If The New American Heartland Were a Country. . .

If the New American Heartland were a country, it's GDP in 2015 would have totaled $7.99 trillion.

That's the combined GDP of the states that make up the so-called New American Heartland that gained its name from a Center for Opportunity Urbanism report by that same name.

Now ponder that.

At that level, the New American Heartland would be larger than the GDP of Japan and Germany combined.

Can you think of a country where a part of it was disparaged with the term "Rust Belt" like much of the New American Heartland is disparaged?

Ponder that.

So, yes, it is a big deal that this region needs to change the narrative that sees an impactful part of the U.S. labeled by a pejorative.

The current narrative, honed by a negative term, has to change in order to change the future to a more positive one.



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Do the math yourself with a comparison of nominal GDP of states and countries at Wikipedia.