Article Summary:
The article explores how the decline of geographic mobility in the United States over the past 50 years has undermined the nation’s prosperity and democratic values. For centuries, the ability of Americans to freely choose where to live and work was a defining feature of the country, fueling economic growth, social equality, and vibrant communities.
However, this mobility has been steadily eroded by decades of reforms pushed by urban planners and preservationists, exemplified by the legacy of Jane Jacobs. While seeking to protect historic neighborhoods, their efforts have fossilized communities, empowering affluent residents to block new housing and development. This has trapped many Americans in places with limited prospects, widening inequality and fueling political alienation.
Restoring American mobility requires a three-part approach: consistent rules that promote mixed-use, diverse neighborhoods; tolerance for organic growth and change; and abundant new housing, especially in areas rich with opportunity. Though challenging, this agenda is essential to reviving the country’s dynamism and democratic ideals. By allowing people to choose their communities, policymakers can return agency to individuals and enable the collective reinvention that has defined the American story. The genius of the American system, the text concludes, was never about central planning, but about empowering people to decide the future for themselves.
Article Excerpt:
The idea that people should be able to choose their own communities—instead of being stuck where they are born—is a distinctly American innovation. It is the foundation for the country’s prosperity and democracy, and it just may be America’s most profound contribution to the world.
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Entrepreneurship, innovation, growth, social equality—the most appealing features of the young republic all traced back to this single, foundational fact: Americans were always looking ahead to their next beginning, always seeking to move up by moving on.
But over the past 50 years, this engine of American opportunity has stopped working. Americans have become less likely to move from one state to another, or to move within a state, or even to switch residences within a city. In the 1960s, about one out of every five Americans moved in any given year—down from one in three in the 19th century, but a frenetic rate nonetheless. In 2023, however, only one in 13 Americans moved.