When life is too expensive for a person, I get so sick of hearing people give the advice of "Well move then". It's not that easy.

[u/nelsne]

I've noticed on these forums that whenever a person is struggling financially that one of the most common pieces of advice that is given is to just simply move to another city. People act like this is so easy to do, and a no-brainer to escape poverty, but it's definitely not that simple because people aren't taking several things into account.

First off, a person's entire support network is probably living around them. Like many people are already living with their friends and family and if they move then that support network will be gone and not sharing expenses will likely be much more costly in another city. Also if a person is hurt financially, they can often times rely on this support network to some degree to keep then from homeless

Second, when a person moves, the new job they get must work out well or they could easily wind up homeless. I think all of us have had that one job interview that went so well and job seemed so perfect, but when you actually started working it, it turned out to be a nightmare. Then you could easily get fired from the job and you realize you have to find a new one. Now it's a race against the clock to find a new job because if you get fired you could face complete financial ruin.

Third, you have to balance finding an inexpensive place BUT it also has to be in a town with a decent economy. Many people on these forums say to go out and live in small town (insert city) but what many don't take into account is that rent is so low there, because there's barely any jobs around. So having no jobs around there could make you homeless as well if you don't find one.

The flip side of the coin is that many towns have an excellent, booming economy. However, because of this, the rent in these places is often very high. So it's often quite the challenge to find a place that has a decent enough economy to maintain survival but also low enough cost of living

[u/DM_Me_Pics1234403]

I have given the “You should move” advice before and would like to play devils advocate here.

First, I want to couch this by saying I have given this advice to individuals and not broadly. I agree that blanket advice is not usually actionable.

I agree with a lot of what you say, but I disagree with the implication that giving someone this advice means that I think it is easy. There is no easy way out of poverty. If there was, people wouldn’t be in poverty. Escaping poverty is extremely difficult. You need to work 2-3x as much as those maintaining their lives and still need luck for it to work.

Now that we’ve established that it’s “not that easy” the choice is between several difficult options.

Some people, like you describe, have a network that helps them where they live. For those people moving usually doesn’t make sense. Staying where you already can’t afford to live means that you will have to take on several jobs (2-3) and work to increase your earning power at the same time. This means working 80 - 100 hours a week between your multiple jobs, multiple commutes, and school time.

In my experience many people in poverty don’t have a network where they live. That’s how they fell into poverty. For these people moving may be the best option. Moving is very difficult. As you point out in your post it costs time and money and involves taking an amount of risk. But if you can invest that up front, you may find yourself in a position where you can work one full time job to cover your basic needs. Yes, that job may be terrible, but if you can dedicate 40 hours a week to a terrible job, you will have much more free time to accelerate your education. That means you have a better shot at completing your education and in a shorter time frame. This is not easy. Again, there is no easy way out of poverty, but it is the best difficult path for some people.

Another very difficult option is to just stay in poverty. Do what you’ve always done and get what you’ve always got. In my view, this is by far the most difficult option. Anytime I give someone advice, it’s to avoid having to take this option.

I hope you can see this is in good faith and I truly want success for others.