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> Makes $150-200k. Leaves the Bay Area/NYC because he can't afford to raise kids there Can't afford to raise kids? That's over double the median household inco

> Makes $150-200k. Leaves the Bay Area/NYC because he can't afford to raise kids there Can't afford to raise kids? That's over double the median household income of SF and triple of that of Oakland.

gfodor 12y ago
Usually people want to own a home when they start a family. Home prices in the bay area are insane, second only to Manhattan. If you are able to pull in 200k a year as a remote worker, you can get a much nicer home by just moving a few hundred miles away.
- michaelochurch 12y ago
  Also, you're paying 3-6 airfares when you travel, and you have to worry about education expenses. Even though there are great public schools, those are expensive when one considers that they're priced into the housing market. Then there's college (especially admissions and the attendant dark tuition, which are more terrifying than tuition because dark tuition-- elite high schools, counselors with connections, bullshit "internships" on bought strings-- can run into the half-million range). I'm terrified of how competitive college admissions are going to be in 25 years, especially because going to an elite school matters far more than it used to. (There are plenty of 50-year-old CEOs who went to state schools; these days, kids from Yale can't get VC.) Personally, I think our society is unintentionally de-eugenicizing itself. If you're smart and thoughtful, having kids is a terrifying idea. The meltdown of the middle and upper-middle class is causing the most thoughtful people to choose not to have children (can anyone, excluding billionaires, make a confident bet 20+ years into the future?) and it'll be interesting to see what this does to the aggregate IQ level of our society. Free higher education (for the qualified) has all sorts of benefits, but one among them that is enormous (if not politically correct) is that it removes one of the major factors that impels smart people to reproduce less.
- zenbowman 12y ago
  That's around the wage in LA as well, and you can definitely afford a home in a good neighborhood over here on that salary.
dredmorbius 12y ago
It also comes with pronounced income uncertainty. Software gigs run 2-5 years very typically. Spending 6-12 months in a job search (there are bust times as well as boom) when you've got mouths to feed is particularly stressful.

> Makes $150-200k. Leaves the Bay Area/NYC because he can't afford to raise kids there Can't afford to raise kids? That's over double the median household income of SF and triple of that of Oakland.

gfodor 12y ago

Usually people want to own a home when they start a family. Home prices in the bay area are insane, second only to Manhattan. If you are able to pull in 200k a year as a remote worker, you can get a much nicer home by just moving a few hundred miles away.

michaelochurch 12y ago
Also, you're paying 3-6 airfares when you travel, and you have to worry about education expenses. Even though there are great public schools, those are expensive when one considers that they're priced into the housing market. Then there's college (especially admissions and the attendant dark tuition, which are more terrifying than tuition because dark tuition-- elite high schools, counselors with connections, bullshit "internships" on bought strings-- can run into the half-million range). I'm terrified of how competitive college admissions are going to be in 25 years, especially because going to an elite school matters far more than it used to. (There are plenty of 50-year-old CEOs who went to state schools; these days, kids from Yale can't get VC.) Personally, I think our society is unintentionally de-eugenicizing itself. If you're smart and thoughtful, having kids is a terrifying idea. The meltdown of the middle and upper-middle class is causing the most thoughtful people to choose not to have children (can anyone, excluding billionaires, make a confident bet 20+ years into the future?) and it'll be interesting to see what this does to the aggregate IQ level of our society. Free higher education (for the qualified) has all sorts of benefits, but one among them that is enormous (if not politically correct) is that it removes one of the major factors that impels smart people to reproduce less.
zenbowman 12y ago
That's around the wage in LA as well, and you can definitely afford a home in a good neighborhood over here on that salary.

dredmorbius 12y ago

It also comes with pronounced income uncertainty. Software gigs run 2-5 years very typically. Spending 6-12 months in a job search (there are bust times as well as boom) when you've got mouths to feed is particularly stressful.