It is mostly the later - phantom &quot;investment&quot; in real estate, where people store wealth and own empty property rather than buy precious metals or actually invest it.<p>But as we trend towards automation, more and more jobs are disappearing. In many areas, there is not enough density of both people and work to be able to regularly switch jobs as your current one is obsoleted or downsized. People trend towards cities if you want reliable income - jobs everywhere are going away, and the more you are paid the greater the pressure to eliminate your position. You need to be somewhere where, while the unemployment figures &#x2F; workforce participation figures aren&#x27;t great in cities, the density means there are more chances to get a job there than elsewhere when your current one inevitably discards you.<p>The other thing is that mobility is a luxury. You can be rich enough to relocate - paying down payments on houses and apartments, moving or buying furniture, going through the <i>incredible</i> amount of state bureaucracy involving changing address and all necessary documents, and for those who are working poor you don&#x27;t have the time or savings to do it. The other option is abandon everything, damn the state bureaucracy, and just jump on a bus and go somewhere you think work is plentiful, and then find out nobody will hire you without paperwork and proof of residence.<p>It is not a solvable problem where you just tell the working poor how to succeed, because everything is systemically rigged to exploit them and keep them in the condition they are in now.