This makes me think of what happened in West-Berlin during the cold war. West-Berlin offered young people that were willing to move there from West-Germany extr

This makes me think of what happened in West-Berlin during the cold war. West-Berlin offered young people that were willing to move there from West-Germany extra welfare and the ability to dodge the military service. This coupled with extremely low rents and lots of abandoned houses available for squatting meant that many young people were more or less free to study, sing, talk with each other in bars as much as they wanted without having to work. I believe this was an important contribution to Berlin becoming such an important cultural haven, making the city so attractive still to newcomers and is imho a perfect example of the thought you quoted.