Do a thought experiment. Transport 10,000 residents of Harlem, picked at random, to a remote island in the Pacific and leave them there, with the means to survive for about a year and allow them to take about 100 pound of personal effects, but they will be isolated from the outside world. Pick another 10,000 from North Dakota and place them on a similar but separate island.
Come back in a generation, 25 years, and note the demographics and economy. On one island, most of the original settlers will have died off, the population will be distributed towards the young, with lots of children, few of whom survive into adulthood. Literacy among the young will be non-existant, healthcare not even rudimentary, religion reduced to superstition, government will be run by one or more competing strongman tryrants.
On the other, population will be stable, schools, a clinic, elections and governance will have been established. At least two religious communities will exist in harmony, Catholics and Protestants. Religion will be smoothly integrated into education with few objections.
Sadly, America is progressing from the second island to the first.
There was a recent Fox News (business) article, March 27 about the 10 most MISERABLE states: NORTH Dakota was number seven and SOUTH Dakota was number two.
North Dakota got an "F" in eight of the 14 categories, including redistricting, ethics enforcement, lobbying disclosure and political financing. (Snip) Last year the State overwhelmingly voted against a bill to create an ethics commission.
I WON'T show this to a long-time friend FROM North Dakota because she REALLY believes that her home state is perfect and head-shoulders superior in every way to every other state--except winters. Winters drove her to California. She simply wouldn't believe this article and would point to media bias. :o) She IS known for being a TAD STUBBORN.
To some extent (perhaps a very small extent) a similar experiment has actually been conducted. Compare and contrast Liberia and Australia.