This isn't cut-and-dry. There are plenty of opportunities to work in cheap parts of the country (US). If I lost my job (or more than likely, quit on my own terms, which I've done many times before, even before I had a position lined up), I wouldn't be concerned with finding another one within 2 weeks. Every day I'm responding to recruiters on LinkedIn looking for talent. And I'm not that talented.

There are even requests around the geographical region, which I consider if I hadn't had a family and mortgage.

I can utilize all the cutting-edge technologies developers on the coasts think they're privy to, too.

This flyover mentality gets me so worked up. It's really from a pre-internet era.

I can see your argument for doing so in another country (relocation, other added expenses vs. U-Haul across the country), but I'm making the assumption there's more than one fruit farmer there, too.