Eight Southern states, organized by a MI research group, try to relocate R&D in South

[poobert]

What a load of poo.

Being the least educated state doesn't mean there are not a lot of really smart people. Its only an average.

You probably don't remember when the car companies said the same sort of things about the Japanese, Koreans. Now we say it about the south and the Chinese.

Poo.

They're also overwhelmingly the poorest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...y_poverty_rate

Not really hitting it out of the park when it comes to developing humans, either:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_HDI

The difference with your analogy is that the Japanese and Koreans had been steadily rebounding since WWII. Poverty and lack of education are still stubborn problems in many Southeastern states with little indication of improvement.

I'm not saying there aren't smart and/or rich people in the South.

All I'm saying is that with a huge chunk of population that is poor and uneducated and generally doing really shitty, it seems like a really uphill battle to jump out and say, "Oh yeah, but we want research and development now!"

They could pretty easily draw some manufacturing jobs for almost that very reason but this is a whole different animal.