The plains are becoming a place full of hispanic immigrants living in destitute conditions performing manual labor for very low wages.
All of the smaller towns are depopulating and the bigger cities are growing slowly but also aging rapidly and are becoming havens of retired people with few to take care of them.
Decades of minimal investment and major losses thanks to free trade policies have led to this.
Only in the past few years have things begun to look up as farm incomes are rising faster than the national average and alternative energies are growing.
Where did all that come from? Free trade is the reason why the Great Plains haven't entirely emptied out -- all of that surplus grain is shipped to the Far East, after all.
No, what caused Oklahoma's poverty is a confluence of two very long term trends:
1. Farm consolidation and the mechanization of farm labor
2. Old oil and gas fields being closed
Of course, the commodities price recession of the past thirty years did not help matters.
