Feel free to pity the south if you want. I love living here.
While there may be more poverty, the lower cost of living means it is an easier place to be poor. I have access to some top quality health care, and my insurance dollars go farther. I make a nationally competitive salary in my field, and with the lower cost of living I can enjoy it and still save for retirement. Smoking is a choice people make, it is not my problem.
But it is not just those things, but the genuine friendliness I enjoy down here. I have travelled and worked all over the US. And there are friendly people everywhere. But no where has the volume of smiling friendly people you find in the south. People wave as you drive by. They chat in the checkout lines at the grocery store. When I was coming back down from working up north I could always tell when I was "Home" again. If I stopped for gas and a cold drink and the clerk just said, "$32.00 please", I wasn't close. When they said, "Hi, how ya doin? Sure is a pretty day (or cold day or whatever) That'll be $32.00. Drive safe now", I knew I was closer to home.
Pity us if you want. I'll take little old ladies saying "Bless her heart", tall glasses of sweet tea, the smell of magnolia blossoms, college football tailgating, and miles of dirt roads over a slightly higher standard of living for everyone else.