Being from the midwest, and working from within and without, there's been definitely been a growing anti-midwest sentiment coming from the coasts. As if it's dead and now should be written off. Abandon the place, like Detroit. Go to S.F. instead, where C.O.L. is extreme, and because jobs should concentrate. (Well, yes, to a degree.)

Since its industrial-labor power fell we've been seen as more of a joke than of anything serious. (Which drives the politics a bit wacky, too.)

A lot of snobbish comments here IMO, coming from Europe I'm getting an image of the Midwest as a place where 99% people work in agriculture and don't know how to read or write.

Indeed. I live in the country outside of a good sized (university-centered) city (Bloomington, IN). There are farms nearby, I have a huge empty field behind me, surrounded by a large amount of "woods", and my neighbor across the street has horses (yes, we do lots of cows and corns nearby too). However, I work pretty comfortably from home and the City just announced plans to build out a city-wide GigE fiber network (although I'm probably not included in the that, being outside the City limits, I already have GigE FTTH).

I've lived and travelled all over the country and the only thing the Midwest has going for it is it's not the South.