99.2% of Rhode Islanders believe the state economy is hopeless

[memphis]

Households in RI have an above average median income. Come down to rural Mississippi if you want to see hopeless.

[memphis]

I think this strikes to the heart of economic differences between the North and South. Most people in the North have the expectation of belonging to a broad middle class because they spent decades with it as a fact of life. A majority of people in the South are thoroughly accustomed to a much more unequal, almost feudal, society and have vivid plantation fantasies where they are the aristocracy. Life is, indeed, all about expectations.