Originally Posted by jimmycooper

It's pretty clear that a reason why the us labor participation rate is as low as it's been since 1977 is because the participation rate for women has fallen slightly after hitting a peak in the late 90s following sharp post-WWII growth. So yes I think there is something




Ambitious people from all over the world come here because it's the best place in the world for them to pursue their ambitions.

The people who come here tend to come from places where they were considered to be amongst the brightest amongst their peers. Or for some other reason which causes them to feel as if they've outgrown their hometowns. They want more.

Then when they get here they then soon realize that things are a bit more competitive. The see more money the. A lot them can't handle it because all the money here and with the cost of living being as high as it is and all the competition, they drive themselves crazy until they get burnt out and can't take it anymore. Then they leave.

So basically unhappiness giveth and unhappiness taketh away. At least that's what I've seen.

I'm 39 now and dude I can't tell you how many 'going away' parties I've been to since moving here at 22. Seemed like there was one at least every month from the ages of 29-35. I had a pretty tight group of about 8 or so friends in my early to mid-20s and now I'm the only one left. It's kind of depressing. And I don't have a ton of money and am for sure not the best or brightest at anything, at least not yet, so it's kind of surprising that I've been able to exist here for so long without going completely crazy.

Yet while I'm not entirely happy here but there are things which I've become accustomed to that would not be at my disposal in a lesser city. Not just the arts and stuff like that but just the dynamic. The intangibles. Places like London and Paris are options but both come with logistical complications and are even more expensive. Asians tend to be funny looking and more often than not annoy the hell out of me so Asia is not a viable option. Well maybe Japan would be fine but only Tokyo and it seems like the process of moving there and logistics of it all would be a major pain in the ass. Montreal is nice but the winters are rough and it would probably bore me within a year. Everywhere else in the US would bore me to tears within 6 months.

There's really just nowhere else to go, but I know it could be a lot worse, so I make it work.

I forget what your question was but hopefully something I wrote was in some way useful or insightful.

Where are you by the way?

I just came across this company in Edmonton who seems doing world class data visualization work. Really interesting stuff.