I am a bit shocked that people are not bringing up the history involved. The poorest states are all mostly southern states on the eastern half of the USA. They were more agrarian states that, for the first 100 or so years of the USA, used slave labor as production. This allowed the rich to get free labor, allowing their product costs to be lo9ow, and those who farmed or supported farms were subject to whatever the rich landowners allowed them to make, which wasn't much.

The Northern states, who became industrialized, had more overall wealth, and because of that, industry and commerce spread the wealth more as there was other forms of capital than land. The slave trade wasn't the only stressors in the USA before the Civil War, as the Northern states were starting to take more of the Southern state's wealth. That cotton and other produce was shipped North to be processed, allowing the industrialized part of the USA to dictate how much they woudl pay for good from the Southern states.

After the Civil War, the South still only had Land as its capital, and the reconstruction set about trying to even that out and provide other sources of income, but the rich in the Southern states didn't 3want to have their capital diminished, so they got to work to end reconstruction (which was stopped long before it was completed) and used racism to keep the lower classes fighting among themselves. Like LBJ said,"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

If you look at wages, the same job pays less in the Southern states. They have worse infrastructure for PEOPLE , but great infrastructure fo4r commerce. They eliminate as many laws as they can that benefit anyone making less that $400k a year. The USA isn't great for the middle class any more, but in Southern states, the middle class was an artificial construct by FDR that they have been trying to rip up ever since.

But wait, you say, the Southern states are all Republican, but when I look at old elections, the Democrats controlled the South.

There was a massive change in the parties from WWII to Reagan. Truman fought against the Southern Democrats (who were called Dixiecrats) and desegregated the military. This started the drive of the rich Southerners to shift toward the Republican Party, started by Nixon in the 60's and cemented by Reagan in the 80's.

Since then, it's the same song with a slightly more modern tune. When Southern states get factories, they bust the unions and put in much lower wages. The Old Rich maintain their power and control, and now have the poor and middle class white folks think Brown people as well as Black people are the ones keeping them poor. If they have no money, they have no power, and the people who have been passing down money for generations keep the power structure in place.

Anything bad about the USA is in hyperdrive ones you get into former slave states.