The New Mobile Class
Until relatively recently, you had three main groups of people who were highly mobile:
I'm a former military wife and, although dad retired when I was three and I grew up in one spot, my father was career military for 26.5 years. My (ex) father-in-law was also career military.
Because of that background where I had firsthand experience with a mobile culture and was surrounded by people who also lived that way, I was unusually well positioned to recognize and embrace this emerging phenomenon of remote work and recognize that it provided some incredible benefits heretofore mostly reserved for certain upperclass types who not only had money but were also not tied down by a normal ("9-5") job.
Remote work tends to be associated with well-paid jobs in the minds of most people, such as programming, but I was homeless when I began doing remote work and I continue to have a very modest income for various reasons. Yet even while homeless, I was able to recognize that having remote work conferred privileges upon me that were pretty unprecedented.
It was clear in my mind that in terms of my work and other logistical factors, I was more or less free to move anywhere in the continental US without having to first arrange a job. This allowed me to research various cities and move around while still homeless and I eventually got myself back into housing without going through any kind of program because I had portable income.
Researching places to live is sort of a longstanding and ongoing hobby of mine and precedes my acquisition of a Certificate in GIS (maps tied to a database). With the rise of the internet, I was able to do something while very, very poor that historically was a privilege of the most wealthy classes in the world:
- The Jet Set
- Comfortably well-off retirees
- The American military
I'm a former military wife and, although dad retired when I was three and I grew up in one spot, my father was career military for 26.5 years. My (ex) father-in-law was also career military.
Because of that background where I had firsthand experience with a mobile culture and was surrounded by people who also lived that way, I was unusually well positioned to recognize and embrace this emerging phenomenon of remote work and recognize that it provided some incredible benefits heretofore mostly reserved for certain upperclass types who not only had money but were also not tied down by a normal ("9-5") job.
Remote work tends to be associated with well-paid jobs in the minds of most people, such as programming, but I was homeless when I began doing remote work and I continue to have a very modest income for various reasons. Yet even while homeless, I was able to recognize that having remote work conferred privileges upon me that were pretty unprecedented.
It was clear in my mind that in terms of my work and other logistical factors, I was more or less free to move anywhere in the continental US without having to first arrange a job. This allowed me to research various cities and move around while still homeless and I eventually got myself back into housing without going through any kind of program because I had portable income.
Researching places to live is sort of a longstanding and ongoing hobby of mine and precedes my acquisition of a Certificate in GIS (maps tied to a database). With the rise of the internet, I was able to do something while very, very poor that historically was a privilege of the most wealthy classes in the world:
I was able to move around at will, research what places I might want to move next and improve my life under very challenging circumstances.
Twenty or more years ago, I used to buy things like Places Rated books and Colleges Rated books and laboriously pour through them trying to determine where I might wish to live someday. These days, all of that info and more is available online and a lot of it is available for free.
"Your best place" type articles are common and popular, but they tend to be more entertaining than genuinely informative. "Where should I move?" type questions are pretty popular online.
So this is an emergent phenomenon. It's not just me, though I was perhaps a tad ahead of the curve and I have professional training from a world class program.
Twenty or more years ago, I used to buy things like Places Rated books and Colleges Rated books and laboriously pour through them trying to determine where I might wish to live someday. These days, all of that info and more is available online and a lot of it is available for free.
"Your best place" type articles are common and popular, but they tend to be more entertaining than genuinely informative. "Where should I move?" type questions are pretty popular online.
So this is an emergent phenomenon. It's not just me, though I was perhaps a tad ahead of the curve and I have professional training from a world class program.
Footnote
Edited 13 August 2026