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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_geography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_geography cities matter. You might say "but...but...the internet". Well

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_geography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_geography cities matter. You might say "but...but...the internet". Well, perfecting remote work is just the beginning. The unplanned/sponteneous interactions that lead to new relationships also matter. Maybe when we get that soviet internet that browses you. > I think neither S.V. nor the market is rational. I agree, and it's possible general "bullshit jobs" and Q.E./softbank bubble type phenomena dwarf the intrinsic value of cities. But still, those are orthogonal effects. Contrary to most American nostalgia, going rural does not defeat the bullshit.

SilasX 6y ago
>cities matter. >You might say "but...but...the internet". Well, perfecting remote work is just the beginning. The unplanned/sponteneous interactions that lead to new relationships also matte Yes, I can totally get why anyone would pay a premium for someone who is physically present, or can be on relatively little notice. But that only be relevant as far as "local or remote?", where the former gets a premium against the latter, and it shouldn't care about looking up the specific CoL of which remote location you're working from (so long as business hours are maintained). The issue is that location-based pay does do this.
- dasil003 6y ago
  Yeah a few years ago I was looking around at companies and had some interest in joining Gitlab. Then I saw their pay scale for Oakland and it was laughably low compared to SF even though that was all within my local job market. Ultimately remote first companies that don’t do this will win the talent war and steadily push remote salaries up. Depending how successful they are it may also push major market salaries down over time.
- Ericson2314 6y ago
  I agree. PP was asking about why SV pays so much more in the first place. That's a related question but with different variables fixed constant. Indeed, it's very stupid to so discriminate between different locals. And it's not even clear this is in the employer's interests besides the higher order effects of dominating labor: in simplistic first-order modeling pay scales like this only hinder the arbitrage between different remote locations that are equivalent in the big corp's eyes.
minikites 6y ago
All the more reason to implement a land value tax, with additional taxes on speculation properties (say, lived in for less than 33% of the year), and on vacancy (blight tax).
- Ericson2314 6y ago
  Amen to that! Land is a public good, and density even more so.

SilasX 6y ago

>cities matter. >You might say "but...but...the internet". Well, perfecting remote work is just the beginning. The unplanned/sponteneous interactions that lead to new relationships also matte Yes, I can totally get why anyone would pay a premium for someone who is physically present, or can be on relatively little notice. But that only be relevant as far as "local or remote?", where the former gets a premium against the latter, and it shouldn't care about looking up the specific CoL of which remote location you're working from (so long as business hours are maintained). The issue is that location-based pay does do this.

dasil003 6y ago
Yeah a few years ago I was looking around at companies and had some interest in joining Gitlab. Then I saw their pay scale for Oakland and it was laughably low compared to SF even though that was all within my local job market. Ultimately remote first companies that don’t do this will win the talent war and steadily push remote salaries up. Depending how successful they are it may also push major market salaries down over time.
Ericson2314 6y ago
I agree. PP was asking about why SV pays so much more in the first place. That's a related question but with different variables fixed constant. Indeed, it's very stupid to so discriminate between different locals. And it's not even clear this is in the employer's interests besides the higher order effects of dominating labor: in simplistic first-order modeling pay scales like this only hinder the arbitrage between different remote locations that are equivalent in the big corp's eyes.

minikites 6y ago

All the more reason to implement a land value tax, with additional taxes on speculation properties (say, lived in for less than 33% of the year), and on vacancy (blight tax).

Ericson2314 6y ago
Amen to that! Land is a public good, and density even more so.