There are a couple of points of interest: 1. Americans are continuing to shift to the southeast and the west (ex-California) 2. Despite an uptick due to the current recession, internal migration is declining.
As to point one, people, particularly young people, are moving away from the states with heavy social overheads to the more efficient environments where jobs are being created.
As to point two, we are becoming older and more unwilling to move. This is normal and understandable. Of all of Newton's laws of motion, inertia has always been my favorite. Moreover, I would think that the rapidly-growing reach of the social safety net has combined with lower incentives to work that have resulted from the decline in real compensation for labor has also been a factor.
As to point one, people, particularly young people, are moving away from the states with heavy social overheads to the more efficient environments where jobs are being created.
As to point two, we are becoming older and more unwilling to move. This is normal and understandable. Of all of Newton's laws of motion, inertia has always been my favorite. Moreover, I would think that the rapidly-growing reach of the social safety net has combined with lower incentives to work that have resulted from the decline in real compensation for labor has also been a factor.
I remember an article in the Financial Times some years ago that examined the problem posed by the fact that English people were reluctant to move from their homes to towns fifteen miles away to find work. I observed the same phenomenon when living in France in the 1970's. Now the USA is joining the club.
Implications of less striving include slower growth, more crime, and increased drug abuse and alcoholism in our Clockwork Orange society.
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