I suspect the root cause is related to women's rights (and that's mostly a good thing).
50 years ago, if your girlfriend said she didn't want to move but you got a job across the country you would probably both move across the country. In part that's because you would likely be the primary income for the two of you and partly because women's wants were not often considered as equally important as men's wants.
Would that have been true in every case two generations ago? Maybe not. And would it still be true in some cases today? Probably. But the odds have changed over time quite dramatically. My wife earns nearly the same salary that I do (and made waaay more back when I was a student). We can't move somewhere unless we both have job offers lined up.
Also, our culture now has a rather unhealthy (imho) obsession with trying to make life perfect for our children that previous generations were less inclined towards.
There are concrete reasons to choose a place to raise children, unrelated to obsessive parenting. I moved to a rural community. The kids could go out the door with a backpack and sandwiches on a summer day, wander all morning exploring, and still be at home. Harder to do in the city. Not so many frogs, salamanders, redwing blackbirds and creeks to explore there.
50 years ago, if your girlfriend said she didn't want to move but you got a job across the country you would probably both move across the country. In part that's because you would likely be the primary income for the two of you and partly because women's wants were not often considered as equally important as men's wants.
Would that have been true in every case two generations ago? Maybe not. And would it still be true in some cases today? Probably. But the odds have changed over time quite dramatically. My wife earns nearly the same salary that I do (and made waaay more back when I was a student). We can't move somewhere unless we both have job offers lined up.
Also, our culture now has a rather unhealthy (imho) obsession with trying to make life perfect for our children that previous generations were less inclined towards.