Thread by @slightlylate

There's a lot of cultural rot packed into this and, per usual, California's *messed up* land use and tax policies are the backdrop.

To recap: Prop 13 means housing gets cheaper the longer you hold, not just 'cuz feds subsidize mortgages, but also property taxes.

https://twitter.com/ricmac/status/1413256174741331972

Combined with now-rampant NIMBY-ism from the last generation to enjoy tax-funded higher ed, spiraling property costs mean the dream of owning a reasonable home and starting a family is a receding vision.

How bad is it?

sfchronicle.com/local/article/…

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

The "way up" is "supposed to be" tech -- one of the few industries often paying enough to get you a slice of California. And for the lucky few, it absolutely is.

But the path to that is brutal.

The dull pain of 1.5+ hour bus commutes and ridiculous hours are numbed only by remembering how lucky you are to be on that bus at all. What's bad for you is *terrible* for the rest of the state.

Why isn't this widespread pain a crisis that management is furiously trying to solve?

It's a deep question, with unsatisfying answers, but know that the pay scale isn't linear upwards; it's exponential.

Every promotion is another step to join the Landed Executive Class.

Folks like Urs have been been wealthy enough, long enough, that their commutes aren't 1.5 hours.

As a class, the Landed Executives do not experience this pain. They do not ride busses. They are close enough to bike. They can afford "help" and private schools _in Palo Alto_.

And so everyone getting hired in at L3/L4 is wrenched between a promotion system that offers a (fleeting) chance to tough it out long enough to rise to a point where, in one's late 30s, they can afford enough space for a family...or not.

The pay is good, and the benefits are great, but it's not anything like self-actualization. That requires Director+ money. Until then? Get on the bus and watch house prices spiral further away every year from your choppy wifi.

Now, imagine one of the Landed Executive Class -- a group that pours *tons* of lobbying money towards reducing your Mega Corp's tax bill -- gives up on the dream. Moves away. So wealthy and (in your world) powerful they don't even *need* the Palo Alto house...

Are they funding an full-court press to fix the NIMBY causes of the solution? Nah. Are they gonna let you have the same flexibility?

Hrmm....

So you've gotta be in the Bay Area, else there's no way up. Something something "creative teams" something something "open plan" something something.

Now add absolutely _killing it_ for the COVID year, despite being fully remote.

Managers who aren't viscerally in touch with just how seething their folks are for the shit they've been asked to gin-and-bear for years should stop and think very, very carefully about their next move.

And whatever you do, don't take liberties you won't extend to your L4s.