Posted on 05/08/2014 2:01:24 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
One disturbing trend of recent decades is the decline in Americans’ geographic mobility. We pride ourselves on being a get-up-and-go people. In particular, we see ourselves as willing to move for opportunity. If there aren’t jobs here, we’ll go there. Our “flexibility” is reputedly a large economic advantage, especially compared with Europe’s, where people tend to stay put. It’s a flattering self-portrait now marred by the reality of more Americans also staying put.
The dramatic drop in geographic mobility is usually taken as yet more evidence that the U.S. economy has become less dynamic and flexible. Examples abound. Just recently, the Brookings Institution — a Washington think tank — released a report indicating a decline in entrepreneurial success. The number of firms being created is falling, and in recent years there have been more company failures (470,591 in 2011) than start-ups (409,209).
It all seems of a piece. Firms are less innovative and hardy. Workers are more rigid and immobile. The trends are unmistakable.
The Census Bureau regularly asks Americans whether they’re living in the same place this year as last. In 1948, one in five Americans (20.2 percent) reported moving in the previous year. Most (13.6 percent) stayed in the same county, but sizable minorities went elsewhere in the state (3.3 percent) or relocated to a different state (3.1 percent). Nearly four decades later, in 1985, the patterns were virtually identical: 20.2 percent moved, with insignificant shifts among their destinations. (In both years, there was also a small group that migrated from abroad.)
No more. In 2013, only 11.7 percent of Americans had moved in the previous year, with 7.5 percent staying in the same county and 2.3 percent remaining in the same state
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I don’t think he’s really disturbed by it
He might be when he discovers fewer people are willing to move and generate the ObaMao tax on home sales. It may also mean that neighborhoods which used to be busted up by moving in his third world peoples will now have well armed and angry oldsters not so willing to go along . . .
Isn’t it all a matter of personal choice anyway?
Some people would never think of moving from their hometown.
On the other hand, some people grow up and can’t wait to get away from their hometowns. Others accept moving to where the jobs are, if they have a professional career. Many career positions in the corporate world, for example, just aren’t found in smaller cities and towns.
Interesting topic. I have people of both types in my extended family, those who stay in the old hometown for life, and those who moved away due to military or career. And either way, they were content with the choices they made.
We’re becoming a Marxist state.
Marxists need neo-peasants.
Peasants don’t move.
We’re becoming a Marxist state.
Marxists need neo-peasants.
Peasants don’t move.
I don’t know, all my friends are moving away.
Yes, indeed. One daughter is making a killer salary and benefits here, but her husband wants them to move across the country where his extended family live. He's having trouble finding work and gave up several years ago. Should she move and give up her job, impacting their kids?
I've wanted to move for years, but my wife's extended family live in this area, particularly her mom we placed in assisted living that we visit weekly.
Often, it's more than personal choice and is a collaboration of multiple desires of family.
Here in NJ taxpaying Americans are fleeing; people have realized the price of mobility is that you don’t have a house or family (and it shows). They are keeping their mobility while losing their country.
Mobility is bad. Just ask the Detroitians.
Well, it’s bad for the liberal moonbats. Who’s going to pay for all their social engineering graft?
Here in NJ taxpaying Americans are fleeing; people have realized the price of mobility is that you don’t have a house or family (and it shows). They are keeping their mobility while losing their country.
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I don’t quite understand what you mean.
That tax only applies on capital gains greater than $250,000. I find it hard to believe it’s a significant factor in people’s decision to relocate or not.
I’m a stayer. I just love Michigan and live about 30 miles from where I grew up.
A mobile workforce was always one of America's strengths. A mobile workforce is requisite upon being mobile, and home ownership limits mobility.
This is the result of lowered expectations overall. Nowadays it’s all about clinging to the jobs we can land and hold, and keeping a roof over our heads. Gone is the typical American tendency toward optimism about the future. Liberals wanted America brought to its knees.. and here we are.
There’ll be even less mobility when everyone finds out their insanely expensive, low-quality, small-network obamacare plans won’t work out of state, even if you live a few feet away from the doctor you want to see.
Yet one more step towards implementing Directive 10-289.
It's an interesting kind of slavery, because only a person can set themselves free. People are being conditioned to accept this as a way of life, only few know better anymore.
Do people seriously think future employers don't do a credit check before they hire someone? It's a pretty good scam by the gov....it doesn't have to enslave people who enslave themselves.
Got a friend we are trying to help get on his feet. He is currently living in a motel, having been evicted from his home two weeks ago. Since he has trouble finding anyone to rent to him in the area (evictions will do that to you), I suggested he look outside the immediate community. He refuses. Too much hassle since he is on all these government programs that help sustain him.
I’m not optimistic about his future.
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