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Comment by LeoJiWoo | Hacker News Reader

It's not really technology pushing people into cities is it ?

I assumed its really due to a lack of well paying jobs, combined with an increased debt burden from college.

I guess one could argue technology has lead to increased automation and reduction of jobs typically found outside of cities.

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>I assumed its really due to a lack of well paying jobs

Close. It's because there's been a massive reduction in low-skill jobs that can still pay the bills outside of cities (whose size sustains their service sector, so you can keep the people who can't cut it at university employed).

Robotics did this somewhat; Chinese slave labor doesn't help.

I suspect this is almost more of a "marketing" (for lack of a better word) problem than anything else. It's this negative feedback loop where no one thinks non-costal cities are cool, so they don't move there, so they don't become cool, etc, etc.

I grew up on the East Coast so that may also bias me a bit, but I'm planning on being in NYC for at least the next 10 years seeing how the "second coming" of tech plays out. I feel a lot better about job prospects in NYC in an economic downturn vs basically anywhere else. Sure, rent is high in the abstract but roommates bring it way down.

It’s also a status symbol to be able to live in a popular place. I don’t think any amount of marketing can change wanting to rub shoulders with the haves versus the have nots.

Cities are the original network effect.

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