The great surprise of automation will be the relocation of our urban population.

[CK_John]

Image 8 to 12 million people without any real reason to be in NYC. Everybody gets a monthly UBI and you have never been west of Atlantic City, it's time for a road trip.

People are going to stream out of the urban areas for a new beginning, safety, adventure, whatever.

The reality is we will have a new country of nomads, will there be states or regions? How will we get a census to define Congressional districts? Who will be a natural born citizen and prove it?

It will be different and confusing.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Many people like living in cities for reasons unrelated to their jobs.

What if you don't have or want a car, or can't afford one? What if you like being close to shops, restaurants, bars, stadiums and concert halls? I'm retired. I no longer have any job-related reason to live in the city but I do because I like it.

[CK_John]

2. Detroit is a good example. WWII and the auto plants brought millions

to work and live there.

After the war and the closing of the plants the population is down to 1/3 of what it was.

[MichMan]

4. Any population loss in Detroit moved to the suburbs nm

[n2doc]

3. Or a new migration, like in the 30's

Except to the farms, to replace the migrant farmworkers locked out. Because the US will never have a UBI. Repubs won't stand for it. We can't even have universal healthcare.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Cities have been around for thousands of years

The oldest ones usually near water sources and trade routes (which includes access to food and other goods/services). Traditionally the "wealthy" were in cities and the poor were relegated to the surrounding "countryside". The U.S. had initially broke that "tradition" with the creation of "suburbs", with the necessary infrastructure to support a population influx from the cities after WW2. New housing developments and office parks allowed a narrow group of citizens to flee urban areas, leaving the poor & minorities behind (due to abject racism or cost). But that is slowly changing as the U.S. "matures" and begins to conform to the inherent nature of other cities in the world.

Because the "suburbs" have not aged well, there is a reverse "migration" going on where suburbanites (and their grown children and grandchildren) are moving back into the cities. As a note, almost 1/2 of the land area of the U.S. is unoccupied.

So what you describe already happened in the '50s & '60s, the cities have "scraped off the rust" to reveal shiny new steel underneath, and people are moving back to the urban areas.

[CK_John]

6. So nothing will change, I don't buy it. We were founded by people looking for a new place.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. When the so-called "Rust Belt" cities are rejuvenated

like is happening right now, they become a "new place" - notably for those coming from the suburbs, exburbs, small towns, and rural areas.

[LanternWaste]

10. We also had dime-store prophets telling us automation would be the focus

We also had dime-store prophets telling us automation would be the focus of the last presidential election cycle.


"We were founded by people looking for a new place...
Inaccurate. Not a new place, but rather a place to worship via methods proscribed by the orthodox.

[Lee-Lee]

8. I don't believe it

People are predisposed to wanting an urban, suburban or rural life.

People will not streak out of NYC to live in the country suddenly. Rural life isn't like a vacation in the Poconos for a few days, and even now a large amount of people who move from urban areas to rural in retirement or because they can end up leaving within the first few years after learning rural life isn't what they thought it was.

I saw it a lot when I was a deputy in a rural NC county. People retired or moved down from NY and Chicago and suddenly learned that farms have smells and loud noises, people shoot guns, people hunt, your police or ambulance response when you call 911 can be up to 20-30 minutes if things are busy, you have to haul your own garbage to the dump, there is no zoning so your neighbor is going to do something you don't like and you can't complain to the county....

I went on so many calls that were like this- Dispatch tells me caller is reporting gunshots. I call the complainant and ask the situation on my way to huge the response

"Who is shooting?"
"My neighbor, I don't know their names (first clue it's a transplant)"
"Are they shooting at you"
"No"
"Are they shooting in your direction"
"I don't know I just hear gunshots"
"Are they within 300 feet of your home"
"No"
"Ok. Well it's not illegal for them to shoot a gun if they are doing it safely. I will go check."

I pull up, figure out where someone is shooting, go make sure they are doing it legally and safely. The people target shooting tell me the same people have called on them 3 other times.

I have dispatch check history and sure enough the same people have called on the same thing 3 other times, just the first time on my shift.

I go explain to them just like was done 3 times before that it's legal for their neighbors to shoot on their property and that it is how things are there.

They get mad and keep saying that it's dangerous, disturbing them, etc. And say they still plan to call every time.

I go back to the people shooting and ask them to call out dispatch before they shoot in the future so we can avoid this mess, and have dispatch flag that address to ignore complaints about shooting as it's a proven pattern of false calls.

[Shell_Seas]

9. Not me.

I live in a large city in the deep south. While I might consider moving to another state that was more liberal than mine, (like California). I would NEVER move to a rural area. I have biracial children and would fear their safety. I'm not sure if I would even visit an area too far off of the highway. This is Trump's country right now and for the foreseeable future.

[Baitball Blogger]

11. I'm already in the 'burbs.

If you come in, plan on creating your own community because the small town culture networks of crooked dealings will affect you and your children. That includes job opportunities. And with this cross of private and public sector, don't expect to find a government that will care too much about your civil rights.