We’ve written repeatedly about things causing people to abandon cities, about the move to outer suburbs and exurbs, about working from home. As we noted yesterday, three factors push this: Covid-19, BLM/Antifa, and high taxes. The impact of these things possibly could be as large as was the industrial revolution.
Writing for The Atlantic, Derek Thompson does a good job of looking at the pros and cons of this happening. He makes the point that arrival of a good Covid vaccine and subsidence of urban unrest might lure people back to their offices and urban life.
His three main “might happen” things are these. First, “The ‘Telepresence’ Revolution Will Reshape the U.S. Workforce.” Second, “Remote Work Will Increase Free-Agent Entrepreneurship.” And third, “A Superstar-City Exodus Will Reshape American Politics.”
The third references the supermajority of Democrats in large cities moving out into less urban areas, thus improving Democrat electoral prospects. I think Thompson overlooks the impact of Mile’s Law here.
Move city Democrats to the country and, since where they sit has changed, where they stand on issues is likely to change as well. People with green space around them don’t need as much “nanny state” control of neighbors who are now at arm’s length or greater rather than packed together elbow to elbow.
I’ve lived on a city lot (for 9 years) and in the country (for decades), if my neighbor in the city belched in his back yard, I heard it. If he burned leaves I smelled it. If he threw a BBQ party, I heard that chatter. Where I live in the country none of those things impact me. My neighbors have much more latitude, as do I, before either of us bothers the other. It is much easier to be libertarian or laissez faire when density is lower.
Regardless, Thompson’s discussion is a good one, worth your time and interest.
