4 ms·

The thing that bothers me a lot about all the people fleeing and moving out of the bay area is that.. it just feels to me like giving up. These people complain

The thing that bothers me a lot about all the people fleeing and moving out of the bay area is that.. it just feels to me like giving up. These people complain about all the problems in the bay area, and the same people being the most vocal about the crime problems and homelessness and drug issues, also happen to be people that have the tools (financially, socially, etc) to actually help solve the problems. But instead they just choose to leave and join another community that they envision will be a new utopia. If people thought Tech bro's were hated before.. just wait until all the tech people move to other states and work remote and just get up and move every time they disagree with whats going on in their new communities. Never truly becoming part of the communities and only taking advantage of policies and circumstances they had no hand in building or creating. To me that is a toxic cycle and no community anywhere can evolve and get better if the communities members are not invested and are only temporarily aligned when it suits them.

skrbjc 5y ago
There's this concept of voice vs exit. When things aren't going well in an organization or politically, you either decide to speak up and say there is something wrong or leave to find something else. One of the points in the article is that speaking up has been and currently feels like something you can't really do for fear of being ostracized by the greater community. Try mentioning you think there should be something done about the homeless problem, and the response always seems to be that we shouldn't criminalize homelessness, it's not their fault, more housing would fix everything. At a certain point you realize that if you can't speak up, or those in power/those that elect the people in power aren't going to listen, then you might as well seek a place that is a better fit. The crazy thing that happened recently is that before you had to make the decision to leave your job and hope to find an equivalent job in a new place. Which as challenging and probably led more people to try to speak up vs exit. But with remote work it is so much easier to leave, and there are even benefits to the cost of living calculation coming from the Bay Area, that exit becomes not only much easier, but also beneficial in terms of buying power for your dollars.

skrbjc 5y ago

There's this concept of voice vs exit. When things aren't going well in an organization or politically, you either decide to speak up and say there is something wrong or leave to find something else. One of the points in the article is that speaking up has been and currently feels like something you can't really do for fear of being ostracized by the greater community. Try mentioning you think there should be something done about the homeless problem, and the response always seems to be that we shouldn't criminalize homelessness, it's not their fault, more housing would fix everything. At a certain point you realize that if you can't speak up, or those in power/those that elect the people in power aren't going to listen, then you might as well seek a place that is a better fit. The crazy thing that happened recently is that before you had to make the decision to leave your job and hope to find an equivalent job in a new place. Which as challenging and probably led more people to try to speak up vs exit. But with remote work it is so much easier to leave, and there are even benefits to the cost of living calculation coming from the Bay Area, that exit becomes not only much easier, but also beneficial in terms of buying power for your dollars.