"For it so falls out

That what we have we prize not to the worth

Whiles we enjoy it, but being lacked and lost,

Why then we rack the value."

Much Ado About Nothing [IV. i. (219)]

We can all recognise the type of costs associated with reflex moves, as suggested above, but further thought prompts some important questions.

On average what is the cost relatively moving at age 30 compared with age 69?	Following a move what are the indirect costs? Travel, time, new furniture...?	In terms of established and new measures of 'quality of life' - what is the cost to the person moving? Their family?
People become 'older' than their years.		Working family members may become less productive due to problems.
How have costs changed over the years, now that the extended family has so often become the extraordinarily extended family?	If the population is aging what are the implications of more unplanned, reflex moves in the future? Increased pressures on primary care / counsellingservices?	If people are taken out of the economy due to illness are there more profound economic factors to be considered? 'Unhappy' people do not display the same spending behaviour as happy people.

is there a doctor in the house?

The costs of sudden moves must be considerable? How many times are GPs; social services called to see people that are new to the area? Is this a public health issue of such extent that it justifies research, the issue of general advice?

Moving house is recognised as one of the most stressful life events. So doctors are not surprised when twenty and thirtysomethings arrive in surgery during or immediately post-move. What about older people?

Many older people may try to cope because they fear that by contacting the doctor they are admitting that:

1. they cannot cope;
2. the move was a bad decision;
3. the doctor is 'new' to them - a stranger - what will they say?
4. the family may get the idea that they are not grateful for help.

There is a research project here, or has someone already investigated this? Can we ever know whether the savings made via successful transitions adequately compensate for those which are problematic?

In the future new technologies, such as the one you are using now, may mean people have a reduced need to move, with contact being readily facilitied over both local and vast distances.

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