Trump is right about this: Americans need to move where the jobs are

Too many people are living in places where they “can’t get jobs,” the president said. He singled out Upstate New York, but there are plenty of other areas that have far worse rates of unemployment, like southern Ohio or eastern Kentucky. It would probably be better for those folks – and the U.S. economy – if they moved to areas where help-wanted signs are plentiful.

The lack of mobility helps explain why the U.S. economy isn’t growing at the “great” levels of the past, says economist Tyler Cowen. He published a book earlier this year that got a lot of people talking called “The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream.”

Cowen thinks one of the biggest problems is that Americans aren’t taking enough risks anymore. They aren’t even willing to move for opportunities. It’s particularly startling that people are staying put all across the age spectrum. This trend can’t be blamed solely on baby boomers or millennials.