How Permanent Work-From-Home Could Help Repair America’s Partisan Divide
Giving workers the chance to do their jobs from anywhere in the country helps push back against the ‘big sort’ of red and blue areas
As the pandemic stretches into its third month, the traditional office space continues its slow but steady decline. Twitter and Facebook are moving toward a permanent work-from-home option for their employees. Nationwide Insurance plans to downsize its number of offices from 20 to just four because remote work has been so successful. Polling suggests that city-dwellers are now more open to moving to less populated areas, continuing a pre-pandemic trend.
When a major social trend or demographic shift happens, I think about the long-term political ramifications. Today, the most sought-after knowledge workers are clustered in a handful of “superstar” metros along the East and West coasts. Dispersing this talent more evenly throughout the country could push back against the relentless “Big Sort” of red and blue areas along educational or urban-rural lines, a central fact of why politics is so broken and America so divided.
Giving workers the chance to do their jobs from anywhere in the country breaks the link between highly prized jobs and the most educated…
