 4 states that matter, all east of the Mississippi. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. Can toss Missouri in there as a network hub in St Louis and Kansas City, with the rest of the state being left out. Otherwise, west of the Mississippi for the midwest states are famous for having no population to speak of for their area size. Kansas is a joke of driving hours without passing through a town. A third of Kansas' population live in 3 counties, the rest being big and empty. Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota are worse, just they have landscapes to break up the nothingness. The south has little towns everywhere. I grew up in the midwest, it was a 20 minute drive at 60 miles an hour to the next little town. The county seat had a population under 1000 people. Every county that surrounded me was the same. That's 5 counties several times larger than most southern counties with a combined population of under 5000 people. There's counties in the midwest with total populations being under 100. The midwest does not have enough people to develop it into anything. They're also resourced starved in weird ways. Kansas has never, in it's entire history, had enough trees to support building houses for a population boom. The oldest houses are all rough brick and lose stonework. Lumber was, and still is, imported. The midwest is just it's own set of problems, mostly centered on lack of population or any way to build a population. They are rich, rich, in food. The most abundant growing belt in the world. The midwest feeds the world, that's not hyperbole. The grains produced in the midwest are more than the entire continent of North America can consume. They just don't have anything else to build a civilization on.
@@justmenotyou3151 You're so silly. You think that urban = forward.
If you have alligators, hurricanes, hot humid weather, bugs, pollen you are in the south my friend.
The best way to geographically define the South is the map out the restaurants which serve you sweet tea if you ask for "tea" without qualifiers.
You said it all, brother.
Then there’s the ihop-Waffle House line.
So if that is the case Florida is the south.
@@dcanderson6291 In Florida, the further north you go, the more Southern it gets.
And don't forgets Grits!
Small towns and rural areas are shrinking everywhere, not just the south. You could have said everything here about any part of the country.
Exactly. I don't know what this guy's purpose is or was, but it seems to me to be the usual kind of surface analysis that passes for information nowadays. I live in Michigan and many small towns here don't have the kind of economy that you find much of the country. Of course, many are also involved in the tourist industry, - lots of beauty and things to so in the right season - which does not fit in well with the kind of "upscale" economy the guy seems to think is so great (LA: homelessness, sky-high cost of living, massive drug problems, crime, endless traffic, etc.). Nor does it does not take into account the fact that so many retirees move south for a better climate than you have, say, where I live. All in all, just a bunch of nonsense. After all, who would want to sit around a campfire with friends on Friday nights, telling tall tales, and maybe listening to a really good guitar player when you could be home alone that Friday, earning $65K in NYC' high GDP economy and falling below the poverty line?
Yes but just like he said, they aren’t enough big metro areas to offset that imbalance. Eg they aren’t enough opportunities for growth.
There was another comment just added, so I went back to this video and the comment that I had made about a month ago. I am adding this second thought for 2 main reasons: 1) I happened to see a video today about how to create a successful TH-cam channel. A major idea was that one needed to create interest both in the title and the first minute of your video. The titles of this channel are all hyperbolic and far less meaningful vis-a-vis "information" than for the purpose of being "clic bait". Thus, the name "Broken South", I suppose. (Remember, I am a Michigander and a fan of "my" Civil War Iron Brigade.) 2) The second reason for this new comment is that as I skipped thru this video again, it occurred to me that the TH-camr apparently has missed the recent news about Tennessee sinking under the weight of all the people moving into the state...and, heaven forbid!...Tennessee is one of those "broken" southern states, he is so lamenting. I guess we should inform all those people moving to Nashville of this undeniable fact.
@@Christian-uj1mq The Deep South prefers to keep it small - small towns and small cities and small growth.
and outside the USA, take Spain for example
Hello?? Arkansas here??! We ARE as Southern, Deep South, and Hillbilly are neighbors in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana…the Mississippi River Delta and it’s history covers just as much of our State
@@crampaholicKentucky isn’t in the Mississippi delta doesn’t even border Mississippi
@@crampaholicor Virginia
Yeah you better add Arkansas to that list.
There are atleast portions of several states that I felt should be considered the South, but I went with the consensus of about 5 different public research polls. Honestly Arkansas was the hardest state not to add though, I actually tried to mark it up when I animated the South multiple times.
@@SomethingDifferentFilmsArkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky, and Florida all have southern folk.
Actually it’s a little bit more detailed than that. You did a decent job with this video.
For example, Tallahassee and Jacksonville, Florida are the traditional south but once you reach Orlando it’s immigrant city and big corporations like Disney.
@@SomethingDifferentFilmseasiest way to make a list of southern states are those that fought for the south in the WNA.
Ain't that the truth, with Sarah Butterbutt Sanders as governor, it's only going to get worse. She seems proud to have her state near the bottom of the heap in every metric.
To quote a poet from my generation - “Southern man don’t need him around any how”
❤❤❤My RONNIE vanzant never be forgotten 👍
I like the video but I think Arkansas fits into the south and also I think the south’s economy is growing, Charleston SC, Greenville SC, Savanna GA, Knoxville TN, Chattanooga TN are smaller examples of what’s happening in Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh. I think this video is too general. I would say North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and North Carolina have made some huge leaps and the data shows it.
The South is growing in pockets, but the majority of the South really isn't growing. There are cities (especially) in Tennessee and North Carolina that are doing very well of course. Then I really like Huntsville and Greensboro as well, but when you look at much of South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana (especially) things are pretty rough overall. Thank you for your comment Sweeney, and I honestly try and approach these videos in a way where I touch on both sides of the arguments that I make.
I lived in upstate New York earlier in life, and I saw great swaths of poverty in New York in both rural and urban areas.
The north is far more depressed than the South except outside of the most poor regions of the South (Mississippi Delta, Alabama Black Belt, rural Appalachia in Kentucky), and some parts of Louisiana. While the South may have more poor areas, the economically thriving areas more than make up for it, and then some, propelling the South over these other regions.
70% of USA "citizens" lack a college degree. I can only say this: having a college degree opens doors.
well it looks like new york wins again😎 #newyorkistoo #nyhasmore
You should see Huntsville, AL. It is growing and people are moving there. New homes and apartments are being built. Huntsville is a clean place with no trash everywhere. I am originally from Pensacola, FL and Pensacola went down hill with trash everywhere, neighborhoods are looking run down.
And lots of rednecks and hypocritical, nut case Christians.
Not including Florida in The South is pragmatic.
The phrase I heard that's most accurate about Florida:
The further north you go, the further South you get.
Pensacola(where I was stationed), Tallahassee and Jacksonville are all the south. Orlando, Tampa and below down to Miami/Keys are something else.
@@mgoboski Miami is it's own country. Orlando and Tampa are *sort of* like the Northern US (at least in the urban parts) but once you go outside of the cities you are in the country and it's more like the deep south.
fewer immigrant and more Americans!
I’m in Zephyrhills (NE Tampa). It is undeniably the South.
@@mgoboskiThe rural parts around Orlando are still south. The city and south however very much are something else, with Miami being more like the Caribbean than anything in the USA.
Feels like this video set out to talk negatively about the South and found numbers and facts that fit that goal. The last point about rural areas eroding away, for example, is true across the U.S. It is not a strictly southern phenomenon.
One of the most comical parts of the video was when you said the South isn't known for it's urban sprawl? Like, have you ever been to the South? Atlanta and Houston (unquestionably a southern city, by the way) are the kings of sprawl.
Yeah I feel like he just left off Texas and Florida to make the data fit his conclusion
The south and the people are fucking gross
This is a really bad take. First, using city population is a bad way to judge size. City population usually indicates ability to annex land, not necessarily tell you the true size of an area. Going off city population, Atlanta, Miami, and even San Francisco are “small towns” and Jacksonville, FL is huge. See how useless that is? You have to use metro area population to compare. Which you then have southern cities occupying 4 of the top 10 spots (and are growing) and only NYC and Philly from the northeast (both in decline). 3 in the northeast if you want to give them DC.
Secondly, YES Florida is the South, Texas (undoubtedly at least the eastern part is the South).
And finally, the numbers just don’t agree with your assessment. People, corporations, and jobs are all fleeing the northeast and Midwest in favor of the south. Almost every northeastern metro lost population over the last few years while the southern ones keep booming. The poverty of the rural areas is a nationwide issue, not just the South. Go look at the dying small towns in New York Upstate and Pennsylvania and tell me they look any more prosperous than the small towns in the South. The difference is that at least the major cities in the south are growing. The rural AND urban areas in the northeast are in decline or stagnant at best.
Overall the South is the most booming region in the country right now. This assessment would’ve been more accurate in say 1950 or if you narrowed “The South” down further to only include LA, MS, and AR.
san fransico has one point three million people in just its city limits without the bay areaare its metro area..
This video seems like a half-baked cash grab. It either states the obvious or misconceptions for 8 minutes straight with some stock footage sprinkled in, and it pushes the idea that the South is wholly a miserable, crumbling mess, when it really isn't.
Small cities in Georgia are definitely better off than something like downtown Atlanta.
Agree with this take. The northeast is awful, continually trying to take people’s freedoms and taxing you to oblivion.
If you think ATL is small in any sense you must not have ever been there.
I think the word "broken" applies to most of the country.
I live in the South and I am starting to scapegoat the South for all America's problems
As someone whose lived in Virginia my whole life it is absolutely a southern state… NoVa is the only thing keeping us off most lists. Most things that is considered southern culture originated in Virginia…
@@AmericanScout-tz3vw I agree there. People moving in from other states is another thing that is taking away Virginias southern culture… they need to stop moving here 🤣
@@Huckleberry9921 I'm from Illinois and all for dumping whatever "cultural" baggage I have here to learn from the pros.
Only Suffolk and pass that water the south the rest of Va is he north 😅 it’s cold asf In va it downer get cold I’m the south
I consider VA south, just not deep south.
In a world fixated on discontent and the pursuit of more, it's challenging to comprehend a world that is happy and content in having less.
Great video as always bro. I live in the Charlotte metro and can tell you first hand the growth is insane. We bought an old farmhouse on the edge of the city in 2011 that sits on 2 acres for $99k. Today in 2023 its worth $600k. The price of real-estate and rentals has on average tripled here over the past 15 years. It has been great for me but I know a lot of locals who are being completely priced out of the market and have no choice but to move way out of the metro area. As you said the growth is all concentrated around a few metro areas while the rural areas stagnate.
Ditto for Raleigh. Over a year ago rent gentrification drove me out of there and to Lillington, which fortunately has so far not stagnated but it is not getting the urban sprawl and traffic congestion.
unfortunately for me, i have lived most of my 60 yrs in nc and nothing in nc is worth $600k just my opinion, but if i were you i would cash out and get the hell out of here, congrats on a great investment!
Same for the GSP area. The Upstate of SC for the unintiatated.
Hawai'i has the same problem. The local residents are getting priced out of homes. People come from the mainland (like me when I lived there) and bid up the real estate. It's crazy, but now homelessness there is as bad as California.
Bro im telling you ,this is why Burlington is really the best city in NC, its not to big or fast growing to be kicked out but we are still big enough to at least enjoy some luxuries of urbanization
I believe heat and humidity are major reasons some regions can't succeed.
I dealt with a tool manufacturer in Georgia many years ago.
Metal corrosion was a constant problem for them.
The guy I was working with said, "You can hear the rust"
Places that are hot and humid are always politically backward and relatively poor. Look around the world. Plus the American South remains steeped in racism, homophobia and religion which is another ball and chain around it’s ankles. It just can’t get anywhere.
Too much of humidity is no good. You got that right
The Gulf and West states will become unhabitatable due to climate change, drought, floods, and mass migration.
Born and raised in Georgia. I still live here. People are polite as long as you stay out of Atlanta. There is a lot of hate in big cities of the US. Atlanta is no different. My small north Georgia town is diverse, humble, happy, and very low crime. Many diverse people are moving here from Chattanooga, TN because of all the violence and hate in that city. My town is welcoming them with open arms. They love the peace and positive vibes.
I lived in Augusta, Georgia's the many years ago it was a nice town to live in.
Most Americans think of Atlanta and Charlotte when the New South is mentioned as they are the two economic powerhouses in the region. Also, Charlotte us usually included as part of the Sun Belt, although not included in your map. Charlotte us also becoming something of a banking center.
Like Wilmington, DE? A lot of banking and credit card companies are in Wilmington, DE. My mom's name was Charlotte, she passed last June 14, 2022 in the hospital because her lungs were weak.
Nobdoy thinks of charollette when you think of south I think of I-10. East texas lousinia miss Al and top of FL also Ga
Raleigh is nicer and has more tech wealth than Charlotte
It can be debated if the South is “broken.” What can’t be debated is that the vast majority of the people that live there like it that way. I’m a yankee so I don’t understand it but they pretty clearly like their way of life.
Yankees caused the south to only get worse. The standard of living in the south never truly recovered post 1865 for most southerners.
I disagree with "vast majority." I can't argue with "slim majority."
Enjoyed the video, thanks for sharing!
Welp. This didn't age very well. From Bloomberg yesterday, June 29th 2023; "For the first time, six fast-growing states in the South - Florida, Texas, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee - are contributing more to the national GDP than the Northeast, with its Washington-New York-Boston corridor, in government figures going back to the 1990s. The switch happened during the pandemic and shows no signs of reverting."
Now add up the land mass of those states compared to the Northeast. So up until then, the smaller Northeast produced more GDP. I'll stay in the Northeast...the south sucks.
@@MichaelD343Northern states permanently nuked their economies over a flu. Cope
Until you read the fine print. lol. The "GDP increase" is really just the northerners coming south with their remote jobs that pay northern salaries. Production hasn't increased here - prices have. Despite what bloomberg would have you believe, skyrocketing homelessness and prices are not indicative of a healthy economy.
Very disingenuous, my dad's side of the family is from Scranton PA. Everything you said about life in small towns in the south is true about the rust belt of PA, upstate NY, OH basically anything outside of the major cities in the northeast or midwest. The coal mining industry is dead, manufacturing jobs are gone most young people move to one of the big cities or the sun belt as you mentioned as the fastest growing part of the country. I mean where do you suppose those people are moving from?
And opposite is true too, 11 mil GA, 10 mil NC don't belong in same sentence as 4.5 mil Louisiana and 3 mil Mississippi, as far population, growth, economics and diversity. I grow back and forth between Dallas and Atlanta, and road between GA and TX dozen of times. Dallas and Atlanta are both cosmopolitan. While between in AL, MS, LA you tell it's much slow pace. The central South has a lot in common with the rest belt. but South Atlantic states "FL, GA, SC, NC" and TX... "TN partly" Are booming sunbelt states.
This video gloss over the South Atlantic states and overgeneralize The South.
@@draetone5602 The booming areas in the geographic south are the places that aren't really culturally or economically the south the author is describing. Dallas, Houston, Austin, Miami, etc., are, as you stated, cosmopolitain, and pretty culturally different than the "cultural' south.
That is, it isn't that the sunbelt / south as a whole is booming, it's that the cosmopolitan areas in the geographic south are booming. (With the associated cultural divide, with things like the state of Texas taking away the rights of the big Texas cities from being able to enact local laws that aren't in agreement with the state, for example).
@@draetone5602 I think a % of Southerners are good folks in general its a third world country with grits.
@@krakken-That’s the same for most of the country outside cities though. Rural California is very conservative and not at all like the coast in a cultural or economic sense. Ever driven through central Pennsylvania? It’s more rural than anywhere I’ve ever seen in the South. Same for most of the Midwest. The Northwest is the same way. The only area where it really isn’t the case is New England, because it’s so densely populated.
@@carljohnson317 Bro thats literally so cap, you never must have been to a third world country, i have been to 2 and they are nothing like the south, the only really really poor places are mabye some backwaters in the middle of nowhere that noone knows about
Still better than NY, IL, CA.
By what metrics ?
@@truckingusa259 Which actually says nothing. If you can’t be specific and can’t cite reliable sources for facts / data then your statement is meaningless.
This dudes an idiot and he clearly has something against Southerners he keep making videos about why the South is “failing” when we’re the most prosperous region rn. Everybody is moving here
... Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Charleston WV...the Midwest ain't looking too good. Conversely cities like Charlotte, Raleigh , Richmond and Arlington VA have strong markets across jobs and housing.
West Virginia is Midwest?
@@mcap8396 west virginia is applachia country
The south recently overtook the Northeast in GDP. You omitted Texas and Virginia to make the south seem poor
@@stophittingyourself123 Texas is by no means Midwestern. We have no cultural connections with someone from Omaha or Topeka.
@@stophittingyourself123 No one thinks Texas is the midwest (Grew up in Raleigh, went to college in Iowa City) and that is the first time I've ever heard someone call Texas the midwest. Southern Virginia always felt more stereotypically southern to me than almost anywhere in NC when I was growing up, definitely more Civil war statues, farms, hunting and country music (as opposed to blue grass) everywhere south of Richmond than anywhere around Durham, Raleigh or Charlotte.
@@stophittingyourself123 How am I wrong? No one sees Texas as being in the midwest, and you don't know anything about my childhood growing up near southern Virginia. The only claim I made was that Texas is not in the midwest, which it isn't. Also if you're gonna use civil war participation to judge "southernness," you're gonna have to include Virginia as southern.
@@stophittingyourself123 It isn't Southwest either. The Southwest is desert. The trans Pecos i would put it as the start of the SW, but few Texans live there.
@@stophittingyourself123 Have you ever been to East TX? Not El Paso which would be considered South West.
The south has the largest percentage of natives. People don't migrate as much as other places. Part of the reason is economic, but the larger reason is they just like it there.
Texas is definitely southern.
This is grossly out of date - the south has changed faster than any other part of the country and many of its cities are doing just fine (check Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, Nashville…)
The South isn't as broken at CA, IL and NY. People are fleeing those states.
They’re leaving those states because of high living costs, not because they are unattractive places to live. If you’re rich or middle income, there aren’t many better places to live than CA, NYC, FL, and Chicago. Calling California in particular broken is laughable - unless you’re talking about cost. Then yes, I would agree.
@danilthorstensson8902
Middle-class isn't enough to afford living in NY, FL, or CA. You have to be an upper-class, making 130k/year or higher.
@@wvrspencewestvirginiarebel3581 Isn't Texas a de facto one-party state?
@@danilthorstensson8902 If your talking geographically attractive, yes, I'll grant you upstate NY and CA are pretty. IL, uh no, unless you like flat farm land. Attractive as far as taxes, homelessness, crime and high costs of living, then no, they are not attractive states.
@@danilthorstensson8902 The middle class is fleeing because they can't afford CA any longer. Only the rich can afford it and the poor stay because: they can't afford to leave or they stay for all the freebies, CA gives them.
I am happy that people think that Alabama is bqckwards and poor. It keeps the cost of living low and traffic down in Birmingham where I live which is a great city.
Salute!
I feel the exact same way living in Memphis. STAY AWAY, we like it just fine. The living is slow and easy. They always harp on the crime, but there is crime everywhere (I'm talking about you, Chicago, San Francisco, Oakland, New York City, DC). People are still pretty traditional here. It used to bother me, but after the last several years, the "better" places have lost their shine. These southern places may be somewhat backward, but I feel a lot freer in the south. I may be spoiling my rant by my next remark, but if you are intelligent, and educated, there is less competition for those types of jobs here. You may make a little less money, but you can live like a king here with a high income. The cost of living is low.
@@concernedcitizen9466 It’s true though, despite the narrative that Right wing media likes to put out about Chicago or New York, those places generally have much lower crime than the South. Look it up. The gun murder capital is St Louis not Chicago or New York which don’t get any where near the top 10 or 20.
@@concernedcitizen9466 Bingo! Memphis is cool. The OP film maker, I must assume has never lived here. I have not listened to his production, all I needed to see was the title to make me figure it was produced by an eastern dandy who takes everything and gives nothing.
Born and raised in Bham, now live in So. AL, age 67. I have seen people from the North come to AL and cannot assimilate, they complain about weather and people and tend to visit where they came from frequently. Eventually, most will either move elsewhere up North or go back where they came from.
Half the comments don't understand the difference between "South" and "Deep South".
The problem with this video it's overly generalization the South........ Georgia, South and North Carolina. are among the fastest growing states the last 30 years now. Georgia and North Carolina are top 10 in population. And are amongst the most diverse, have one of largest economies in the USA.......... In fact You could fit, GA, SC, NC and FL it would be 20 million than Texas in smaller area. It would be 10 million more than Cali with being only slightly larger. The term "new South" was created in Atlanta Georgia which is 6 million,
Otherwise it's not just Texas and Florida.... Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia does not fit the sterotypes your trying apply to the South.
The otherwise the opposite of what your saying is true. While MS, AR, TN, AL, LA, KY maybe more states they make less than 20% of the population of the South.... most "southerners" actually live in NC, GA, SC, VA, TX, FL which is 80% of the South population. They areas are faster growing, diverse, and
I think there needs to be distinction between The South Atlantic states and TX/OK, with the central Southern states. because The South Atlantic states and TX/OK are booming,
Exactly. The East South Central states are totally different than the South Atlantic states. We are all growing fast economically and demographically, whereas they are not. How can Virginia be left out? I live in North Carolina and we are practically the same. In fact, Georgia, Virginia, SC and North Carolina all have the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Piedmont, and the Atlantic ocean. We are also a part of the original 13 colonies which is a big part of the identity of towns like Old Salem, NC, Williamsburg, VA and Charleston, SC.
You also have to look at where we visit. The only East South Central state I regularly visit is Tennessee. I frequently visit Florida and the other South Atlantic States. Very few people here venture to Mississippi or know anyone who does.
We are are in different time zones.
I'm from the coastal plains region of NC and we often get overlooked but we are 100% southern and country. It's the most agricultural part of the state and we wouldn't want it any other way.
Should change the title to
“The South From a TH-camrs Perspective”
How did he leave out Arkansas?
Quite thoroughly.
I live in the Charleston, SC area, and in the last 15 years we've attracted Volvo, Mercedes, Boeing, Google and Nucor, as well as millions of square feet of warehousing to serve our growing port. Our metro population has doubled. We have also had hundreds of remote workers move here. You need to look at the many mid-sized metros to understand the whole picture.
Does Charleston even have a Macy's or Dillard's department store? Lived there for 12 years, downtown. While nice and lived well, I could not imagine living there long term. Charleston is great to visit but you don't want to live there.
Ive lived in MB for the past 10 years. You only have to look at the increasing traffic headache to know the city is growing by leaps and bounds. Many cities in SC and FL are among the fastest growing in the US.
@@kennixox262Yes. Dillard’s. But I wouldn’t base my concept of liability around department stores.🤔
The guy apparently wasn’t referring to the vast numbers of areas of the south where there is rampant, economic progress.
He’s only referring to the areas where there isn’t… as if no other area has those kinds of places.
How very true. If I recall, a Thalhimers was way up at Northwoods Mall. Besides being in the Air Force, I loved living downtown and owned a home in the historic district. Saying that, Charleston is about as liberal as it gets for that state and goes down hill. It was my first taste of the deep south and I am from Florida and my family originally has roots from Charleston. It is a confining town, largely uneducated, abject poverty and shocking racism. Palm Springs is where it is at today.
@@Grafknar
In terms of economics, the South has been doing better than anywhere else.
Nope. Please state sources or....any evidence at all?
@@richardh8082 We contribute over 20% of the nation's GDP. The next contributor is the west, and they contribute exactly 20%, mostly thanks to California.
This is also the fastest growing region of the country and companies are placing their HQs here. We also have the world's busiest airport and a lot of ports-of-call: Newport News, Charleston, Savannah (deepest port on the east coast), Miami, New Orleans, Pensacola, Tampa, etc.
@@kaizersolzeyes, by GDP. Large auto manufacturers moved to the south over Detroit area because they pay abysmal compared to the UAW, and the average southerner isn’t better off because BMW pays a pittance wage to a normal blue collar guy and gal. GDP is a terrible marker for real growth. I mean California would be too 10 GDP as a nation, would you move to San Francisco?!
@@SU1C1D3xPR4D4 The automakers we have in the south are primarily *foreign*. They had no intention to be in Detroit. Why would they compete against American manufacturers in the place American automotive manufacturing began? The south has Kia (GA), Honda (AL), Toyota (KY), Mercedes-Benz (AL), BMW (SC), Nissan (TN), Mazda (AL), VW (TN) and others.
Again, if the south was so bad and doing so bad, why is it leading in growth and why are so many people moving here much to the chagrin of those of us from here? Why can't you all answer that question? And why do you and the video author like to compare apples to kittens? You compared one state to a 16-state region, then picked the worst possible city in that state to compare it to any city in the 16-state region. Both of you all must have been edu-muh-kated in California. I would pick Mission Viejo over Montgomery but I would pick Savannah over San Francisco.
@@SU1C1D3xPR4D4the UAW is the reason why American cars are built in Ontario and Mexico
I think you have to include the panhandle of Florida in this excluding the Jacksonville area. Along the Florida/Georgia line and Florida/Alabama line, there is no difference in people, work, housing, etc.
In Florida the further north you go the further south you get. Florida is very much part of the south.
Why are California and New York population's declining
Born and raised in New York City. Went to visit Atlanta in 1996, and moved there shortly after. i love it down here. minorities do well here.
As someone who lives in the south, you make it sound worse than it really is.
"Broken"? California, Illinois, Oregon, Wash9ngton, and New York.
I have heard it said in recent times that California, Texas and Florida almost qualify as their own regions due to population numbers, land mass, and a diverse mix of cultures, especially with transplants from all over the US and even all over the world. That is not to say other places in the US don't have these, even in parts of the South like Atlanta, Nashville or Charlotte, but not in the degree and abundance of California, Texas, or Florida. Similar types of varied diversity would, of course, be in the Northeast Corridor and maybe Chicagoland.
Not enough America haters in the South like they have in New York City. Werdos and wackos, people who don't know what sex they are, that is what cities bring!
I think the point about diverse mix of cultures makes a lot more sense than the first two given that the southern states are all relatively populous with Alabama and Georgia combined being very similar in population to Florida. The old Confederate states are home to roughly 1/2 of the American population. Take out 50 million (Texas and Florida), and it's still a region of 70 million people, or roughly the size of France and the UK, and about the size of the Midwest and Rust belt. These are massive areas which cover significant areas of land.
I think the biggest thing for Florida, California, and Texas is that they're relatively isolated at least in their population centers. Texas's population is mostly concentrated in the East and mostly just borders Louisiana and Oklahoma with a big coastline that is the gulf. California is mostly between the Pacific and the rocky mountains meaning that even though they do have borders with others, it's super far away from any other population center besides Mexico in SoCal. Florida is a peninsula with only limited contact with the rest of its neighbors as peninsulas make it very difficult to travel outside the area, making all of its population centers decently far away from others as well.
Not to mention, all 3 states have very significant Hispanic populations, with Florida having a unique brand based primarily around the Caribbean and South America.
Basically, the population mixture of these 3 states are mostly unlike any of their cultural neighbors.
@@buddermonger2000 I see in Texas you are referencing the Texas Triangle which is where most people live. Actually, that isn't as close to Louisiana as you might think. Dallas is roughly just under 200 miles from Shreveport LA and those closest to Louisiana from the Triangle would be Houston which is about 150 miles (some put it closer to 120 miles). And much of the state's population outside Houston is along I-35 which is more central. Yes, we are speaking/writing of vast distances. People are often blown away when they realize that a road trip from Houston to Los Angeles, El Paso is about halfway. DFW is closer to Wichita KS than it is to Corpus Christi.
@@johncollins7062 It does seem that way. I can almost tell you which metro in CA many people land in Texas. Indeed, I saw a recent report about DFW which says most of the domestic migration to DFW came from 3 metros, in order: Los Angeles, Chicago, and Phoenix.
@gregorysouthworth783 Florida is 400 miles across, so I'm not really THAT surprised. But no, I was more looking at a population density map of Texas. But if even that eastern portion isn't very close to Louisiana, it supports my point about Texas's population being relatively isolated from the rest of its cultural relatives.
Texas Florida Georgia North Carolina and South Carolina are the fastest growing states in the country, other than Idaho. So WTF are you talking about?
The South was destroyed and plundered in the War of Northern Aggression. Reconstruction was a mere pseudonym for Civil War 2.0 ---more plunder and Northern oppression. I grew up in South Carolina's "corridor of shame" broken from Sherman's bloody, thieving march until this very day. The plunder by northerners is forevermore continuing at a steady pace. I served honorably in the US Marines, but God is my witness, I have never been able to bring myself to be patriotic. Some New South types amongst us have Stockholm Syndrome and love our captors, others of us who know better haven't been able to do that yet.
Go ahead. Keep blaming the “North” for your region’s problems today. We have nothing to do with the ”Northern Aggression” so as much as keeping the United States united by yours and our national hero Abraham Lincoln. I’m sad to admit that we still have traitors like you still lingering around, especially after your region’s seditious attempts in January 6th 2021. Wish we can invent the Time Machine so that we can finish off the traitors like you. Then we wouldn’t have the Rethuglican Party, or Nixon, or your regions poverty, or Donald Trump, or MAGATs like you trying to overthrow the government. Good riddance.
Amen geneadams9017. I have heard this bs over and over in my 80 years. I see no reason to research this argument again. The poor logic used in this thesis is very similar to that of all the others that I've been subjected to. Not going to bother to waste my time on it anymore.
I'm wondering why Arkansas wasn't included in the South.
That other-side-of-the-Mississippi River thing. But yes, there is Texas.
@@tedmaynard7326 Thank you! ✌️
@tedmaynard7326 Most of Louisiana is the other side of the river too, though.
@@GoHawgs1987 That be so. I think Louisiana is more of the "South" part of the Southeastern Conference, as it is definitely south, while Arkansas is not far enough south and does not do enough east to qualify. Texas is just big, and so they get a pass with no questions asked.
@@johncollins7062 Yeah Arkansas is definitely the South
Hey, thanks for the Pittsburgh shout out at the end! 7:49 😄
I’m glad videos like this exist. It will keep all of the people we don’t want from moving to southern states 😂
BINGO
People from California, NY and Chicago are moving to the South and we are worried that they are going to do to us what they did to California, NY and Chicago. They are fleeing those places you hold up as a great example of "progress."
Moving back
Things are changing. But let’s keep it quiet. I’m a Yankee living in Greenville, SC. There’s a lot of pull away from big cities. Everything is green and we have good industry here.
Shush, We don't want people to know. lol
Very interesting. :^)
Thank you.
Why doesn't anyone make a video titled "Why The North Is Broken" because that is the region of the USA that currently has far more problems than the South (I have been to all 50 states so I observed much of that with my own eyes).
@ericlangille4175 Why would you think that? There are far more people who fly rebel flags up in places like Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, and Pennsylvania than in the actual South. Those states have many people who love the South. In many ways, they're kind of like Southern-north.
The South is far more prosperous than any of the other regions as a whole.
My wife grew up in California. The LA area gets worse every year. San Francisco is losing lots of people, stores are closing, homelessness is out of control throughout California. New Mexico is very poor. Las Vegas has potential water issues, as well as an extremely transient tourism industry. The blight found in parts of Chicagoland, Detroit, Flint, Buffalo, Cleveland, Philadelphia, New York City metro, Hartford, etc. is far and away much worse than most places in the South. This video maker is very myopic, refusing to see the truth.
@@willp.8120 I recall seeing a large rebel flag flying outside of a house near my brother's home in Ocean County, New Jersey.
@@willp.8120 New Mexico is poorer than the average USA state mainly due to the predominance of its Hispanic and Native American culture. However, New Mexico does have a high number of highly-educated people in parts, particularly in Los Alamos and at Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque.
Today, on a major networking site, I saw a posting for engineering jobs at Los Alamos National Labs where one could qualify to earn a six-figure salary with an engineering degree and two years of practical experience.
@@willp.8120 It would appear to me that unless one is a highly skilled computer scientist or engineer with current and relevant analytical skills, then it would be difficult to find a job in the San Francisco Bay area that would pay a salary high enough to afford one to live in the region with a decent quality of life.
Ford truck plant(Blue Oval city) will uplift Western Tennessee, like GM plant did south of Nashville
I agree the south has problems I grew up in Florida and Georiga 1952-1975. Then became a electronics engineer and traveled the middle and eastern us. Saying it is broken makes me ask have you ever been to Detroit, Cleavland, Washington DC, Chicago's southside, Armitage Ave. Chicago, New Jersey, Philadelphia, New York. They have had horrible multi story buildings that would be much worse a whole southern middle size town. And everything there has been barley working for many decades. I admit it was a large improvement when Cleaveland put out it's river. Thats what we call broken.
New York is bad because it has multistory buildings, what kind of nonsense is that ?
I live in the City of Detroit. I will tell you the big difference between Detroit and the South. At least we had a boomtime. The South like this video has stated has been the poorest, most uneducated, and most racist state for over 150 years.
I have been to Gary and seen this. I also have traveled the rural south. It still doesn’t diminish the social brokenness and corruption in southern society that reinforces it.
@@toordal I am very glad you live in Detroit.
@@toordal The South has had boomtimes, too. The time of King Cotton is probably the most noteworthy.
I also like how you purposefully didn’t include eastern Texas (Houston and Dallas), most of Virginia (Richmond), and northern/central Florida (Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville), all of which are still culturally southern but have booming economies. Just because parts of Texas, Florida, and Virginia happen to not be in the deep south does not mean that the rest of those states aren’t southern. You also failed to mention Arkansas, which includes the fast growing northwest region. The south has its poor parts, but the same can be said about anywhere else in the us. Economic growth is found in cities and their surrounding areas, and the south happens to have that and rural areas. Poverty is more prevalent in the south than say the northeast because the south is so much more sparely populated. I’ll admit that the south still falls behind in many ways but this video tries hard to paint the south in the worst light.
This video has a serious case of Neilyoungitis.
Yeah, he's very selective in which facts he cherry picks. The exact same thing he said about the broken South can be said about Flint, MI, Sandusky, OH, & other parts of the decaying urban industrial Great Lakes region, not to mention the fact that businesses and people are fleeing Chicago & New York City in droves. Go visit the poorer towns in Hawai'i someday, or the massive homeless camps in Los Angeles & San Francisco. When you show slums in the South, pair it with the brown water Michiganders must drink.
He includes southern California as part of the Sun Belt, however, that demographic is as far from Texas or Florida as it is from Hawai'i or Alaska. The Sun Belt is thriving, while California is in turmoil. That will not last forever, but it is the case now. Georgia, Tennessee, & North Carolina would be a better example of the Sun Belt than California.
Since Texas & Florida are in his view not part of the South because they are prosperous, would it be just as accurate to say that Oregon is not part of the Pacific? That's another predominantly rural state with only one real city, Portland. Or that Maryland, a very prosperous state, isn't part of the Northeast because it's also prosperous, unlike New York & Massachusetts. That would make more sense given that Maryland's economy is totally based on its proximity to Washington, DC. Literally, the state's only industry is the one that every American is forced to patronize through our taxes.
To be sure the South has plenty of problems, widespread poverty being one of the biggest. However, people are voting with their feet, and the results are in: the South is surging in both population & economic growth (coming from being way behind the rest of the country, no doubt), while the Northeast, Rust Belt, & California are in decline. Why is that?
He makes a point and seems to support it pretty well. Even by your own metrics those regions with booming economies are the exception. Not the rule. Don't be so sensitive.
@@bender9222222222 hey braniac. NYC contains 40% of new York's total population. Wonder what New York's economy would look like without NYC?
@@billwilliams699 doesn't disprove or counter how the south is mostly a toilet... lol
🤔 Anything below the Mason-Dixon line is the South and more importantly the South is recognized by the U.S. Census, an official piece of governmental documentation, as being comprised of 16 states. You seemed to have narrowed the number of states that make up the South down to 7 to fit your false narrative of the region being the poorest.
The definition of the South as delineated by the U.S. Census is antiquated. Even though Maryland and most of Delaware are south of the Mason-Dixon line, they are not Southern states but Northeastern states. I have traveled to Maryland and Delaware and I don't see much "southern" about them. For example, no one I have met in either state speaks with a southern accent. Since they border Pennsylvania and New Jersey, they have much more in common with their neighboring states than states further south.
Most of the population of Delaware is in the Wilmington area, really just a Philadelphia suburb. Baltimore is only 100 miles from Philadelphia via I-95, and Baltimore is culturally and historically more similar to its nearby Pennsylvania neighbor than Southern cities like Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, Nashville, New Orleans, Memphis, etc. Also, Maryland and Delaware are a lot closer to Canada than Florida, so they are geographically in the northern half of the USA.
@HighpointerGeocacher Everything has been explained sir, your "opinion" is invalid. You're speaking of culture when the subject is geography.
@@awesomeasever8370 Why is my "opinion" invalid? I have a right to make an opinion, that I base on facts and personal experiences.
I lived the majority of my childhood in New Jersey and I have relatives currently living in New Jersey. In July 2023 I visited Delaware, from its northern boundary with PA to its state capital in Dover. Delaware, it appears to me, is very much like a smaller version of New Jersey. Both states are very urbanized in their northern areas, as northern NJ is suburban NYC and northern DE is suburban Philly. Southern NJ is less densely populated and has the Jersey Shore and open spaces such as the Pine Barrens. Southern DE has its Delaware shore and is more rural in nature.
@HighpointerGeocacher Everything has already been explained, sir. Learn to deal with things as they are not how you want them to be.
@@awesomeasever8370with all u said the south still is the poorest in the usa and Maryland and Delaware are transitional states I wouldn’t consider them southern
You can't leave out the state of Arkansas when talking about the South. Also, Virginia is clearly a Southern state, especially if you consider its history.
Yeah but the part of Virginia that’s growing and prosperous is not “Southern”.
@@timmacsweet1Richmond is very southern
But Virginia is $$$$
Every state who fought for the Confederacy is the South this dude left out Arkansas Virginia Texas and Florida to make the South look smaller and worse than it is. He has bias towards Southerners look at his upload history.
Define broken - Alabama is a very free state to live in - no onerous gun laws - no onerous car laws - nice weather year round - economy is much better than some may think. I'd much rather live here than new england or any part of the Left Coast.
“No onerous gun laws” means staggering levels of gun murder and violent crime, worse than most of the country.
I lived in Madison Alabama for eight years. The weather is nice, but the tornadoes can be deadly. Alabama isn't a bad place to live, but I definitely think the state needs to invest in shoulders on the roads and walking paths for the people.
@@blk1735 Oh yes I'm very familiar with our tornados. The siren is 100 yards from my house. Eerie sound when it goes off. The F5 we had a few years back was bad, I still find bits of roof shingle that don't match my house! Not every street is feasible for sidewalks. Mine isn't. Cliff on one side, mountain on the other. We have recreational walking trails plenty in Birmingham, building more every day and tons of people use them.
"Much of the South exists on the memory of what it thought it once was". You just failed writing class with this sentence.
The South is Amazing
Me living in Raleigh-Durham around big name universities, good health care, and seeing tech giants like Meta, Apple, Google and Microsoft move in with rent and housing costs rivaling other bigger cities it’s always hard to tell people I live in the south because I don’t feel like we socially fit in. You mentioned the new south and I like you bought up the differences as the south is rapidly changing.
Rural communities struggle the hardest in the south and it’s a big economic and political divide.
I do agree the south is broken and it has so much work that’s being done with a rapid influx of people moving in but only to few southern cities. Good video as always you never disappoint.
Thank you so much, and I do agree that there are very nice portions of the South. I really like Raleigh, Greensboro, and Huntsville in particular.
@@SomethingDifferentFilms Major cities in South have the same ammenties as rest of US major cities. It's just the rural area is way less developed, but this is true for most of America imo.
The Seattle metro area vs rural Washington state is similar...urban rural divide
KB, there were many false things promoted in this video.
@@SomethingDifferentFilms Nah Greensboro is a little booty cheeks ngl , mabye one of the dangerous and most ratchet part of NC ngl
Looking forward to the video on why New York State is broken and reasons why so many leave and move south.
Long term population trend in New York State is slowly upwards. Sure, there are years where a very small number of people leave but it’s like < 0.5% hardly a blip.
@@symbiat0 You may want to check the demographics on the new replacements. There's plenty of hard-working residents fleeing the state due to high taxes and continual loss of individual freedom.
@@peterjohnson1734 Yes, my statement is based on looking at the data. And what does “continual loss of individual freedom” mean? Sounds like a feeling or a “hunch” not based on any actual facts.
@@symbiat0 Dangerously unobservant!
@@peterjohnson1734dawg I live in the northeast. It’s not “loss of freedom” or whatever other kinda shit yous wanna blame leftists for. Theres no jobs here. Except for the expensive ass major cities(except like Philly or Bmore), u can’t rlly get a good job here. That’s why so many of us move south
Yeah because if I go to California or New York I won't find tons of poor and homeless too, right?
_...that map thumbnail is an INACCURATE depiction of The South..._ 😒...
I would include the Carolinas in the South. They are black enough by percentage to count as the SOUTH. It's one of the few places in the USA where majority-minority is even possible, and where that majority-minority is black. It's probably the highest rate of interracial marriages (white guys with black girls, white girls with black-guys, and even gay interracial couples) in the country, the fastest growing population of mixed-raced children. I don't say all this to be racist, but I picked up on it, when news reports from the interior of the country, places like Kentucky and Virgina featured so many whites that my white mom was upset, and questioning "where are all the black people?" and showing some concern they weren't getting any representation there because she is used to seeing a very close to 1:1 ratio of black and white, the closest you can get to that anywhere in the nation, and I had to tell her a whole lot of the USA doesn't look like the South. There's this migration band of black families in the USA that going all the way back to colonization and slavery, and that migration pattern is pretty much the South. Of course, that kind of makes Harlem the South too, and Chicago... when you talk about "Black America" so it's not a perfect definition, but the majority of "Black America" is "The South.
When someone says "I'm not racist but..." it means they are racist.
As a native North Carolinian, I can personally attest to much of what you've elaborated upon here. However, when it comes to "being Southern," I feel that - barring some broadly generalized cultural, racial, and ethnic characteristics - the "Southern" identity is more ideological than geographic. To that end, I feel many people are (understandably) averse to living in the South - even those of us who were born and raised here. Some of us are myopically sympathetic to the halcyon days of Dixie, flying the stars and bars; tone-deafened by their own hootin' and hollerin' that "The South will rise again." The others (myself included) want to break from this deleterious narrative, seeking opportunities in our burgeoning metropolitan areas. I, myself, am currently living in Charlotte, and never in my life did I think I would ever see a functioning light rail in my home state - let alone the towering concrete jungle of arts and culture; a sleek skyline rising out from the lush tree canopy. But to that end, I feel moreover that the the Southern struggle runs parallel to the American struggle writ large. That is to say, as other folks here have mentioned - across the United States - you'll see proud cities punctuating the landscapes of dilapidated towns. And Southerners are just as complicated and internally diverse as any other culture. I fully endorse the constituent sentiments of the "New South," but I just don't know if the rest of the nation is going to buy it; even the "Southern" epithet leaves a bad taste in peoples' mouths. As for me, I simply have to believe that Southerners (and especially "New Southerners") have more potential than even we are willing to acknowledge. Don't doubt the South.
Well done. I just posted something similar but not written and expressed as well.
Good post. Having been to the south several times, all you say seems true to me. There are not as many people as some think stuck on the whole "lost cause of the confederacy" but those who are, are often adamant about it.
I would take a dilapidated town over an urban/metro area anytime. Small. Small towns and small cities are the hallmark of The South. That is a preference here and one to which I also ascribe. Never mind that large urban centers and metro areas provide opportunities. If it means that my preferred way of life is going to die, then I'll accept extinction. The Deep South is dying. We know it. We've chosen not to change with the times. We're not fighting our demise, but we will stay true to ourselves until the end. Outsiders will come in and pick at our virtual corpses, however it will no longer be The South. It will not even be The New South. That which is The South will be gone and pretending to be The New South won't cut it. It will become homogenized with the rest of the nation with nothing to differentiate it.
Except, California has homeless tent cities and more people living in their cars than anywhere else. People are fleeing California for the South in record numbers.
This is only my 2nd video that I’ve seen and already loving your channel! Your going to blow up soon.
Thank you very much Tanner, I really appreciate you checking out my content. I'm super focused on getting better and making high quality videos, so that means so much to me.
Broken? The South is the hottest region in the US.... Florida, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia are growing exponentially. African Americans have been coming back to the south in droves since the 80s
Any factual evidence at all sir?
@@richardh8082 Look it up.. It's common knowledge
I live in NC and it's not booming.
@@richardh8082Well yea actually there is a new great migration where african americans are moving back to to the south, mainly towards the suburbs. As for the growing exponentially part no, but NC GA TX and FL do have fast growing economies
@@diohyuga6737 I mean Dude, look it up. Just yesterday a "cities people are moving to article" came out and Charlotte was #6 and Raleigh was #4. NC is the 9th most populous state and one of the fastest growing states. There is this thing called "Google." Educate yourself and don't embarrass yourself by saying random untrue stuff.
How is Virginia not unquestionably part of the south? Crazy times
Virginia is the birthplace of southern culture. This is a poorly researched video.
@@noskpain2792facts. Most things that is considered southern culture originated in Virginia… it’s just NoVa that’s keeping us off this list..
Any state that fought in the Confederate Army is the South Richmond, Virginia was the Capital for the Confederacy
Louisiana has basically become a resource colony for Texas-based oil and chemical companies. The pollution stays in Louisiana while the money all goes back to Houston and Dallas.
It's the truth and if any of your friends move out there let them know theyre a coward
Virginia outside the DC suburbs is totally the South
More backwards thinking than NC honestly
The Rappahannock River is the de facto southern boundary of the Northeast, replacing the Potomac. On to Richmond? God forbid!
The USA is very similar to Brazil, the northeast is for us (in terms of poverty) what the south is for the USA, and the south of Brazil is known to be separatist as well as the south of the USA, The south of Brazil also has racial tensions and there is a lot of racism there, cheers Brazil 🇧🇷
I mean the demographics of southern brasil mimics the Midwest more than the south, but I get your sentiment.
The south isn’t poor though. There are poor small towns but Georgia, the Carolina’s, Tennessee and Florida are booming states with vast sprawling metro regions of cheaply built mcmansions for miles and miles. It’s the sunbelt got a reason
@LucasFernandez-fk8se tbh the gigantic amount of suburban sprawl in florida is nauseating
@@LucasFernandez-fk8se I think Texas is #2, Florida #3, Georgia #8, North Carolina #9, Virginia #11, and Tennessee #13 in population. But that is not the important thing, what you need to understand that all of these states are growing while California, New York, Illinois, Connecticut, Michigan, among others, are the states that people are fleeing. Now, the criticism, well-deserved, of people fleeing woke dystopian states is that they go to their new states and vote the same way that destroyed their previous states, or "I am fleeing what I created but I despise the people that created what I want, so I will destroy that too with my vote."
@tedmaynard7326 You are incorrect. The people Leaving those states can't afford to live there. Has little to do with "wokeness"
Southern states are attracting a lot of immigration from the northeast and California, and more cities than just Atlanta, Charlotte, and Nashville are growing rapidly. Raleigh, Richmond, Greenville/Spartanburg SC, Greenville NC, Asheville, Athens, Huntsville, Chattanooga, and northwest Arkansas all have incredibly strong economies while retaining costs of living lower than most comparable cities in the northeast or west coast. The South in general is absolutely contributing to the economic/population growth of the Sun Belt. Particularly poor regions of the South still exist, especially in rural areas that have never recovered from agricultural automation or declines in reliance on coal. But it doesn't characterize the lifestyle of most southerners in the way this video implies
(Not angry about this video or anything. I think you made some good points. But I think it overstates how economically depressed the South really is)
Yeah, just come take a look at the Grand Strand of SC between Wilmington, NC and Charleston. It's exploding with people moving down from NYC, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Indiana, etc. Wish these people would go back where they came from.
You mean _migration_ from the northeast and California.
@@brianarbenz1329 Yep! Just stop voting once you come here.
@@themagus5906That's not how that works. Lol. You can't have it both ways. Either you're happy about people from the Northeast and West Coast moving to your state or you're not. But that comes with consequences whether you like it or not.
You left out Knoxville, larger and faster growing than either Chattanooga or Huntsville.
I didn't watch this video, but it appears to me that the southern USA is better off economically than the northern USA or California. More people are moving from the northern USA to the southern USA than the other way around. Also, the fastest growing states are mostly in the southern USA, while California and northern USA states are either stagnant or losing population.
The South is better off than any other region. California has become a dump throughout much of the state. My wife grew up there and I have visited enough to know. I have seen the sharp decline since 2005.
It is surprising that there isn't more migration from the small towns. My grandparents left in the 1930s due to a number of issues and never looked back. Their life would have been drastically different and worse if they didn't leave. Not faulting people, but if your town is dying, maybe find a new town.
People have been leaving small towns for decades. Per the 2020 census only 15% of Americans live in small towns or rural areas (the lowest percentage ever). Many small towns are mostly old people and will be ghost towns in a decade or two.
The more you drive north of Florida the deeper the South you get.
Just look at Huntsville...
and you will see just how much "the south" is NOT "broken" 🤫
I'm 52 and moved my family here from 35 years of Indiana, Ohio and New York 17 years ago to Huntsville.
The major reason why?
The economy and the MUCH lower cost of living 👍
Plus.... overall a LOT more common sense and freedoms 😎
Love Huntsville hour from nashville love Alabama top 5 favorite states
Yes, blue dem areas tend to be expensive, especially in cities. But, Ohio and Indiana are mostly red states with maybe some blue cities. NY though trends blue because of NYC but has a lot of red rural areas upstate. And yes you are right about more freedoms in red areas but a majority of Americans especially women do not like abortion bans.
As someone who spent 25 years in your great metropolitan areas, namely Silicon Valley, you are absolutely correct in your assessment. Everyone should watch this video and heed its warnings. I really screwed up moving from Kali to the deplorable state of Alabama. I sure do miss the rampant crime and homelessness that was plaguing that once great state. Down here in simpleville, we don’t have traffic jams, brownouts, mass amounts of young, spoiled brats, and high cost of living, and I sure do miss that. Although I lost a percentage of my wages moving here, just in income tax and property taxes alone I more than made up for it. So yes, please DON’T make the same mistake I made, and just stay where you are at. We will get by down here I promise. No need to worry about us.
Thank you! Our 3rd home is in Foley, AL, and we love it! The people are great and taxes and utilities are a bargain. But, please do not come here! We love it just the way it is.
Interesting perspective. Hope we can find solutions.
Well if the south is so broken then why are so many Yankees moving here?
This has been one of the biggest waste of 8 minutes and 2 seconds of my life! 🤦🏼♂️
Some states are broken (Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana), some are thriving (Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee). I can speak for Tennessee since I live in the Nashville area. Tennessee has done a great job taking some manufacturing jobs from the Midwest (mainly automotive) to give decent paying jobs to the blue collar workers of the state while also cultivating its finance, insurance, health care and logistics sectors to retain its white collar graduates. We’re also attracting a few Tech companies as well. Tennessee is definitely on the way up and we continue to climb up a slot in the state rankings in terms of GDP per capita pretty much every year or 2. Here are a few states of note Tennessee has a higher GDP per capita than in 2023 that you probably wouldn’t guess: Michigan, Arizona, Florida, Rhode Island, Indiana, Vermont, Wisconsin.
Agreed. The more easterly states of the South generally speaking are doing better than the westerly states of the South generally. Mississippi and North Carolina are two very different stories.
Mississippi, Louisana, and Florida are broke places. Florida is because it only cares about tourism & not truly developing mobility to thrive under there. It’s a playground for wealthy people and old people who wants to retire. The other two are the most high crime southern states.
I don't see much broken about the states mentioned above. I have traveled to Arkansas and Alabama and they are doing well. For example, the greater Huntsville area is thriving due to high technology and aerospace.
@@HighpointerGeocacher / I think you're cherry picking a bit like the maker of the video, but in the opposite way. While Huntsville metro helps make a case that it ain't all bad, let's face it: Alabama generally isn't a prosperous state, unless you compare it with Mississippi. Every other one of its neighbors is more prosperous.
I have traveled to Alabama several times in my life, and in my opinion it is not less prosperous than the majority of the USA. As I have mentioned in a previous comment, I've observed many economic challenges in upstate New York, in both its rural and urban areas.
Consider that the population of Buffalo, around 580,000 in the 1950 Census, has now dropped to less than half that number (about 276,000 in the 1950 Census). While population losses within city limits may be misleading, as older cities have relatively small urban boundaries, the total population of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area is less now than it was in 1960. Thus, people from greater Buffalo area are not only moving out of the City of Buffalo, but out of the greater Buffalo area entirely (population figures from Wikipedia).
Alabama has become a major destination for automobile manufacturers, including Toyota, Mazda, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, as well as other automotive products including motorcycles, engines, powertrains, commercial trucks, farm and construction equipment, recreational vehicles, and others. www.naida.com/automotive/alabama-manufacturers/@@greenbrown7776
Got to love the smug condescension throughout this video- A+
Isn't northern Florida also the "south"? Also what about Arkansas?
I don't agree with your video at all. I live in Nashville, we have been booming for years now and absolutely no sign of letup. You spoke about the west being the hub for tech...maybe we can ask the folks at Oracle that when they finish up their $4.6B campus in downtown Nashville, or maybe some of the 20,000 Amazon employees who work in the immediate area... You need to do some additional research. There are parts of every region that are moving forward and parts that are lagging behind.
The South is broken because you drew your map to match your headline. Texas, Florida, and Virginia have the 2nd, 4th, and 13th largest economies among the states and all have large regions entirely culturally aligned with Georgia, Alabama, and the rest of the South. Your removal of them in spite of their traditionally being southern states was arbitrary.
That not being enough to fully impoverish the region, you then carve out the 3 most dynamic cities in your rump region too. (And none have 1 million people because they all grew up in the age of the automobile. Of the country's top 10 SMSAs 4 are in the South if you add back in Texas and Florida. Atlanta is 8th.)
Agreed. Very misleading to leave out major metros in Virginia and Florida.
Okay fine, not everyone agrees that ALL of Florida, Texas, and Virginia are included in what constitutes the South, but most would agree to include North Florida, East Texas, and Virginia minus the DC suburbs.
But those portions of those three states are HUGE economic contributors to the southern region.
Yeah, the OP definitely got creative with how he chose to define the south to fit his narrative.
Interesting thoughts about the outlook for the "South", as they have been saying, it has grown in some areas, mainly the
big urban centers, with the diagram shown could be pivotal for future growth - the Atlanta-Nashville-Charlotte "triangle"
could be a future "manufacturing hub", with the Southern Appalachian Mountains (part of the Smokey Mountains) part
of the wanted "golden triangle", as the Smokey's are attracting 16 million visitors-per-year, the G.T growing exponentially,
while the rural areas are shrinking, that's happening all around the World. Inside the G.T is the perfect location to set-up
"transport & warehousing", it might be part of the "South", but it's not part of the "Shrinkage", it's part of the "Growth".
Another "TRIANGLE" that I have noticed, that is of interest, is the "Rusted Triangle", it's located much further North,
than the Golden Triangle, it kind of "overlaps" some of the recently "problematic" economic areas of the Rust Belt,
the Great Lakes Region, and the famous Appalachian Mountains areas, it is in the "general area" of Ohio, Pennsylvania,
and West Virginia, it could encompass some parts of other "states", there are some "economic & employment" obstacles,
as many of the previous jobs, main employers, big plants, manufacturing, steel mills, coal mines etc. have shut-down
in the last few decades, a massive problem for them to overcome............................................................................................
........................................................................................................ One quick note, that in Australia, there is still a very
"big" coal-mining industry, some of the "product" goes to power stations, converting the "black coal" into electricity,
although some of those power stations are slated to close in the near future, but the real "industry" for them is that
they sell massive amounts of coal to China, even building brand new coal-loading ports in Newcastle (2 hours North
from Sydney) and also in Queensland's Mackay/Gladstone area (10 hours North of Brisbane) they have been exporting
copious amounts of coal, and also other minerals, and even GAS (LNG) as the gas is often "tied together" to the coal,
in the exact "seams" - so the Rusted Triangle, could potentially have "vast mineral wealth" underneath the ground,
waiting for "entrepreneurial types" to fund "exploration drills" (not individual people, but oil & gas, mineral companies)
no-one wants to fund "non-paying exploration speculative drills" - they usually want "sure-thing" profit-making mining.
Never-the-less, there can be some very serious discussions made, about the complete "down-turn" in the Coal Mining
Industry, this has been a "concerted effort" by people in power, to CUT-OUT the coal miners. As we all know, including
in Australia, paying far above average wages, with what seems "AN ETERNITY AGO" when I was an apprentice, working
for Otis Elevators in a factory in Minto, people would talk about the coal-miners in the Appin Mine (nearby 30 kms away)
and their wages were double or triple the wages for tradesmen in Sydney. With nowadays, the Otis factory "transplanted"
over to CHINA, with our "people" going there for a year to teach the puppets how to twist wires, and turn the screwdriver,
and strip cables, and put conduits on a wall, and hook-up contactors, and things like that, while the Appin Mine is most
remembered for a terrible accident that killed some, while others were given re-births. The coal-mining industry, which is
able to access "carbon-quality black coking coal" is a 100% viable industry, as the "fossil fuel" (FF) debate has escalated,
and monumental money being spent on re-newables, a fraction of that money can be spent on "smoke/fume harnessing"
on the coal-burning itself, giving a practically zero-pollution rating, something to think about, some fuel-for-thought.........
........................................................................................................................................................................................................
*Another noteworthy point, critical in fact to everything we have been researching. Is there a "TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC"
Note: I have been studying the effects of GREED, and they go hand-in-hand with economic downturns, monopolization's,
corruptions, kick-backs, hand-outs, grease-palming, bribes, and Ponzi-Schemes, they are all somewhat connected, with
even the puppet-show of the CCP, putting-in the big-ones, when it comes to "surveillance, photographing, and extortion"
they might be lacking in inventiveness, but they just latch-onto watch others have invented, THIS IS EASTMAL CULTURE,
it is all LIES, LIES, LIES, SMOKE & MIRRORS, TRICKS & TRICKERY, and they have over 1 BILLION SLAVES (1,000,000,000)
to fleece their wages and conditions, so they can then fleece your industries, moving your jobs from your communities,
over to China, and then EXPLOIT THEIR STAFF, garnishing their wages & pockets, stealing from them, thieving their futures.
To then go around, installing themselves into your communities, after stealing your jobs and industries, that what they plan,
exactly for THE GREAT LAKES REGION, AND THE RUST BELT, EVEN THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS, although the chicken
Chinese would shit themselves thinking of the Old Mountain Feud's, fueled by moonshine and guns, with pictures of the
Hatfield's & McCoy Clans, scary stuff for normal people, with the puppet CCP - "SPECIAL FORCES" ROBOT-MARCHING in
the opposite direction, avoiding such conflict, as they (The Sino-Chinese) have never been involved in a War, meanwhile
our very own European Peoples, have had thousands of years of Wars (and now they have learnt NOT TO "WAGE WAR"
AGAINST EACH OTHER, THEY HAVE LEARNT FROM PAST MISTAKES, WITH WW1 & WW2 - STILL FRESH IN THE MIND.
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THEY OWN THE REAL WEALTH - THE LAND. NOW ALL THEY NEED IS THE HIGH-PAYING JOBS - TO GO WITH THE LAND.
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..........GOOD-LUCK TRYING TO GET THEM "TO SELL" - AFTER MY CONTINUAL PEP-TALKS, KNOCKING THEIR SOCKS-OFF
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*TOMORROW'S LIFE-LESSON. HOW TO CONNECT OUR OLD-PAST (EUROPE) WITH OUR NEW-PRESENT (THE NEW WORLD)
EUROPE WITH MASSIVE INDUSTRY & TECHNOLOGY, COUNTRIES LIKE BRITAIN, GERMANY, FRANCE, ITALY SHINING LIGHTS,
AND PEOPLE FROM THOSE NATIONS PROMINENT IN THE NEW WORLD. SPAIN & PORTUGAL & NETHERLANDS AS WELL.