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A massive tech company exodus occurring in Austin, Texas
- tomrod 3y ago> many startups are now choosing to leave the capital city they once flocked to because of the rising cost of living, low funding, and lack of diversity, according to TechCrunch. Texas in general is having brain drain. Some due to politics, some due to systemic factors that made the areas relatively less desirable in the past.
- jimmyed 3y ago> lack of diversity Also known as lack of cheap Indian labour
- czbond 3y agoA left leaning drain, yes. But that doesn't mean the state is any worse or better intellectually than the influx that has been occurring into Texas for years.
- next_xibalba 3y agoThis article presents anecdotes. The data on migratory trends show net population inflows to Texas (unlike California).
- red-iron-pine 3y agoa river a poor and dumb heading in, while the well-paid and educated heading are out is not a good thing and does not bode well for the tax base.
- sublinear 3y ago> Texas in general is having brain drain Nope it's just the usual politics and media sensationalism. There are plenty of smart people in well paying jobs in Texas like anywhere else with such a large overall population. Just because it's not like California doesn't make it undesirable for people and businesses. Pretty much the opposite actually.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- outside1234 3y agoYou have to imagine after this insanity with the women in Texas with a medically necessary abortion* that companies have to be rethinking hiring there (and women have to be rethinking living there frankly) * https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2023/12/10/texas-abortion-case-judge-permission-healthcare-decisions/71851981007/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2023/12/10/...
- etchalon 3y agoAmong people I know here in Austin, who are all largely in the middle class, it's wildly assumed you'd just travel out of state if needed. It's a weird situation. The people who should be moving are people for whom an out-of-state abortion is financially impossible, but obviously, if you can't afford two to three days off work, a hotel and a plane ticket, you probably can't afford to move either.
- outside1234 3y agoBut if you are in that situation, you can also probably just choose a better place to live where women have rights too.
- consumer451 3y agoThis sounds like a dystopia where there is one set of laws for the wealthy and another set of laws for the less wealthy. Yes, I know.. this is often the case in many countries, but when it comes to bodily autonomy[0], it sounds much worse to me. Does not sound like the land of free at all. [0] According to recent TX news, this includes a women's right to maintain fertility, and even her own life. What in the actual heck?
- etchalon 3y ago"Sounds like" should just be replaced with "is". It is, objectively, a dystopia where laws apply only to one class of people.
- paxys 3y agoConsidering that having a complication during pregnancy could now mean either jail time or death, I don’t know why any well off professional with options would choose to continue to live in Texas.
- alkibiades 3y agoor they can take a 1 hour flight on southwest for like 50 bucks.
- consumer451 3y agoAnd then return home to a state where much of the populace, and the government consider them to be actual murderers. Also, depending on the county they live in, anyone who helps them leave the state to have the medically required abortion may be breaking the law. Would this include the reservation agent at the airline? Sounds like it would. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/24/us/texas-abortion-travel-bans.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/24/us/texas-abortion-travel-...
- Buttons840 3y agoThe eventual court cases over whether going to another state to do something legal is in fact illegal in your current state will be sad and interesting.
- devonkim 3y agoI’m going to go on a limb and say that a fetus will be counted under interstate commerce jurisdiction of the US Constitution so there will be a federal law level decision on whether abortion is illegal or not if one doesn’t exist already. Because then I’d imagine that supremacy clause means that states actually do not have the right to restrict procedures like abortions either.
- Buttons840 3y agoIn the Wickard v Filburn case the court ruled that a guy growing food on his own land to feed to animals on his own land was participating in interstate commerce. So it wouldn't be the first stretch of the term.
- schneems 3y ago> If this is a growing trend, it begs the question. What will Austin have to do to remain the darling of the tech world? I moved to Austin in 2008. The locals had a “go home, we are full” ethos at the time. Looking back in history, that same vibe shows up in the 90s, 80s, 70s and before. So, it’s somewhat presumptuous of the author to assume that the people who lived here when I moved here or live here now ever desired to be the “darling of the tech world.” The article also doesn’t mention all the hardware we had way before metafaceboinstagramoogle showed up. Amd and National Instuments and Dell. Not to mention Apple has a huge campus. Richard Garriot, creator of ultimate online and a ton of gaming shops are in town. We’ve got a major university, healthcare, and a diverse number of other industries already here. Austin likes what’s in Austin (minus the grumpiness about traffic and regressive state politics). If Silicon Valley likes that too, cool. If not, I don’t think we’ll be worried about it too much. I’ll just keep remote working like I’ve been doing for the past decade+ and paddle boarding on the weekends.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- PessimalDecimal 3y agoThe currently-linked article seems like a poorly worded and edited synopsis of the article at https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/07/is-the-texas-boom-town-of-austin-losing-its-luster https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/07/is-the-texas-boom-town-of-.... Should that be linked at the top instead?
- rayiner 3y ago> But many startups are now choosing to leave the capital city they once flocked to because of the rising cost of living, low funding, and lack of diversity, according to TechCrunch. What a weird thing to say. What difference does the color of people’s skin make? I just got back from Tokyo—wouldn’t it be bizarre for me to complain that it was too uniformly Japanese? Would it be better if there were fewer Japanese people and more Indian people? Why exactly?
- greesil 3y agoLack of diversity == no good food I'm not sure if that's actually true for Austin though.
- belltaco 3y agoBecause knowing and interacting with minorities tends to make people less racist. That's why there's a huge difference between the level of racism that minorities have to encounter between cities and small towns. For example https://www.reddit.com/r/okc/comments/12vli29/black_family_moving_to_edmond/ https://www.reddit.com/r/okc/comments/12vli29/black_family_m...
- alkibiades 3y agothe article gave exactly zero figures to justify the title. just a few anecdotes i don’t see anything that makes me think there’s a “mass exodus”
- PessimalDecimal 3y agoYes, lots of truth by assertion in this article.
- shrubble 3y ago>But many startups are now choosing to leave the capital city they once flocked to because of the rising cost of living, low funding, and lack of diversity, according to TechCrunch. No one leaves because of "lack of diversity": look at how Bellingham WA exploded in the last few years. Further, the VMware layoffs and Meta/Facebook and Google retrenchment are country-wide and not confined to only Austin. What is more likely is that Austin, which saw a huge run-up in home prices, is just not as affordable as before. Add in quality of life things like longer commute times, and the end of ZIRP draining available funding...
- Der_Einzige 3y agoWA is full of Asians. You claim it’s not diverse?
- jessepasley 3y agoI've heard Asians are 'white adjacent' so maybe they don't count?
- defrost 3y agoI've heard there are more than one type of Asian - more even than two types. More even than just the Sama-Bajau and Minangkabau. Who'd have thought, hey?
- czbond 3y agoDoes "diverse" just mean "not white"? If WA mostly "whites & Asian" then no - it is not diverse.
- PessimalDecimal 3y ago> Does "diverse" just mean "not white"? In many cases, yes, it basically just means this. That's even a reasonable de facto definition for that term as it's used today, in any appearance without further qualification ("diversity of thought" e.g.)
- skepticATX 3y agoThe supposed migration to Austin was always destined to reverse. Austin is a mid-tier city when it comes to amenities, weather, food, and more. That works for a lot of people, including myself. But for those established in places like the Bay Area, Seattle, or New York City - it’s a hard sell. Sounds like it took a few years for these companies to figure that out.
- dnndev 3y agoLived in Austin for most of my life and moved away as soon as I could due to Heat and traffic. It’s not an enjoyable place to live weather wise for most of the year. Basically you feel trapped at home either due to heat or don’t want to deal with traffic which I am sure by now is most the day.
- gonzo41 3y agoClimate change is going to make that heat a bigger issue. Especially with the humidity.
- GenerWork 3y agoSomething tells me that Austin locals won't be too upset about this, and in fact may even welcome this due to the huge run-up in housing prices and increase in traffic.
- jupp0r 3y agoWhat makes Austin locals not happy about their houses gaining in value?
- drak0n1c 3y agoThe fact that their next generation cannot afford to live in the same city and end up moving away. Or they decide to sell and do so themselves because all other costs have been higher. Eventually, there are no locals.
- ChrisArchitect 3y agoRelated from earlier: Is the Texas boom town of Austin losing its luster? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38591726 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38591726
- atleastoptimal 3y agoThe attitude of Texas feels very "maximize benefits for myself". That was the justification for most companies that moved there: lower taxes, regulations, low enforcement of workers' rights, etc. This helps in the short term but in the long term degrades quality and is a race to the bottom.
- consumer451 3y agoWhile this post is flagged, I doth protest, my HN karma be dammed. Here is a catalog of HN posts [0] about company moves regarding Texas, which were not flagged, or at least did not remain so. What makes this post different? [0] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=move%20texas&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... “Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately” 149 points|edward|4 years ago|274 comments Tesla’s Texas Move Is Latest Sign of California Losing Tech Grip 59 points|Bostonian|2 years ago|84 comments Tech workers now doubting decision to move from California to Texas 58 points|thunderbong|3 months ago|157 comments Hewlett-Packard Enterprise to Move Hq from San Jose to Houston Texas 41 points|geogra4|3 years ago|2 comments Tesla to Move Headquarters to Austin, Texas, Musk Says 16 points|dcgudeman|2 years ago|2 comments Tesla's move to Texas came after California legislator tweeted 'f-k Elon Musk' 15 points|bryan0|2 years ago|1 comments Tesla will move California to Texas/Nevada due to local coronavirus response 10 points|heshiebee|4 years ago|3 comments
- red-iron-pine 3y agocomments about politics and diversity, most likely.
- hprotagonist 3y ago> If this is a growing trend, it begs the question. What will Austin have to do to remain the darling of the tech world? Be in a state that has laws such that my wife would feel confident in her ability to receive competent medical care there. which is a hard lift, for a city.