Where Should We Live?

What factors decide where one lives? Until a few years ago, there was not much choice — one simply lived in the environment and culture where they happened to grow up. In the last fifty or so years we have seen people migrating from "third world" countries to the first world for a better life for their kids or freedom from persecution, etc.

Increasingly however, as more and more places in the world seem to be rising to a globally accepted standard of living, what is(are) the determining factor(s) for where one decides to grow roots? Is it just money— where one can build up a nice nest egg? Or is it where one has family? Or where one has friends? Or is it where one has access to the cleanest air and water? With the emergence of a global community, with global morals and norms, and the primacy of English as a sort of de-facto lingua franca, do cultural factors still play a very important role in this decision? With fast jet travel, is distance from family that big of an issue? Is it further reduced by constant contact through phone and videoconferencing technologies?

This is one of life's tough questions for me, and I have to struggle with myself to answer these questions honestly. I seem to be just going through life right now on the basis of momentum. So I may just keep going this way as long as I have a decent job that pays relatively well, and put off any decisions until I am forced to make one, or maybe worse, until I have no choice!

Or maybe it truly doesn't matter. Maybe our lives will become more mobile and semi-nomadic as travel becomes easier?