Comment by alpha_squared
16 days ago
> It would be less of a problem only if you went to a country and location that has a similar cost of living as where you live now, but then again, that's not really on the table, is it...
This seems to be an assumption you made, but the poster did not imply or state.
As someone in a similar mindset to the poster, I'm not looking for lower CoL places, I'm looking for comparable QoL places which ultimately points to Europe or Oceania. We'd be paid dramatically less, which we're okay with, but the QoL would be comparable (perhaps even better when counting social services).
I understand where they're coming from, though.
If I pulled the trigger, it would be to a similar CoL location, but that still gets to their point: if many people do the same, prices go up. Housing availability goes down. And all the knock-on effects that could result in "gentrification."
How do I balance that (and all sorts of other things) with my desire to keep my family safe and give my children a chance at a solid future, though? I'm not sure, which is why I feel so much consternation and a need to gather more information to inform how I'll decide to act in the future.
> If I pulled the trigger, it would be to a similar CoL location, but that still gets to their point: if many people do the same, prices go up. Housing availability goes down. And all the knock-on effects that could result in "gentrification."
Precisely. You don't need to put gentrification in quotes. It invariably happens. And it gentrifies both the locals and the recent immigrants.
> How do I balance that (and all sorts of other things) with my desire to keep my family safe and give my children a chance at a solid future, though?
From the dynamics that seem to go around such white-collar immigration for these reasons, there doesn't seem to be a way to prevent gentrification and CoL rise. The only exception may be going to places that sorely lack people, like the American North Midwest - places that not only risk depopulation, but also places that can carry immense amounts of people and are open to development.
The majority of the world is not like that. The majority of European population centers are squeezed between river valleys between mountains or short strips of land between the mountains/hills and the sea. And they are already built to hell. The depopulated mountain regions of such places could use some people, but they can in no way handle the amount of emigration that the richer countries seem to be generating. That is one reason why Europe gets higher CoL and gentrification so fast from such immigration.
South America fares a little better because it has at least some more space, but it suffers from the same in the end: The desirable locations are limited and the immigrants go to those locations, causing skyrocketing costs.
Looking at Asia and Africa, it may be a little better because in certain locations there are vast spaces and major cities that could handle immense amounts of people and could use development, but those don't seem to be popular destinations for such white-collar immigrants.
So it again comes back to the US: The 'flyover country' between the coasts in the US is an immense space that is open to a level of development that no other place on the planet can provide. Most of that space seems to be occupied by either unused public land, or by the cattle industry. There was recent research that detailed how the cattle industry sits on top of a gigantic amount of land almost for free despite propping itself up with government subsidies and how it could solve the housing woes of the US and provide unparalleled development. But until citizens, investors and planners start putting pressure on politicians to offset the influence of the cattle industry lobby, that land will keep propping up the cattle industry instead of being used for urban development.
> This seems to be an assumption you made, but the poster did not imply or state
He doesn't need to. The dynamics of such emigration are always like that.
> I'm not looking for lower CoL places, I'm looking for comparable QoL places
That still causes gentrification. You will go to increase the housing demand in the place you go to and that will cause all of you to gentrify, including you. That even happens to those who go to lower CoL places - in just a few years, prices skyrocket and the richer emigrants themselves are stupefied - today CoL in major European cities that became popular locations for such emigration are catching up to the places where these people escaped from.
I was a big proponent of such international white-collar mobility before. The statistics and real-life experiences changed that.
I get where you're coming from, I really do, but I also think that perspective effectively means that you should never migrate -- ever. To anywhere, at all. I take the stance that gentrification is inevitable, unfortunately, but it can be guided and managed (and I say this as someone who's been gentrified out of an area I'd really love to live in for the rest of my life). Just like you can't control the weather, you also can't control migration patterns but you can manage them.