Nowhere to run

For whatever reason, it occurred to me that one of the big differences between our country now, as opposed to a century ago, or even a half century ago, is that there is really no longer a place for most people to run.

By that, what I mean is that,  like it or not, to some degree the United States proved to be such a huge success as it was ideal for quitters.  Sounds  harsh, in no small part because of our "never say die" public attitude, but it's true.

Most people in the country today descend from people who quit whole countries. Germans, Irish, whatever, who picked up, said of their native land "I quit", and left.  Suire, a lot of that still goes on today, but an awful lot of immigration today is of the "I must leave", or "I can make a better buck", variety. That's been the case since the immigration reforms of the 70s. And that element was always a strong aspect of immigration. But there was also a lot of "I don't like England anymore. . .", or the like, in it also.

And within our own country quitting a region, picking up, and starting over was very common.  The entire State of Texas, in terms of its early history, seems to have been populated by titanic quitters.

All this sounds really harsh, but quitting is often the simple acknowledgment of a mistake.  Things are working out, people thought, so I'll hitch up the mule and move over the divide, or the next one, or whatever.

Now, you can move, but you really can't quit.  Your credentials follow you everywhere, and determine what you can do, and you can do what you've been doing.  No quitting.

Perhaps that's inevitable for a country as densely populated as ours is now.  Quitting was greatly aided by available land.  You needed no qualifications, and not all that much cash, to quit your job as a bank clerk and homestead. Sure, you might fail, but then you could always pull over the next ridge, or quit that and go on to something else.

No. longer.