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I lived in the Bay Area for almost a decade until around 2005, the Presidio in San Francisco was my last address. I had a choice to stay - but I decided to go b

I lived in the Bay Area for almost a decade until around 2005, the Presidio in San Francisco was my last address. I had a choice to stay - but I decided to go back to Germany. Wonderful city (for the most part), wonderful landscape, great climate, and I'll forever miss it - but different people have different priorities. I (still) don't really care where I live, but Europe (most of it) is hard to beat as an overall package deal. When you are young you don't care about much that you do care about in your forties or later. About high incomes: What's the point of high income when you have to use it to buy things you otherwise get as part of the package anyway - or, more frequently, that no money can buy because the society as a whole has to provide it (includes the soft stuff like political climate and how much some arts of the population think they have to protect themselves from other parts)? I understand and accept when different people choose differently, but if there is only a single argument, a single data point "my income" then I see a lack of vision (almost literally).

leetcrew 8y ago
> What's the point of high income when you have to use it to buy things you otherwise get as part of the package anyway it doesn't just cancel out though. software devs in the states make much more money, to the point where you can easily afford the things that the government would provide you in europe. plus you obviously have to pay for those things through taxes anyway, and guess who pays the lions share of that. if you are in a high income bracket, you are always going to pay more in than you get back in direct services.
- heavenlyhash 8y ago
  > where you can easily afford the things that the government would provide you in europe Call me when the SF metro holds a candle to Berlin. Or really, any functioning city. Gauntlet thrown. Transit in SF is a trainwreck. And you're not gonna fix it with your big big paycheck.
  - WalterSear 8y ago
    I don't need to, because it isn't the >complete< trainweck everyone claims it to be.
  - sneak 8y ago
    As someone who regularly rides Uber Black around SF and the S-Bahn around Berlin - you’re wrong.
    - heavenlyhash 8y ago
      So what you're saying is... trains in SF... are a wreckage, and unusable. And you use a hyper-capitialized burning-someone-else's-money "disruptive" "startup" and would like to pretend it's comparable to having a functioning social service. Well, okay. I also regularly uber around in SF. Because there's no alternative. And yet: even ignoring dollar cost, I'd say it's comically, pathetically slow to get around the city compared to what a functioning mass transit system should be able to do. SF is tiny, geographically speaking; the time it takes to cover ground in SF using a car is a travesty, and more ubering will not make this better, unless we get a new ultra-high-cost variant which has rockets to blast the other traffic off the road like some terrible action movie come to life.
- upvotinglurker 8y ago
  You'd have to reach a very high salary before you can buy a presidential election or gun control laws (stuff I think GP was alluding to in their post)

leetcrew 8y ago

> What's the point of high income when you have to use it to buy things you otherwise get as part of the package anyway it doesn't just cancel out though. software devs in the states make much more money, to the point where you can easily afford the things that the government would provide you in europe. plus you obviously have to pay for those things through taxes anyway, and guess who pays the lions share of that. if you are in a high income bracket, you are always going to pay more in than you get back in direct services.

heavenlyhash 8y ago
> where you can easily afford the things that the government would provide you in europe Call me when the SF metro holds a candle to Berlin. Or really, any functioning city. Gauntlet thrown. Transit in SF is a trainwreck. And you're not gonna fix it with your big big paycheck.
- WalterSear 8y ago
  I don't need to, because it isn't the >complete< trainweck everyone claims it to be.
- sneak 8y ago
  As someone who regularly rides Uber Black around SF and the S-Bahn around Berlin - you’re wrong.
  - heavenlyhash 8y ago
    So what you're saying is... trains in SF... are a wreckage, and unusable. And you use a hyper-capitialized burning-someone-else's-money "disruptive" "startup" and would like to pretend it's comparable to having a functioning social service. Well, okay. I also regularly uber around in SF. Because there's no alternative. And yet: even ignoring dollar cost, I'd say it's comically, pathetically slow to get around the city compared to what a functioning mass transit system should be able to do. SF is tiny, geographically speaking; the time it takes to cover ground in SF using a car is a travesty, and more ubering will not make this better, unless we get a new ultra-high-cost variant which has rockets to blast the other traffic off the road like some terrible action movie come to life.
upvotinglurker 8y ago
You'd have to reach a very high salary before you can buy a presidential election or gun control laws (stuff I think GP was alluding to in their post)