Re:Tech’s Wealthy Enclaves Hurt the Country and Tech Itself
by TheAdamAndChe on Monday April 03, 2017 @04:18PM
(#14026744)
The companies have no incentive to make those changes, though. What makes you think they will?
Re:Tech’s Wealthy Enclaves Hurt the Country and Tech Itself
by vinceguidry on Monday April 03, 2017 @06:41PM
(#14027907)
Ultimately, the customers, the source of demand. Markets work so long as politics don't keep them from working. The real estate market in San Francisco is constrained by politics, keeping the supply from growing to meet demand, but nobody is forced to want SF real estate. Prices find an equilibrium, and everybody makes their choices about where they want to live and how. That's how markets are supposed to work.
Facets of the tech job market bring a huge influx of tech workers to the SF bay area, perhaps the workers would rather live somewhere else, but they make the choice to work in SF. No political constraints here, just people's power to choose at work.
The job market right now has a culture that keeps workers close to the companies, but that culture is malleable, and the thing that shapes culture the most is economic incentive. Other tech companies relocate, AmaGooFaceSoft's employees express a preference for escaping the Bay area, and eventually the incentives that created Silicon Valley will reverse.
The reality is the tech industry has gotten too big for SV.
Company culture will get more accepting of remote work and workers will be able to choose where they want to live. Eventually the demand for housing will drop to ordinary levels. Political initiatives will be dreamed up, but most won't have any effect.
Fundamentally, the real estate and job markets aren't broken, they're just responding to extreme circumstances. When markets work they tend to solve problems like these on their own. The situation just propped up overnight, relatively speaking, so it's taking awhile