The Midwest: Coming Back?
Forbes.com
Oh my name it is nothing
My age it is less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
–Bob Dylan, “With God on Our Side,” 1964
For nearly a half century since the Minnesota-raised Robert Zimmerman wrote those lines, the American Midwest has widely been seen as a “loser” region–a place from which talented people have fled for better opportunities. Those Midwesterners seeking greater, glitzier futures historically have headed to the great coastal cities of Miami, New York, San Diego or Seattle, leaving behind the flat expanses of the nation’s mid-section for the slower-witted, or at least less imaginative.