[FRIAM] What is Stopping Poor People From Moving? - The Atlantic

[Edward Angel]

There are a number of things that bother me about the article.

First, most (poor) people don’t need a bunch of academics to tell them that a higher wage is an illusion if the cost of living is astronomical.

Second, regardless of your philosophical position on affordable housing, as hinted at in the last paragraph of the article, if ain’t going to happen.

Third, in spite of the high cost of living people are still pouring into CA and NY. Why? That’s the issue of importance. My view is that it’s all about immigration and deferred gratification. The people coming into CA and NY are immigrants both from other countries and other parts of the US. They realize the issue of high cost of living and are willing to take on multiple jobs (think of Uber drivers in San Francisco), take on jobs others don’t want, commute long distances and live in less than ideal circumstances because of the opportunities not necessarily for themselves but for their children and their children’s children. Many of my grandparents’s generation, all of whom were immigrants, came to the US into far worse living conditions than they had in Europe. Those who weren’t willing to make those sacrifices for future generations stayed. That’s still true for many groups today, whether in West Virginia or Latin America or Eastern Europe.

The UK is great example of this. In the north there are multiple generations living in poverty in the same places their families have lived for generations while London is full of Eastern Europeans (from the EEU countries). Similar to the US? Housing is even more expensive there.

To take a slightly different view from Steve, a large part of the migration to CA, especially after WWII, was to the opportunities offered by free education. For example, my ex-wifes’s family came to CA from Iowa then with six kids, all of whom got college degrees from the California colleges. Wouldn’t have happened if they stayed in Iowa. 

Yes, things have changed a lot and the present generation often does not have the opportunities mine did. But the solution is not affordable housing. It has to be centered around free education and support for people whose jobs have disappeared.

Santa Fe is in a somewhat different situation is that unlike CA and NY there are very few jobs available regardless of your educational level. Affordable housing won’t fix that although it may help keep police, firemen and teachers here. But unless, SF and NM in general does something about education in the state, things are unlikely to get better.

Ed
_______________________

Ed Angel

Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab)
Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico

1017 Sierra Pinon
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505-984-0136 (home)		 	angel at cs.unm.edu <mailto:angel at cs.unm.edu>
505-453-4944 (cell) 				http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel <http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel>

> On Oct 13, 2017, at 2:54 PM, Tom Johnson <tom at jtjohnson.com> wrote:
> 
> Pertinent to this morning's discussion.
> 
> The Barriers Stopping Poor People From Moving to Better Jobs
> https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/10/geographic-mobility-and-housing/542439/ <https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/10/geographic-mobility-and-housing/542439/>
> 
> TJ
> 
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