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Companies (e.g. Mozilla, Gitlab, now Facebook) often forget another side of the coin - "less expensive areas" most of the time means worse quality of life. Als
by zerr 6y ago
Companies (e.g. Mozilla, Gitlab, now Facebook) often forget another side of the coin - "less expensive areas" most of the time means worse quality of life.
Also, all of those companies say "less expensive areas" while they really mean "lower wage areas" - which doesn't necessary align with the former preposition.
- cameronbrown 6y agoCities are horrible places to live. Literally the only thing keeping me in them are jobs.
- dbish 6y agoIt's all personal preference. I love cities due to the density, walkability, and different types of people and events you can find, and have lived in rural areas and cities alike. I get depressed in suburbs generally as there isn't much happening and you have to drive everywhere. Rural areas I can live with in stretches since you at least can get more adventurous outdoor situations with more property and areas to wander
- kortilla 6y agoIn the context of this discussion (silicon valley employers like Facebook and Google), these offices are in the suburbs. Good luck walking to the FB headquarters.
- disgruntledphd2 6y agoThe weird thing is, all of Google and FB's global offices are in city centres, with the exception of the ones in SV. I never really got that, myself.
- dbish 6y agoThat's fair. I've been to FB HQ and agree, not city-like at all. I currently live in Seattle and work at Amazon HQ, which I walk to (normally, pre-covid :) )
- derision 6y agoWhere do you get that idea from? Everywhere outside of major tech hubs the cost of living is significantly less and "quality of life" is actually better. I moved to Cleveland and yes there's less "trendy" things like restaurants but there's so many parks and places to go and activities and casual events
- zerr 6y agoI meant the planet Earth rather than one particular country. The cost of living in Bangladesh or rural Somalia might be less than SF, but I suspect the living conditions are worse. As for low-wage/high-cost place - e.g. Italy is a great example.
- curiousgal 6y agoThe living conditions are worst on average but if you're bringing in CS money then you can afford to live luxuriously in whichever country you choose and it would cost you less.
- zerr 6y agoUnless you're so rich that you can afford buying citizenships, it is not that easy to move between countries in today's world, unfortunately.
- curiousgal 6y agoI would take living in Boulder or Fort Collins over San Francisco for half the salary anytime!
- celim307 6y agoBoulder ain’t cheap itself, but at least you can live fairly close to it for fairly cheap.
- mikeyouse 6y agoThis surprised me a year ago when I was looking at Boulder as an option to relocate to from the SFBay.. You can get a single-family home there for roughly the same price as much of the Oakland Hills.. nearly everything on the cheaper side was ~$800k. https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/house_type/2-_beds/2.0-_baths/?searchQueryState=%7B%22pagination%22%3A%7B%7D%2C%22mapBounds%22%3A%7B%22west%22%3A-105.36395759159886%2C%22east%22%3A-105.1631137805637%2C%22south%22%3A39.969685234386155%2C%22north%22%3A40.09625873731518%7D%2C%22isMapVisible%22%3Atrue%2C%22mapZoom%22%3A13%2C%22filterState%22%3A%7B%22beds%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A2%7D%2C%22baths%22%3A%7B%22min%22%3A2%7D%2C%22price%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3A900000%7D%2C%22con%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22apa%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22mf%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22mp%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3A3221%7D%2C%22land%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22tow%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22manu%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3Afalse%7D%7D%2C%22isListVisible%22%3Atrue%7D https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/house_type/2-_beds/2.0...
- dmode 6y agoBoulder is surprisingly as expensive as the Bay Area
- disabled 6y ago> Companies (e.g. Mozilla, Gitlab, now Facebook) often forget another side of the coin - "less expensive areas" most of the time means worse quality of life. Exactly. Also, if you live in the “middle of nowhere” or even outside a major metro area on the east and west coasts of the US, the quality of healthcare substantially declines. Considering that the third leading cause of death in the US is preventable medical errors, living outside of these areas can literally be a death sentence. It is only a matter of time before it is likely to become the case for an individual, healthy or not. As somebody with 2 rare neurological diseases affecting my peripheral nervous system, plus type 1 diabetes, remote work helps tremendously. But, living in the boonies would literally, in no exaggeration, kill me. So, I need a salary that allows me to live in a major decent metro area, plus allows me to pay for my healthcare. That is non-negotiable. Every day, working in the US is looking less appealing. I can legally work in select places in other parts of the world, and plan on leaving the US. There are other places in the world that have universal healthcare, that do not have huge disparities in quality across similar geographical areas. You can find out more about healthcare quality worldwide and the US by examining the data on http://HealthData.org http://HealthData.org
- pbourke 6y agoMoving from "daily commute distance" to "occasional long trip distance" would still be huge. Moving 2-3hrs out from major east and west coast metros would massively increase affordability.
- disabled 6y agoYou are missing the point: I still need a lot of care, and the quality of it allows me not only to work, but to stay alive. I have at least 1 appointment per week for my medical care, if not a minimum of 2. Sometimes I can have 4 appointments per week. It is not just a matter of having to commute, however long that may be. In an emergency, where I am located matters, and living 2-3 hours outside a major metro area can easily hasten my death, with my medical issues. Rare diseases tend to be systematic, with limited treatments. They are also not easy to treat either. In my case in particular, I am technically more susceptible to having other rare conditions too. My rare diseases are immune-mediated. But, where I live absolutely matters. I also require a lot of healthcare contact, where living 2-3 hours outside of a city just does not work.
- kyran_adept 6y agoIf the money is more equally distributed, the quality of life will also become equally distributed. I imagine the next "Facebook city" at the border of "nowhere" and "farm ville" will get immediately a huge influx of hospitals, gourmet restaurants and private schools to supply its citizens.
- Aunche 6y agoThis happens already in medicine a lot. A surgeon in a small hospital in Kansas actually makes more money than one in NYC. The reason is because nobody wants to live in the middle of nowhere.
- dzonga 6y agowhere did you get this idea from ? my advice travel around more. & spend less time on the internet. and then you'll see plenty of places where quality of life from clean air, healthcare, transportation, entertainment, culture, friendly folks etc is much better than the american metros. nyc & sf.
- diogenescynic 6y agoI think you’re confusing cost of living with quality of life. Quality of life can be bad and cost of living can still be high and vice verse.