The “Geography of Stuck” was published in The Atlantic yesterday by Senior Editor Richard Florida. He notes the following statistics and commentary:
- A smaller share of Americans moved last year than at any time on record
- Nearly six in ten Americans live in the state where they were born
- Louisiana (79%), Michigan (77%) and Ohio (75%) were born there, as opposed to just 24% of Nevadans, 35% of Floridians, 37% of the residents of Washington, D.C., and 38% of Arizonans.
- There is a distinctive “stuck belt” across the middle of the country running from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa, down through West Virginia and into the Sunbelt states of Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Mobility is largely a bi-coastal—plus Rocky Mountain state—phenomenon.
- America can be divided into two distinct classes, the stuck and the mobile. The mobile possess the resources and the inclination to seek out and move to locations where they pursue economic opportunity. Too many Americans are stuck in places with limited resources and opportunities. This geography of the stuck and mobile is a key axis of cleavage in the United States.
Whoa. While I don’t dispute the facts, I would challenge the statement and the framing that “many Americans are stuck in places with limited resources and opportunities.” Any takers today for a move to the Sunshine states? (Nevada employment rate 13.9%, California 11.9%, Florida 10.6%, Arizona 9.1%).