But if outsiders still think of Kansas as Dorothy’s backyard, that could hurt efforts to attract the high-tech businesses and workers it needs for the future. The state also has growing urban centers surrounding Wichita and Kansas City that are turning from building grain elevators to building jets, microchips and electric car batteries. While most small towns in western Kansas have seen populations plummet in recent decades, this city of nearly 20,000 people has more than doubled its number of residents since 1950 - largely thanks to the arrival of immigrant and refugee communities. There are still plenty of farms here, but these days they’re run by fewer farmers who rely more on GPS satellites than scarecrows.Īnd Liberal - hometown to the film’s archetypal white farm girl - has become the most Hispanic city in the state with roughly ⅔ of its population identifying as Latino. But Kansas has harnessed those breezes to become one of the top states for producing renewable wind energy. (Despite coming from the lower castes, Katniss Everdeen, the 'Hunger Games'' female teen protagonist played by Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence, of course impresses with her unusual wit and wiles.But in reality, today’s Kansas sits somewhere in between those two extremes. In 'Divergent' and the wildly popular 'Hunger Games' movies, children from different socioeconomic strata battle each other to the death for the entertainment of their bettors. In 'Elysium' and 'Snowpiercer,' the hoi polloi organize revolutions to overthrow their occupiers and oppressors. In the last installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman film trilogy, the villain Bain and his adjutants hold Gotham's economic elites to account for their various crimes against the less fortunate. Keeping with its long tradition, Hollywood lately served up a new bounty of class-themed films.

Fast-forward to today's major political debates, and in many ways little has changed during the past century: Although the stage for the working classes first shifted from farms to factories, and later to low-wage service industry locations, we still confront a struggle between haves and have-nots.

Wizard of oz frank l baum