The problem is these states make themselves so unwelcoming a large portion of these younglings leave to better places. My Illinois town keeps shrinking because we had backwards ass elected officials for the longest time. We had the option to have a metro station added to our town( paid for by the city is StLouis) and we rejected it because homeless people could come here. Well we don’t have the network system so I drove 40 minutes to work and still have a homeless and drug problem.
We also voted out first ever mayor of color( former cop) so things have been getting betterish. But we also have an actual evil rich villain who is now evading the law because he was trafficking drugs and children. This is a current ongoing investigation. I’d rather not doxx my town but last time we made national news our former mayor’s wife was caught doing coke in the local bars during COVID shutdown. He told her not to come home and divorced her ass tho.
Sorry I ranted there, but all those with the means to leave do because not everyone has the capacity to make things better and deal with everything that comes with it.