Re:Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high ...
by take_a_breath on Thursday May 14, 2020 @03:10PM
(#23183981)
==On the other hand, commuting is usually not cheap==
Not cheap, but tax advantaged and sometimes even reimbursed. The tax advantages for working-from-home are much harder to unlock, especially in the short-term or if you work from your bedroom.
Anyways, I thought it was an interesting economic thought-exercise to discuss the second-level impacts of a work-from-home society. I've seen a lot of talk on people fleeing cities, but I think there is a lot more nuance to the discussion.
Re:Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high ...
by gowld on Thursday May 14, 2020 @03:22PM
(#23184140)
"tax-advantaged" just means "discounted". It's still a large expense.
Why would an employer reimburse commute costs but not pay a workstation stipend to non-commuters (possibly marked down 50% due to taxes)?
Re:Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high ...
by take_a_breath on Thursday May 14, 2020 @05:48PM
(#23185981)
The government reimburses the commute costs through the tax code.
On the other hand, commuting is usually not cheap--even if it's just a transit pass. Your points about space are reasonable though most people I know with houses seem to be doing OK. (But then we're a large distributed company so many are on video calls from home on a regular basis anyway.)
It's certainly fair though that, if you have a tiny city apartment that's just a place to sleep, that can't be very pleasant right now and you'd probably want to rethink if going into an office becomes no longer a typical daily activity. (Some companies will pay for co-working space so that may be one option.)