The Rust Belt In 2024 Perspectives

It's been 40 years since Bruce Springsteen's song "My Hometown" from his album "Born In The USA."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrGi8ODOWR0

Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more
They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says "These jobs are going, boys
And they ain't coming back
To your hometown."



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_Belt

The Rust Belt experienced industrial decline starting in the 1950s with manufacturing peaking as a percentage of the U.S. GDP in 1953 and declining ever since.

1953 was 71 years ago... 3+ generations ago...

Oldest Boomers born in 1946, finish high school 1964, 11 years past peak.

I know that since WWII there's been a huge population shift from the Midwest and Northeast to the South and to the West. Also massive societal changes, women entering workforce, Civil Rights Act, etc.

I guess my question is, do the "right-to-work" states in 2024 have the same relative prosperity that the Rust Belt had in the early 1950's?

[EDIT]

I would be remiss if I didn't also mention the population shift from the third world to the USA since 1965...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_Nationality_Act_of_1965#:~:text=The%20Immigration%20and%20Nationality%20Act,policy%20of%20the%20United%20States.