Some OPs are just better as blogs.
You are cherry picking your examples. That are a lot of places in the U.S. that are great in their own way. The Bay area is extremely strong for computer technology (not so much for all the homeless people) but other areas have their strengths too. The greater Boston area easily beats the much bigger NYC area (or anywhere else in the world) in terms of higher education. The Dallas and Houston, Texas areas are thriving and booming in many sectors including high-tech. I have constant blind inquiries to see if they can pay me a whole lot to move there because they can’t find enough people.
You can think what you want about petroleum fracking technology but it is a fact that we went from “peak oil and gas” to too much oil and gas in the blink of an eye just a few years ago despite almost all predictions. The U.S. based companies did that in the hinterlands ranging from North Dakota to West Texas. The result is that we don’t have to worry about energy anymore at least for our lifetime. It may screw up the climate but it is there for the taking despite all claims to the contrary even ten years ago.
The Los Angeles area controls the worldwide movie industry (except for all those beautiful Bollywood action films with all their poignant musical interludes) but I wouldn’t call that the bastion of “culture”. The world only needs so many superhero movies and overly bleached teeth. It is easier to argue that places like New Orleans with real traditions like Mardi Gras and a thriving culinary arts scene are more “real”. That is on top of the fact that the port at the mouth of the Mississippi is one of the biggest in the world and the artery that supplies the central part of the country with just about everything.
Is the Chicago commodities exchange any less important than Wall Street? At least for the former, you are talking about real oranges and pork bellies that will be delivered at some point and not just moving numbers around on a spreadsheet for “wealth” that can disappear if the leader of an Asian country sneezes at the wrong time. Real farmers in Iowa are the ones producing those pork bellies. They don’t just magically appear and couldn’t if it weren’t for the grain belt and the people willing to make it happen.
The point is that the U.S. has a lot going for it especially in terms of a very diversified economy and gifted natural resources. There is no reason to claim that any particular region is inherently better than another. Much of it is due to chance and it can and will change with time. New Orleans used to be one of the richest cities in the Western Hemisphere. Silicone Valley sprang up due to an odd confluence of events. The main reason San Francisco, Boston and NYC are so expensive to live in isn’t because they are so great. It is because they are geographically constrained. Who is luckier, someone that lives in a 4th floor walkup in Manhattan for $3000 a month or someone that lives in a 3000 sq ft house bordering Yellowstone National Park for half that. I can’t say because it is a personal choice. What I can say is that it is great that the choice is there for the taking.