Why is the rural Midwest "easier" to live in than the rural/suburban South?

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Conventional wisdom would suggest

I'm sorry, but what conventional wisdom? Urban and suburban convictions of their own surpreme splendidness?

A lot of rural places have a surplus of jobs compared to their population due to natural resources. Housing and living costs are a lot cheaper so you get a lot further on a smaller income than you would in a big city. A family in the rural Midwest can live a comfortable middle-class life style on the same income that would leave a family in New York barely scrapping by. 

As to why Southern/Appalachian rural areas are horribly off compared to the Midwest, there are a lot of historic, demographic, and political reasons for that.   

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Conventional wisdom would suggest

I'm sorry, but what conventional wisdom? Urban and suburban convictions of their own surpreme splendidness?

A lot of rural places have a surplus of jobs compared to their population due to natural resources. Housing and living costs are a lot cheaper so you get a lot further on a smaller income than you would in a big city. A family in the rural Midwest can live a comfortable middle-class life style on the same income that would leave a family in New York barely scrapping by. 

I recall a study that suggested that $100k in NYC would buy roughly the same lifestyle that $38k would in a small city in the South. If you're a service worker making not much over minimum wage, you'll stretch your dollars much further outside the major metros.

You can't possibly have the same lifestyle in a small city in the South as you would in NYC.  And, anecdotally I make around $100k per year and live here quite comfortably. 

What exactly is it you could get in New York that you wouldn't be able to get in a mid-sized city anywhere else in the US, that isn't something you'd only want to do on a vacation?

The point is that with that kind of income you'd be able to have own a your nice house in the rural area with a swimming pool, while still having money over to travel or shop or what-ever you'd want to do, while it really won't get you especially far at all in any bigger city.