4 ms·

I do live outside of a city, and I do it for the lack of traffic, less crime, lower cost of living, being surrounded by the natural outdoors, and less stressful

I do live outside of a city, and I do it for the lack of traffic, less crime, lower cost of living, being surrounded by the natural outdoors, and less stressful culture. But you missed my point. All those perks of living in a city are great, if you need to be there to earn what you earn. without that, the high cost of living simply isn't justified. Even if people want to be there, they'll make financial and economic decisions. And once those people start leaving, all those shops and bars and bodegas and what not that cater to them will go belly up. Then their owners and employees will leave. There goes your vibrant cultural life and opportunities to socialize. The flip side is that you'll find more of those things in less densely populated areas as this shakes out, and cost of living will rise as well outside of cities, but not by nearly as much, because the diaspora will be spread out.

WastingMyTime89 4y ago
> But you missed my point. All those perks of living in a city are great, if you need to be there to earn what you earn. without that, the high cost of living simply isn't justified. I am not missing anything. I just deeply disagree. City life is enjoyable in and of itself. I don’t live there because I have to for my work. I live there because I find it inherently better than living somewhere else. If I was living in a normal city and not the capital of my country, it would not even be more expensive than living in the countryside. It would probably actually be cheaper. Gas is expensive here and our cities are built like proper cities. I think you are projecting your value on the situation and conclude that cities are doomed. Personally I think we are just going to witness a shift away from cities where life is expensive towards cheaper cities.
- betwixthewires 4y ago
  That's a part of it too, moving to smaller cities, but that's still a massive economic reshuffling. I think you're grossly overestimating the number of people that live in cities for reasons other than economic opportunity. That is the entire value proposition of a city, that was the driver that led to urbanization in most countries as they developed. You might be willing to pay 3x as much in rent for the same pay because you like the local chicken place, but I doubt most of your neighbors would make the same choice as you when given the opportunity to reduce cost without reducing income. And when those people leave, all those perks of city life go with them.
  - WastingMyTime89 4y ago
    > That is the entire value proposition of a city … 3x as much in rent for the same pay because you like the local chicken place We are going in circle. Economic opportunities are clearly not the entire value proposition of a city. It’s a very convenient way of living. It’s not about a chicken place. It’s about walking your children to school, being able to go to conferences, to see plays or attend a concert. It’s also just nice to not need a car. It’s very advantageous to just live close to others. I don’t know where you get your 3x from by the way. An average city rent here is only 20% to 30% more expensive than living in the countryside. We are not talking about San Francisco.
  - seadan83 4y ago
    We all know the big dreams of every 16 year old is to run away and move to the country ;) Just mention this as it is not all economics.

WastingMyTime89 4y ago

> But you missed my point. All those perks of living in a city are great, if you need to be there to earn what you earn. without that, the high cost of living simply isn't justified. I am not missing anything. I just deeply disagree. City life is enjoyable in and of itself. I don’t live there because I have to for my work. I live there because I find it inherently better than living somewhere else. If I was living in a normal city and not the capital of my country, it would not even be more expensive than living in the countryside. It would probably actually be cheaper. Gas is expensive here and our cities are built like proper cities. I think you are projecting your value on the situation and conclude that cities are doomed. Personally I think we are just going to witness a shift away from cities where life is expensive towards cheaper cities.

betwixthewires 4y ago
That's a part of it too, moving to smaller cities, but that's still a massive economic reshuffling. I think you're grossly overestimating the number of people that live in cities for reasons other than economic opportunity. That is the entire value proposition of a city, that was the driver that led to urbanization in most countries as they developed. You might be willing to pay 3x as much in rent for the same pay because you like the local chicken place, but I doubt most of your neighbors would make the same choice as you when given the opportunity to reduce cost without reducing income. And when those people leave, all those perks of city life go with them.
- WastingMyTime89 4y ago
  > That is the entire value proposition of a city … 3x as much in rent for the same pay because you like the local chicken place We are going in circle. Economic opportunities are clearly not the entire value proposition of a city. It’s a very convenient way of living. It’s not about a chicken place. It’s about walking your children to school, being able to go to conferences, to see plays or attend a concert. It’s also just nice to not need a car. It’s very advantageous to just live close to others. I don’t know where you get your 3x from by the way. An average city rent here is only 20% to 30% more expensive than living in the countryside. We are not talking about San Francisco.
- seadan83 4y ago
  We all know the big dreams of every 16 year old is to run away and move to the country ;) Just mention this as it is not all economics.