There's clearly more people being drawn to SV than away from it. I bet salary is a major component.
I fully agree with the GP. European tech bigco's need to get their shit together and pay competitively.
But universities usually pay worse than the local industry anyway, so yeah, if they want the top people, they should start to pay (local) top salaries. Instead, as a researcher you might find yourself living from 6 month contract to 6 month contract.
You're proving his point: all the risk-averse folks stay in Germany. The rest are in the bay area.
Also, your health is not a calculated risk. Having a poor health (sometimes) just happens, even if your lifestyle is healthy.
This also ignores the massive social problems that are taken for granted in the US because of its non existant healthcare system for the poor.
Government mandated social security is an extremely inefficient way of managing health care. As an added evil it puts a giant drag on how fast companies can move.
But in Europe, try to dare to even mention the idea that centralized government mandated social security is terrible and you're immediately ignored because people think you're an immoral person. And social metrics be damned.
Just another example of Europeans living withing the confines of carefully built and maintained mental prisons.
Yeah, just look how efficient the US healthcare system is: https://www.economicshelp.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/tot...
Of course, it still sucks that it can happen to someone at all and you might not want to live in such a society. That's a separate issue.
Speaking of SV, I think the cost of living and the social problems there have made it increasingly unattractive. Seattle is nice.
> If you're employed by a tech company you have great health insurance.
So it will happen to you if you are laid off and happen to become sick after that?