I would like others' salaries to go up. I'd rather not have mine come down. I mean, the median is $115k or so in the US. I make under that.
Now this is a really unpopular opinion on here... I think the real issue is centralization of high capital tech work, and really the density of people in general. The cost of living in places like NYC, northern VA, and Silicon Valley are all hugely above the median. It's like a vicious cycle of groupthink instead of evenly distributing those jobs (companies) throughout cheaper, less populous areas. I'd love to see someone from a depressed area start a big name company in that area to help being jobs and prosperity to their neighbors. Perhaps that's just my deluded fantasy.
1. Inflation - Though I will not expound here because I’m not an expert.
2. Salaries in the US have been stagnant since the 70s which correlates to the start of the weakening of Big Labor by corporate and government interests.
Locality has natural efficiencies, which is why cities and caches are so powerful. That can't really be fought head-on in the short term. But over a longer period the increasing costs of a white-hot locale will cause other places to be more appealing. And new tech can find a new natural place to land with costs as part of that.
This is happening all the time. A hundred years ago the Santa Clara (Silicon) Valley was orchards. Detroit was getting rich on the latest tech wave.
A hundred years before that, the North of England was making fortunes in the Industrial Revolution.
In our lifetimes China has changed incredibly. Foxconn is now a big name company that employs over a million people and moved a lot of money into the places they operate.
HCOL cities is a policy choice that is somewhat independent of city density, that seem to be the worst in english speaking countries, pointing to a potential flaw in the culture or shared legal systems. There are many high density cities that are more livable than the USA and significantly more affordable. Cities managed efficiently are the most economically and environmentally sustainable places to have humanity live in by far.
A quick google search shows varying numbers between 74k and 120k for median software developer salaries in the US. 54k seems quite low, where'd you see this?
I believe $54k is for salaries in general across all industries. Mercedes is not a tech company so no reason to assume the discussion is about software salaries
Sure, but if you take those $200k people and make them $100k people, then I assume I'll lose my job to them all day long. Employers will pay me lower because I comparatively suck.
Even then... for many companies the past couple years have opened up competition nation-wide. I'm able to compete for higher salaries with companies used to paying that along with what was only local talent before, while living in an area with comparatively lower cost of living and would like to move with that in mind (locked in until interest rates improve).
The same works in the other direction, and it kind of sucks for companies in areas where income isn't as high having to compete for talent against others with much deeper pockets. It's been interesting to say the least.
Unfortunately, I've seen the govt operating against unions... looking at the railway and airlines and think they're really on the wrong side of this, as much as I don't want to be more inconvenienced from strikes, they should be able to do so. I feel the govt does more harm than good in the US and would prefer a little less picking winners and losers in the mix. On the same note, I don't think they're playing their hands well at all to establish domestic production and security fia application of tariffs and FDA requirements.
Now this is a really unpopular opinion on here... I think the real issue is centralization of high capital tech work, and really the density of people in general. The cost of living in places like NYC, northern VA, and Silicon Valley are all hugely above the median. It's like a vicious cycle of groupthink instead of evenly distributing those jobs (companies) throughout cheaper, less populous areas. I'd love to see someone from a depressed area start a big name company in that area to help being jobs and prosperity to their neighbors. Perhaps that's just my deluded fantasy.