Having worked all over the country with workers from all walks of life, I can attest to the fact that not everyone – a large part of the American population – do not view the trappings of high-income, high-rent areas as amenities. And on top of that, money is not often the primary motivator for most people. You have only to look at the Millennial Generation to prove that point.
I have interviewed and surveyed thousands of people over the past 20 years. I have had highly trained, highly skilled nuclear power plant operators tell me they had trouble making ends meet and needed all the overtime they could get to make ends meet. These are people with healthy six-figure incomes. I have also had plenty of people making $14 an hour tell me they wished their company wouldn’t work any overtime because they just really wanted to spend time with family.
It boils down to values. Most of our country values family. People may stay or move to lower-income, lower-rent areas just because the pace of life is slower. They avoid getting trapped by the need to earn more and are satisfied with the living they make. I’ll admit I’m not there. I am not wired to just be satisfied, but it doesn’t make being satisfied wrong or mean people who choose that are disadvantaged – it doesn’t say they are falling behind. In a lot of ways, I feel like they are further ahead…happier…enjoying life rather than living envious of the rat race. This is most of America – they are what make our country great.