I'm doing my part. I'm leaving Seattle. I see how bad it is here and what tech companies have done to housing prices and it's terrible. I hate it here.
I realize I'm just one worker. I'm not going to make a hill of difference in leaving. But it's all that I can do.
People I know in non-tech jobs struggle just to survive here. It's not right.
As a former Bay Area resident who could probably not afford to live there with the current housing prices, I'm curious why you lay the blame at the tech companies? Is it because they offer high compensation, relative to other industries? If they lowered compensation across the board, would you view them in better light?
Wouldn't it make more sense to lay at least some of the blame at the hands of current and past residents, most of whom probably don't or didn't work in tech, but were the ones voting for restrictive housing and zoning, often times because they were in favor of discriminatory and exclusionary housing policies?
Tech companies haven't done anything to housing prices. It's people who are convinced that housing is an investment instead of a highly leveraged depreciating asset that block new construction, changing of existing zoning laws, and drive housing prices up.
People in any sort of jobs struggle to survive everywhere. What's your point?
> It's people who are convinced that housing is an investment
Our society is structed such that it is a convincing argument. If tech companies aren't at fault, how are citizens who are doing what they can to get by in this cut-throat world at fault?
People all over the world struggle to survive. What's sad is that people only care when it becomes visible to them. Plenty of people have awful lives but live out in the country and no one cares.
I realize I'm just one worker. I'm not going to make a hill of difference in leaving. But it's all that I can do.
People I know in non-tech jobs struggle just to survive here. It's not right.