Conjecture: economic growth is correlated with social mobility. https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/the-economic-case-for-social-mobility/ https://www.brookings

Conjecture: economic growth is correlated with social mobility. https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/the-economic-case-for-social-mobility/ https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/the-economic-case-for-soc... Growth and social mobility are the things Salt Lake and San Jose have in common. The economic engine of San Jose relies on recruiting immigrants to drive a young, skilled labor force. In Salt Lake they manufacture their own youthful workforce by having the highest fertility rate in the land. Think of the baby boom -- the last time both growth and mobility were high in the US. The mechanism is irrelevant, but I'll point out that both Salt Lake and San Jose are running pyramid schemes. Eventually you run out of places to put people and then your population ages and then you have a problem. See Japan. Also, the bill is coming due for San Jose sooner and for Salt Lake later but that's another story. Oh, and I completely reject that Mormon institutions (while perfectly admirable) and lack of ethnic diversity (questionable at best) have anything to do with Utah's recent economic pop.