Quote:
Originally Posted by JManc
Third world countries have higher concentrations of wealth in their cities as well...plus millions of people shitting in a ditch. New York and other cities might have never missed a beat with the rich folks but they were also a lot poorer too. Look at photos of Manhattan of the 70's and 80's and compare them today. The differences are striking. I remember seeing the limousines and exotic cars all over the Wall Street area as a kid but walk over a few blocks and you'd find stripped cars on blocks.
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In a lot of ways, what's happening in the U.S. is just that the radical diversion from the global norm is ending. If you look virtually everywhere in the world, you'll see there isn't a strong connection between urbanity and wealth. City centers have a mixture of poor and rich areas, as do outlying areas. The U.S. diverged from this norm for about two generations, but is now moving back to the global mean.
It is interesting to note, however, that even in high-income desirable core urban areas in Europe there typically aren't a lot of families with children. Yes, low birth rates in Europe among the native-born plays a role, but it's still the case even taking this into account - despite things like local school quality typically not playing a role in those nations. Historic demographic studies have found that prior to modern sanitation, every major city had a higher death rate than birth rate, with population growth only possible via continually escalating migration from the fecund rural hinterlands. Thus cities may just be "demographic sinks" due to a quirk of human psychology.