&gt; The problem is the irrational and unnecessary concentration of opportunities in that area.<p>The concentration is not irrational.  <i>That&#x27;s</i> the problem.<p>The concentration is driven by the fact that you <i>will</i>, not might, get laid off at some point if your job is in the tech sector.  So, what happens is that everybody thinks about where their <i>next</i> job is going to be while getting hired for their current job.<p>If I somehow manage to land, say, a VLSI layout job in Pittsburgh, PA, there is no point in going there as when I get laid off, there is no <i>other</i> VLSI layout job.  So, I&#x27;ll have to go back to Silicon Valley.  So, why should I leave Silicon Valley in the first place?<p>You might think that, okay, Pittsburgh is a problem, but what about Austin?  Oddly, same issue.  A hardware company wiped out most of its Austin site, set off a big scramble and those people couldn&#x27;t land jobs because there are no other ones there (people think of Austin as tech--but it&#x27;s not really hardware tech).  I know lots of people who got hired in the &quot;Big Data Analytics&quot; startup fad who are now figuring out that they basically signed onto &quot;Actuarial Science&quot;--but, if they have a family, they really have nowhere else to go.  The single ones are either changing fields (becoming a chef seems to be popular--go figure) or going to Silicon Valley.<p>Whereas, in Silicon Valley, you turn right at the last light instead of left, and you&#x27;re at your new job.