[soVeryTired]

So why does the typical American live within 18 miles of home? [0]

Do they just happen to agree with the society they're born into, or is it possible there are stronger forces than political preference that constrain their movement?

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/24/upshot/24up-f...

[bduerst]

Choosing to live close to family isn't alienation of freedom. Those are economic choices, not coercive constraints.

[soVeryTired]

Sure, but I don't think that amounts to a tacit agreement with a government's laws. Sometimes people are just stuck where they are.

[bduerst]

That's definitively what tacit agreement is, especially when someone claims that all laws are coercive.

[simonh]

It depends what you mean by constrain. What constraints are they under that are not voluntary?

[soVeryTired]

Family ties? Caring obligations?

These are extremely powerful forces, despite the fact that they don't fit into the economics-101 thinking that libertarians are so fond of.

[arcbyte]

Those forces fit exactly into economics 101. The first day is always "What is economics" and the answer is always that is the study of human behavior and choice. The supply/demand curve that makes up most of the class beings with the introduction that choice is variable, but assuming for the sake of argument that we consider them equal, what interesting effects do we observe?

Have you ever taken that class?