A lot has changed since the lockdowns and the Submit or Flight response that ensued, when the migration from the Draconian rules of the tech hubs – Silicon Valley and New York in particular – began.
Working conditions shift with each new industrial revolution and despite the fact that the Information/Internet Era has been somewhat established for close to 20 years, we haven’t really seen a change. Until now.
For years, our urban areas have been attracting the young and the talented away from smaller towns, cities and suburbs, which had been leading to a seeming unabated expansion of our major urban centers into sprawling megalopolises. You could rattle off the destinations almost by rote: New York, San Francisco/Silicon Valley, Seattle, Los Angeles, plus a few more here and there. It didn’t matter that housing costs were absurd and, in many cases, up to half one’s salary would go into living quarters roughly the size of one’s college dorm. These were the epicenters, the hubs, at what may well prove to be, in retrospect, a moment in time.
We have yet to see the full after effects of the lockdowns, and while there have been reports of urban areas and states like New York and California hemorrhaging citizens, we’ve been hearing from our readers that many of them who moved out New York et al seemingly temporarily, sheltering with family or friends, gravitating back to the cities/towns/communities where they grew up, carrying on business over zoom et al, and watching the Draconian lockdowns and more lately, urban rioting, from afar, now have no intention of moving back. In fact, one investor friend who moved to a farm upstate at the onset, recently posted on the gram, showing off his new brood of calves. They were like having little kittens, he said.