They are the surrounding counties of Philadelphia and make up the Philadelphia area. They technically are separate counties but none of this would ever happen anyway. There is a lot of business revenue in Philly but per capita the people are poor. Culturally there is more in common with SE PA, South Jersey and Northern Delaware than the rest of the state of PA. Many of us in the Philly area own second homes in New Jersey on the shoreline. To be honest, I've lived in PA my entire life but I never leave the NYC-Philly-DC Northeast Corridor. I never travel West or Northwest. I graduated from Temple and Penn. I have no connection to the rest of the state. It might as well be Ohio. But I want to visit Harrisburg one day.

Either way, that guy was being a douche and being dismissive toward the rest of the state's contributors. I suppose he has a mindset that is common among a lot of folks down here in our little corner that looks at the rest of PA outside Allegheny and Erie County derisively as Pennsyltucky. That's not the way to talk to your fellow Pennsylvanians and it breeds contempt. Don't sweat him.