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Comment by allarm | Hacker News Reader

Is SF the only city in the US? What stops them from moving to another part of the country? I moved across the globe, twice for the last 12 months, with my family. It’s definitely doable.

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> What stops them from moving to another part of the country?

Cost. Paying early termination on your rental contract. Paying to move. First, last, and a cleaning deposit at your new place. Stocking a new place with perishables. An easy 3+ grand to move to an inexpensive town.

Loss of salary/job opportunities. You won't have the same job opportunities, nor salary ranges, if you live in a less expensive part of the country, since your new pay will be based off your peers in your physical location, not your last salary in SF.

> You won't have the same job opportunities, nor salary ranges, if you live in a less expensive part of the country

So they will have to downgrade from an extremely privileged position to just highly privileged position. Should we open some fundraiser so they can keep their expensive lifestyle even after layoffs?

Unemployed recruiting coordinator or sourcer during a possible recession, is not what I would call highly privileged..

I believe the proposal on the table was that Twitter should give them permission to sell the stock they rightfully earned, not that anyone else should fund them. The blackout on stock sales suck.

> An easy 3+ grand to move to an inexpensive town.

I think 3 grand is probably an underestimate for any significant move. It cost me $1k to move ~2.5 miles across town the last time I moved.

I've moved across the nation with my thumb out, $20, and a tarp to tie across some trees to sleep under. It's doable on way less than $1k.

Of course it is, if you're not taking anything with you. I moved thousands of miles for $0 once, because everything I was taking fit in a suitcase that I already owned, and my flight was paid for by the company I was moving to work for. I'm talking about people who have to move apartments, and possibly families. You aren't doing that for $20.

Only 16% of SF is families with children, so that's not really representative of someone living there.

That's a valid objection to two whole words of my comment. On the flip side, 99% of SF is people who live in homes. Most of those people will have more than a backpack's worth of stuff to move.

Unless you're moving to the bush in Alaska or the desert in Namibia or something, or have some weird medical issue that requires you to bring some large special life-saving item with you for the journey, then you're in the 99% that can survive just fine selling your stuff where you are and then buying necessities when you arrive. I said doable, not that you could do it while keeping grandma's heirloom piano.

Well, I sold almost everything I had before the move. It was an interesting experience. I had 4 bags that I could afford to bring along, and at least twice more of the amount of things that I wanted to keep.

What % of Twitter? (not being facetious, honest question)

It cost me $3000+ to move <1 mile in SF. This didn’t include any unpacking etc. $320/hr for 4 people, 10 hours plus tip. Guys worked super fast but being on a top floor of a Victorian with tight stairways and multiple beds and couches is a lot of work.

I've done both, decades ago one of my college friends had the theory that, "If it doesn't fit in your car you don't own it". Moving cost was absolutely determined by the price of gasoline.

And I've spent what, $5,000 to send a couple pieces of furniture across the country for a move because they weren't replaceable, and I had the money.

I did all of this in 2020 after the layoffs in the company I used to work for. It’s not the end of the world, it’s doable. In my case, I couldn’t leave the country where I lived, I didn’t have the residency there and it wasn’t possible to get back home, because my home country closed the borders. I spent 3-4 months renewing temporary visa, having 2 year lease contract ahead and no job to cover the expenses. I managed to get a job, then another one, then return back home, then get an offer and fly to another country once again. My salary was substantially lower than theirs, but it somehow didn’t have a critical impact on my savings. I managed to get both of my cats through all of this, it wasn’t cheap as well. I think these guys are going to be fine, that’s my point.

Often visas - either that they cannot get visas to live or work in a different country, or because leaving the US would cause them to abandon potentially decades of progress towards permanent residency.

Don't need a visa for Svalbard. Checkmate!

I've been actually - considered staying - and if you haven't I'd highly recommend it. Especially a day trip up to Pyramiden. While you do not need a visa to stay in Svalbard forever, you do need a Schengen visa to get there which not everyone can obtain!

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