But raising taxes while not addressing the supply problem will make it worse for those who have not already "cashed out" their capital gains into tax-advantaged real estate.
I have 10 weeks vacation and a <20 hour workweek. I'd really rather _not_ be competitive with the US or China.
Yes, somebody making 400k in Palo Alto isn't rolling in stacks of cash (though you are certainly doing a lot better than the grad students making 30k). But this sort of "hey but in this extreme edge case the policy is sort of frustrating" argument is consistently overused to prevent reasonable policies (see estate taxes and farms for a classic example).
I might've been able to buy a condo at one point, but that's about it.
Most of these are well within reach, even moreso before the current bubble, if you make that kind of money. And an 8 minute BART ride from the city. Your not wanting to live there does not imply that somebody does not live there.
Your example is beyond cherry-picked. The population of that region is only 21k. It is not remotely representative of the reality the vast majority of residents face.
Most Californians don’t live in the Bay Area, where basic housing costs $1.5M
Can a family of 4 live on $250k in the Bay Area? Of course. But you’ll never own a home.
And working for the wealthiest companies in the world doing the most in-demand job in the world, yet never being able to own a home, that’s a bizarre situation to be in.
We want to incentivize more people to work in tech. Not less.
Whatever you get paid in Europe is irrelevant since it’s a completely different system (from healthcare and education down to public transport and housing).
And if Europe wants to be at all competitive with the US or China in tech (right now, it’s not), maybe you should be getting paid more than a mid-level accountant?