One of the things that has confused me for some time is how
there can be so much economic diversity in a relative small area. For example,
one town can have a labor shortage with employers begging for people and a
nearby town can have very high unemployment.
This question was addressed in an article in the Wall Street
Journal last week. It seems that American’s mobility is at an all-time low.
People are less likely to move to another town than they have ever been before.
We are no longer a mobile society and it is hurting the economy in all sorts of
ways.
The Journal article interviewed several people to try to
understand why this is so. Some of the reasons made sense. People didn’t want
to move away from family or friends, or they had strong ties to the local
community, church, or businesses. But the surprising thing was that a large
number of people are just plain scared of the unknown, or are unwilling to
accept or adjust to different cultures.
Some people had gone away to college, but dropped out and returned home
within weeks because their comfort and customs had been challenged. They were
then mentally doomed to stay in their own town regardless of the economic
situation.
My wife and I and many of our friends, grew up in small
towns, went away to college and settled in large cities. But for many people,
and more all the time, this is just too big of a leap. The culture barrier has
become too big.
The conventional wisdom is that TV and the other media have
homogenized the country, but that isn’t the case, it has just made many people
more fearful. Fear is a real emotion, but everyone has to decide if they will be
paralyzed by it, or motivated to action so that it does not stop all
that they can become and achieve.
