I think this type of thinking is shortsighted for a few reasons, but still you have good points. It’s just very hard. In terms of children, there are many peop

I think this type of thinking is shortsighted for a few reasons, but still you have good points. It’s just very hard. In terms of children, there are many people who feel very strongly that a life goal to raise children is a moral imperative that supercedes any consideration of wealth or affordability. Many people who can only get low-skilled jobs also rely on their extended network of family, friends, church, whatever. The prospect of moving to a different place is preposterous to them, because even if they had marginally better pay compared to costs of living it would’t matter at all if they don’t have their grandmother nearby to offer frequent free child care, or they couldn’t see a longtime family friend who helps with hard times or addiction issues or many other types of things. It’s also quite hard to relocate for most people. It’s not like being a cook 5 hours away is the type of job you scout out and uproot your life over. What if that restaurant goes out of business? How much other available employment liquidity is there after you uproot & move? Who pays the relocation costs? What about uprooting kids’ lives? Finally, a lot of people have generational and/or cultural attachment to a specific place, and they believe that this also supercedes any market conditions related to housing or jobs. Doesn’t matter if it’s a natural disaster, an economic crash, or being priced out by gentrification... you have to imagine the mindset of “this is where I am from, this is where my family is,” and the feeling that if generational home can’t be sustained, that this is a greater loss than it would be to slide into poverty. Obviously not all of this applies to the situation of the article, but generally this is hard. A lot of people simply commit to an ideology they believe is literally exempt from being affected by economic conditions, and that those values transcend any other type of decision-making.