Text Sushi by Alf Rehn

Reading in the New York Times about millionaires who don’t feel rich, I am struck by the fundamentally static nature of human beings. If you live in Silicon Valley and are worth some 2-3 million USD, you might be affluent, but not rich enough to live a truly care-free life. So why won’t these people just move? Much of economic thinking is built on the notion that people will move — for better jobs, more affordable housing, away from the ridiculously expensive and the unpleasant job. But they don’t. People will stick to their homesteads in the oddest circumstances, and as the article proves, often won’t even move when they could take their fortunes and live like kings in less affluent areas — but instead toil on in an area where living costs and relative wealth basically make them as fearful and stressed out (if not more so) than your average Joe.

Fundamentally, the idea of flexibility, fluidity and change in human affairs is well researched and much opined about, but the more interesting social fact of stasis and resistance to change is under-studied. And perhaps largely misunderstood.