You Don’t Deserve a House in the Bay Area | Hacker News Reader

You Don’t Deserve a House in the Bay Area

allenc.com

20 pointsallenc9 comments

It sucks that the supply is low, but why is the demand so freaking high? Who is deciding that Bay area living is 4x better than somewhere else?

Lots of people are apparently making that decision; I just don't understand the reason why.

We are getting offered high-paying, high-impact jobs there and Office Space cost center cube farms in the substantially cheaper places to live.

You can spend your days writing code to track people and sell ads, or you can spend them writing code to do real stuff like factory automation, smart bombs, automated train control...

Bay Area jobs are all about the former. That isn't high impact.

Oh I'd love an actual R&D job somewhere cheaper if it paid similarly after cost of living adjustment.

But it seems to mostly be line-of-business CRUD plumbing and legacy-wrangling for Fortune 500 IT departments, under constant threat of outsourcing.

Aside from what superuser2 said, let's not forget basics: it's beautiful. The weather is great. These count for a LOT.

Evidently :)

Builders know how to build homes, and make a profit. I would feel better about that if our cities knew how to build transportation and schools to match. So far, that isn't happening. Morning rush hour goes well past 10am in many places, and evening slowdowns start at 3pm and go past 7. Feels more and more like LA. Class sizes have also increased in "top schools". Execs now send their kids to private schools, or pay tutors.

It's not just a housing "crisis", but also a traffic crisis, and a brewing school crisis. Maybe a broader quality of life crisis.

What a self-absorbed person you are.

You bought a house in the Bay Area right out of college, allenc. You have ABSOLUTELY no right to be telling anyone what they do and do not deserve.

You have lived a very easy life full of many luxuries, moreso than 99% of human beings will ever experience, and you still have a NIMBY attitude and feel genuinely entitled regarding your home ownership.

You are the problem, allenc.

EDIT: Is there a way to report HN users? This guy does nothing on this website except post links on his blog. Is it not against HN rules to attempt to extract profits out of the community?

What are you contributing to the community, allenc, that you feel entitled to ad revenue from HN users?

> For me — someone who has lived here since college and is lucky to have a mortgage of my own ...

From this quote, he has been in the bay area since college, and presently has a mortgage. I don't think he bought a house right after college, but you've read more of his blog than I have.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com