Inertia.
I’ve already made a big transition like that. I am no longer as willing to do so again, as I believe I’ve found where I want to stay, but a very large amount of guaranteed money would make me change my mind, like the kind with seven digits in front of the decimal.
Uh..because no one is offering superpowers or alien spaceship rides?
I guess the question is what would people be giving up and what would they be giving it up for? Most people are content to continue their lives as is and not take risks because they think they are comfortible with the way things are.
At bare minimum? Success and profit. Under 200k / year, easily.
I think about this a lot. Or, folks who ‘went West, young man!’ to find opportunity.
As a kid I used to fantasize about what would happen if I was offered a chance to go live in the Star Trek: The Next Generation universe . . . due to some time-travel-worm-hole thing. I don’t think I ever came to a conclusion that I would really just hop on board and accept it. I felt bad about how my family would feel if I just left them. And I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to listen to any of the music I liked, since there was no evidence of 20th-century rock and roll having survived that long!
But, now, I don’t know. I think life is a constant struggle between making the choice to stay and making the choice to leave, so to speak. As much as I like to dream, I have a strong natural tendency to stay. I’m sure there are things much more realistic than a one-way trip to the future to make me want to leave my girlfriend, family, and friends . . . but I don’t know if, when push came to shove, I’d be willing to take the jump.
Poverty. Shortage of better ideas.