If we take out the money of the equation, it really is about what activities constitute good standard of living.

Is it better standard of living to be in a small apartment in the city working an office job or is it better standard of living being in a more rural area working manual jobs. (I honestly don't know, personally, I prefer to do thinking work)

Traditional manual work has disappeared and isn't coming back. I was watching our water company lay new pipe outside my house recently and there were no people wielding picks and shovels. There was a ton of technology involved though.

For rural employment to increase you would need to throw away all the technological progress from the last century. The country and economy would be unrecognisable from what it is now.