Paul Krugman

And even in the United States, although we don't do very much of that explicitly, although Biden tried to some, but we have, because of the way our benefits and tax system is structured, we, in effect, give enormous aid to lagging regions.

If you look at West Virginia or Kentucky, back there, we see foreign aid that's about 20% of their GDP.

through the U.S.

tax and pass-through system, which means that, and that's free of jobs.

There's a lot of jobs in healthcare in West Virginia.

What there aren't are coal mining jobs, what there isn't is industry, and what there isn't is any of the cutting-edge technology, because why would a technology company want to be in West Virginia?

And so...

And no one has ever cracked that one.

It's, it's, it's, I'm sorry, I mean, I wish that there were brilliant solutions, but the fact of the matter is that kind of, you know, we have an economy where to the extent that where people, people doing sophisticated stuff want to be near other people doing sophisticated stuff.

And that's been, which is a huge reversal, by the way.

Up to about 1980, stuff was spreading out.

And then, but there's a real reversal since then, which is everywhere.

Yeah, and then if you take the other great source of high value added per worker is greater New York, which is mostly the financial industry.

And isolated places in the hinterland can thrive.

University towns, places that have spectacular natural beauty can, and those can become not just places

They can become places where, you know, remote work becomes possible and you can, and so maybe like one in 10 small towns in the hinterland can actually thrive.

And, but the trouble is it's highly selective.

And so if you travel around, you will find, I found this in multiple countries, but certainly in the United States, you, you travel through

Central Pennsylvania, which is already far enough away that it's kind of beyond the metro New York orbit.

And you'll see this thriving town with a lot of boutiques and coffee shops and actually a very internationalized workforce.