6 ms·

Move to where there are jobs.

dangrossman 15y ago
Easy for a 22 year old recent college grad, harder for a 52 year old mom who worked for the same factory for 20 years before it downsized. It's not easy to pick up, leave your community and family, and start over somewhere else, especially when you have no degree and your skill set has aged no matter where you go. These one-liners aren't as useful as you probably think they sound.
- tomjen3 15y ago
  No I guess it wouldn't be easy. My parents did it, but then again they where only 43... Seriously, who said it was easy?
  - mkr-hn 15y ago
    The advocates of the "just do it" mentality always make it sound easy. "Just do it," and never any practical advice. If the it were so obvious that one could just do, they would have done it already.
- mechanical_fish 15y ago
  You didn't even mention the possibility that your 52-year-old mom's entire life savings is tied up in her house in her hometown. Where there are no jobs, and nobody is buying houses, so she can't cash out except at a big loss.
  - yummyfajitas 15y ago
    She already made a big loss. The only question is whether she goes on deluding herself that she is still in the black, or whether she acknowledges the loss, accepts it and moves on. Similarly, there is a possibility she put all her money into GM stock. Should she refuse to sell it to avoid taking a big loss?
- rdl 15y ago
  That's why artificially encouraging/subsidizing home ownership is actually economically suboptimal. Lowering relocation costs (financial and other) and increasing labor mobility (geographic and across industries) definitely helps the economy. The military is one of the better organizations for this, since they have operational needs to relocate people on fairly low notice and without much flexibility. The relocation process is fairly well structured and some resources are the same everywhere, while other things are customized to the location. Big companies are pretty good about this for their top execs, but maybe there would be value in startups making relocation easier for new hires, especially older ones who might have families or other obligations. Of course, telecommuting and satellite offices solves a lot of this, too (especially if you have a job with 50% travel, it isn't that much worse to have 50% travel + 10% travel to main hq in order to remain somewhere else).
  - nhebb 15y ago
    Thinking out in left field here: Given that the relationship between housing liquidity and the labor market has been well established by economists, I wonder if there's a market for housing exchanges. The exchange would allow buyers to finance a home like a traditional mortgage, but when they wanted to move they could place their equity in the home on the exchange and trade it for the equity on another home, with the exchange facilitating the transfer of mortgage obligations.
- ctdonath 15y ago
  No, it's not easy. Neither is starving. If you can't live where/how you want, then you can't and the only viable option is MOVE. Yes it hurts. Yes a lot may be lost. Sentimentality does not pay the bills or put food on the table. Many have gone thru worse and come out better. I made such a move at 38. Wasn't easy. Sure I wasn't 52, but it still hurt and had its own issues. It's your choice whether to let a bad situation grind you into nothing, or to suck it up and do something - anything - legal & moral to get thru/over/past it. Leaving the family home, friends, legacy, etc. hurts but starvation and bankruptcy hurt much more. No it's not easy - DO IT. Those one-liners are more accurate than you probably want them to be.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]

Easy for a 22 year old recent college grad, harder for a 52 year old mom who worked for the same factory for 20 years before it downsized. It's not easy to pick up, leave your community and family, and start over somewhere else, especially when you have no degree and your skill set has aged no matter where you go. These one-liners aren't as useful as you probably think they sound.

tomjen3 15y ago
No I guess it wouldn't be easy. My parents did it, but then again they where only 43... Seriously, who said it was easy?
- mkr-hn 15y ago
  The advocates of the "just do it" mentality always make it sound easy. "Just do it," and never any practical advice. If the it were so obvious that one could just do, they would have done it already.
mechanical_fish 15y ago
You didn't even mention the possibility that your 52-year-old mom's entire life savings is tied up in her house in her hometown. Where there are no jobs, and nobody is buying houses, so she can't cash out except at a big loss.
- yummyfajitas 15y ago
  She already made a big loss. The only question is whether she goes on deluding herself that she is still in the black, or whether she acknowledges the loss, accepts it and moves on. Similarly, there is a possibility she put all her money into GM stock. Should she refuse to sell it to avoid taking a big loss?
rdl 15y ago
That's why artificially encouraging/subsidizing home ownership is actually economically suboptimal. Lowering relocation costs (financial and other) and increasing labor mobility (geographic and across industries) definitely helps the economy. The military is one of the better organizations for this, since they have operational needs to relocate people on fairly low notice and without much flexibility. The relocation process is fairly well structured and some resources are the same everywhere, while other things are customized to the location. Big companies are pretty good about this for their top execs, but maybe there would be value in startups making relocation easier for new hires, especially older ones who might have families or other obligations. Of course, telecommuting and satellite offices solves a lot of this, too (especially if you have a job with 50% travel, it isn't that much worse to have 50% travel + 10% travel to main hq in order to remain somewhere else).
- nhebb 15y ago
  Thinking out in left field here: Given that the relationship between housing liquidity and the labor market has been well established by economists, I wonder if there's a market for housing exchanges. The exchange would allow buyers to finance a home like a traditional mortgage, but when they wanted to move they could place their equity in the home on the exchange and trade it for the equity on another home, with the exchange facilitating the transfer of mortgage obligations.
ctdonath 15y ago
No, it's not easy. Neither is starving. If you can't live where/how you want, then you can't and the only viable option is MOVE. Yes it hurts. Yes a lot may be lost. Sentimentality does not pay the bills or put food on the table. Many have gone thru worse and come out better. I made such a move at 38. Wasn't easy. Sure I wasn't 52, but it still hurt and had its own issues. It's your choice whether to let a bad situation grind you into nothing, or to suck it up and do something - anything - legal & moral to get thru/over/past it. Leaving the family home, friends, legacy, etc. hurts but starvation and bankruptcy hurt much more. No it's not easy - DO IT. Those one-liners are more accurate than you probably want them to be.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]