I agree that there's more than one factor, but not building enough is absolutely a major one. There's tons of data to back this up.
Another one is the hyper-concentration of high paying jobs and other opportunities in a small number of cities.
There's always been a power law distribution for cities and opportunity with larger cities tending to win out, but since roughly 2000 it seems like it's greatly intensified. I've asked this question to many older people and have looked up some stats and both back up the sense that this has gotten significantly worse in the last 2-3 decades.
In the USA if you are not in one of maybe six cities you are second-tier, and it's much harder to find high paying and upwardly mobile jobs. The very top tier cities of SF Bay, NYC, Seattle, and LA are of course fantastically expensive.
Telework helps a bit but generally you still have to do time in one of those cities to establish yourself enough to get good high-paying telework jobs. Telework is often a senior-level thing or something you need a strong network to land.
Another one is the hyper-concentration of high paying jobs and other opportunities in a small number of cities.
There's always been a power law distribution for cities and opportunity with larger cities tending to win out, but since roughly 2000 it seems like it's greatly intensified. I've asked this question to many older people and have looked up some stats and both back up the sense that this has gotten significantly worse in the last 2-3 decades.
In the USA if you are not in one of maybe six cities you are second-tier, and it's much harder to find high paying and upwardly mobile jobs. The very top tier cities of SF Bay, NYC, Seattle, and LA are of course fantastically expensive.
Telework helps a bit but generally you still have to do time in one of those cities to establish yourself enough to get good high-paying telework jobs. Telework is often a senior-level thing or something you need a strong network to land.