[RWildon]

Why is no one asking the biggest question; why are people piling into cities when there are towns and smaller cities that could be developed instead and thereby lower cost of living. It’s a global phenomenon it seems, as much as it doesn’t make any sense regardless.

Please save yourself the quality of life arguments. Those are post hoc arguments that only express laziness.

What state governments should be doing is “redistributing the wealth” by heavily taxing successful cities to fund and develop less successful counties and districts and towns. When businesses stop clustering and concentrating in places like Silicon Valley and NYC then you know that taxation is at the right level to compensate for the cartel and monopolistic like behaviors and phenomenon of, e.g., Silicon Valley and SF.

In the USA that should look like heavily taxing Silicon Valley and NYC, etc and using that money to fund high speed Internet and education and companies and business centers in under developed regions like rural Alabama or Mississippi or North Dakota.

[peterbraden]

Because the migration to cities has been a large proportion of the increase in productivity over the last few centuries.

It is more efficient to have urbanised populations. Rural life is already over-subsidized by urban centers.

[luiscleto]

I wonder if remote work opportunities could become significant enough to slow this trend and make more people prefer smaller/quieter towns to the big city life while still holding jobs for big industries.

Does anyone happen to know if this effect is/can be a thing or do remote workers still flock to big cities anyway? I imagine this could eventually lead to lower rents in cities (but also lower salaries due to increased competition in cheaper places)

[peterbraden]

Remote work is a rounding error compared to the overall migration trends. Many jobs require presence, and this isn't going to change anytime soon.

[ddebernardy]

There are things you can do in larger cities that you can't do in smaller ones. The small-ish city I live in, for instance, has ~145k people in its metro area. There are exactly 5 restaurants that are worth going to; there was not a single sushi place until last year; the best bakery in town is -- of all places -- Aldi, a discount chain; and there is exactly one movie theater that periodically shows foreign movies.

The other big problem is getting to work. I'm lucky to have a remote career. If that was not the case I'd almost certainly need to commute 2-3h/day to the nearest big city.

From a business standpoint it also makes sense to go to where the action is: startups flock to SF because it's full of VC money, talent, and startup-friendly customers. Given this, the tax rate is just a cost of doing business. You almost certainly want an office in that area if you're intent on raising VC money.

As to the State level problems you describe, the US doesn't work like the EU. Part of the EU budget gets poured into its poorer countries and regions. The US equivalent would be to pour federal money into poorer states and counties. I'm not aware of any such direct cash infusions occurring, nor can I imagine any occurring in today's polarized environment. What seems much more likely, is states doing this work within themselves. Also, ND seems to be doing fine:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-income_countie...

[tim333]

I'm not sure if you've been to Barcelona and smaller towns in the area but there's loads going on in Barcelona - art, galleries, industries etc and not much in the small towns. Why not let people get together where it's all happening? It might make more sense for government to fight NIMBY zoning so people could stick up a high rise and live where they feel like.

[lawlessone]

>In the USA that should look like heavily taxing Silicon Valley and NYC, etc and using that money to fund high speed Internet and education and companies and business centers in under developed regions like rural Alabama or Mississippi or North Dakota.

Great Idea. But politically impossible.

[collyw]

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