People are moving because cheap housing, plentiful jobs. In some cases, the weather is very nice when it's not too hot, low taxes. So if the goal is in some ways to attract people to parts of the country where they're going to be less prone to natural disasters, how do you do that? I mean, because what is attracting people to the south and west is intentional. It states that say, okay, we want businesses to come here. We want people to move here. And in fact, it seems like in many cases, the opposite is actually happening.
For decades, Americans have been moving South and West. That migration pattern was visible in political terms when seven congressional districts moved between states after the 2020 census, and it continues to be visible in the booming construction and job markets in cities across the Sun Belt.
In this installment of the podcast, Galen speaks with author Jake Bittle, who argues that it’s only a matter of time before those trends reverse, or at least shift. However, as he writes in his new book, "The Great Displacement," this time it won’t be cheap housing, low taxes and plentiful jobs that attract people to new places. It will be a harshening climate that pushes them away.
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