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The Midwest has never really been the "center" of population. It has historically been the Northeast and still is today. Just look at the Boston-Washington corridor. This might be more of a balancing out of the country. It's not like anyone's leaving the Midwest to move to the West Coast. It's more like new people entering the country settling in the West. So maybe what this article is saying is that in the near future the US's population will be more evenly distributed geographically? In terms of mainstream culture, it's always been in the West. Most of the media that the US and the rest of the world consumes and sees as being indicative of American culture comes from, you guessed it, Hollywood. So I don't really understand that.
The Midwest has never really been the "center" of population. It has historically been the Northeast and still is today. Just look at the Boston-Washington corridor. This might be more of a balancing out of the country. It's not like anyone's leaving the Midwest to move to the West Coast. It's more like new people entering the country settling in the West. So maybe what this article is saying is that in the near future the US's population will be more evenly distributed geographically? In terms of mainstream culture, it's always been in the West. Most of the media that the US and the rest of the world consumes and sees as being indicative of American culture comes from, you guessed it, Hollywood. So I don't really understand that.
The Midwest is not going anywhere.
You're confusing the "center" of population with "center of population". The East Coast has always been the largest population center in the country, I think it's up to 112 million people now. The "center of population" is "the point at which an imaginary, flat, weightless, and rigid map of the United States would balance perfectly if weights of identical value were placed on it so that each weight represented the location of one person on the date of the census".
You are right about this being a reflection of the West gaining population and moving towards making a very slow balance with the East. So yeah, "So maybe what this article is saying is that in the near future the US's population will be more evenly distributed geographically", that's what they're getting at, though I don't think it'll be the "near" future. As for mainstream culture completely coming from and always having been in the West, I totally disagree with that but that's another topic.
Edit: I added it up quick, the East Coast is up to 112,642,503 now.
Last edited by missRoxyhart; 03-10-2011 at 04:30 PM..
The salvation of old midwest towns like Chicago, Detroit, Milwalkee, St louis and Cincinatti will be a western drought.
The salvation of those towns, the country as a whole, and the West depends on us bringing back manufacturing jobs to the US, abandoning NAFTA and other agreements which other countries fail to abide by and lead to the massive loss of American jobs, cutting down even on white-collar outsourcing, and curbing illegal immigration (why do you think landscaping jobs, being a roofer, other hard work jobs only pay $10/hr - its because of the flood of labor from all the illegals so that companies can get away with it even in big expensive metro areas.) There is no salvation of any towns without jobs and a lot the west is experiencing high unemployment (ABQ, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Oregon, California, Seattle, Denver area - most of the entire west!) You can't have an economy based on the service sector and tourism! When Californians cash out of their houses and move to a new place with money and a new McMansion what do they do when the money runs out and what kind of job do they get. What happens when the Californians no longer what new homes and the construction sector collapses in Missoula, Montana --> high unemployment!
The west has one great achilles heal that will prevent much further growth, and possibly reverse thier population growth in a MAJOR way. Water is the resource the west lacks, and if a major drought ever occurs they will lose millions of people in a hurry. The midwestern areas that everyone has ran from will become the place to be again, and the migrations will reverse. The western great lakes and the Mississippi and Ohio river areas have more water than anyone will ever need. The salvation of old midwest towns like Chicago, Detroit, Milwalkee, St louis and Cincinatti will be a western drought.
People always say this, but yet, the midwest/great lakes region imports heating oil and natural gas far away from places like Texas, etc. So, is it really so much of a travesty to think that other parts of the country should import midwest water?
How about, the actual cultural amenities of these places. Considering the cost of living, and level of traffic congestion, these cities will be discovered? (Chicago has been more than "rediscovered" and the others are just begining to be discovered).
And yes, the Old Northwest (Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin) has been where the mean center, and still the median center of the country. So, yes, this thread does have significance.
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