Go west, young people.

In the early 20th century, low-income Americans migrated from areas of the country with high unemployment to areas with lots of jobs. See also Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, Buffalo, Cleveland...

In the early 21st century, the government will pay you to stay poor and unemployed in Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, Buffalo, Cleveland while jobs go unfilled west of the Mississippi.

But--waah!--the culture out west is DIFFERENT, and Americans have ROOTS in the inner cities, and we can't expect people to have some initiative and make their own decision to improve their lives (because we're liberals and we know what's best for them)!

*blink* Don't the "international workers" and "outsourced Texans" taking these jobs face the same issues?

Dunno; it just seems so obvious to me. Maybe that's because I've moved to new places--including a crappy little town I did NOT want to live in--four times to take a job so I could keep litter in the catbox. If I couldn't find an entry-level job around here--especially if I had a kid in MPS!--I'd be saving up for a bus ticket (heck, bus fare to where the jobs are would be an excellent use of "welfare-to-work" monies). But I'm weird. And I'm not trying to buy votes by handing out cash and importing new voters.