Flotsam, Jetsam, Liam - Issue #6
“The world spins. We stumble on. It is enough.”
Originally published on Revue - January 23, 2020
Nomads No More: The Relocation Equation
My latest bout with writer’s block took me out of commission longer than expected, but fear not, this drivel endures. I’ll note that several logistical details of my life look different than when I last wrote. From Monday to Thursday, I’ve traded the confines of Rust Belt relic Dayton, OH for Big Ten bastion Madison, WI, working to get patients in pain appointments sooner. I also fly home to a new city, Washington, D.C., recently described to me by a subscriber of this newsletter as, “the place where smart aimless young people go because they want to be successful but don’t know what success looks like…” What took me so long?
As I continue to teach myself the virtues of asking wonderful people in my life for assistance, I have numerous friends to thank for making my moving process less arduous, less expensive, and far less dull.
For other twenty-somethings considering a move, my lessons learned can be neatly summarized as:
Over-budget, which should include the necessary funds to buy your friends a decent meal when they help you move
Facebook Marketplace is a buyer’s market
Moving furniture by yourself will induce profuse sweating and intermittent cursing
The 700-mile drive from Chicago to Washington could hardly be less scenic
Good luck finding parking for a minivan in DC
Outside of the limited insights that can be drawn from my personal anecdotes, the broader phenomenon of moving in today’s day and age merits a deeper look. From a macro vantage point, a befuddling paradox looms large: at a time when the economic and political incentives to move are stronger than ever, less people than ever are moving. Whereas 1 in 5 Americans moved in any given year during the 1950s, now less than 1 in 10 do.
People talk a big game about moving, sure. Finance guys bemoan that “$80k in Charlotte feels like $200k in New York,” but fear not being in the thick of it. In the wake of Election Night 2016, the Canadian Immigration website crashed from too much traffic. Thankfully, American national treasure Ne-Yo ultimately did not follow through on his plans to become Drake’s neighbor following Hillary’s electoral college defeat; declarations of defection north of the border from Snoop Dogg, Lena Dunham, Chelsea Handler, Barbara Streisand, and Raven Symone went similarly unfulfilled. Overall, about 1,000 more Americans than usual were granted residency in Canada in the year following Trump’s election, an uptick disproportionate to the hoopla.
Hardly a day goes by without a think piece profiling the strife caused by the rising costs of living or lack of affordable housing in San Francisco, Seattle, New York etc. Coming to the rescue almost without fail in the comments section are the pro bono armchair financial advisors, who offer compassionate counsel along the lines of, “if you can’t afford to live there, then move already.” A dig through the data shockingly reveals not a single incident in which one of these snide comments was the impetus behind a move to someplace cheaper.
Several cities and states with demographics that trend older have developed more effective programs geared towards wooing potential young residents. Maine is offering tax credits to counteract student loan debt. Vermont is reimbursing remote workers up to $10k over two years if they settle in the Green Mountain State. Topeka, KS created a “Choose Topeka” initiative, awarding $10k to renters and $15k to homebuyers who move to the city after being hired by a local employer. Oklahoma oil and banking tycoon and billionaire philanthropist George Kaiser has inspired 250 remote workers to relocate to Tulsa by awarding them $10k each, plus free co-working spaces and subsidized housing.
I applaud the innovation here – these destinations may each prove wonderful places to lay roots – but there are limitations to these models, refreshing as it is to see a billionaire employ a tactic to spur societal change that does not involve TV ads for a presidential campaign. For one, good jobs are increasingly based in major urban centers, rendering them both unaffordable and unleavable simultaneously. Just as fundamentally at the human level, networks of family and friends are critical to both our happiness and our survival.
For once, I’m not trying to be hyperbolic. I’ve previously written about the deleterious health effects of chronic loneliness, so I’ll focus here on another social trend counteracting human evolutionary history – childcare (nothing says “I majored in Anthropology” like a half-baked sweeping generalization about human civilizations). The idea that “it takes a village to raise a child” is nothing new, all sorts of species perform some version of alloparenting, but paying $16,000 on average for full time childcare annually in the US is. Women now make up more than half of the US workforce, a remarkable development that has necessitated outsourcing childcare on an industrial scale. As a result, young people looking to start a family while holding down jobs (that are under no obligation to offer paid maternity leave) have little option but to spend heavily on childcare. Childcare workers, 95% of whom are women, certainly deserve to be well compensated for the grueling work they do and may themselves live in expensive urban hubs, but we have yet to determine a sustainable resolution around to how to deliver quality affordable childcare unilaterally.
Therefore, those with family members who can assist with childcare are at a distinct advantage, disincentivizing ever moving far away from home. This leg up is written into our biology, through what is known as the Grandmother Theory. Besides Orcas, Belugas, Narwhals, and Pilot Whales, humans are the only known species whose females go through menopause and lose fertility. At first glance, this trait appears anti-Darwinian, an adaptation that would make gene transference less likely. However, the thinking goes that grandma’s post-menopausal longevity frees her up to take on more of her offspring’s’ child rearing burden, supporting the long-term resiliency of her lineage. Grandpa is bound to have some more time on his hands too. There could be plenty of excellent reasons to create some space physically and mentally from one’s parents, but these particular intergenerational perks and childcare cost savings simply won’t be felt as strongly by those who packed up and moved away to Tulsa.
So if you’re all bark and no bite when it comes to moving, I can hardly blame you – there’s quite a lot to think about. Whatever moves you are looking to make geographically, professionally, and/or personally in 2020, I’ll be cheering you on from our nation’s capital. Visitors welcome.