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Elon Musk moves to Texas

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Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas

#481

Post by yurishimo »

lock-free wrote: post #359
glitchc wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't make any sense. Why is the quality of life poorer in California compared to Texas when California has: Better schools across all grades, better universities and better weather? Perhaps there are other factors? Do demographics play a role perchance? From Wikipedia: 1) According to 2018 US Census Bureau estimates, California's population was 59.5% White (36.6% Non-Hispanic White), 14.7% Asian, 13.8% Some O…

Not Texas here, but You might have to adjust your statistics regionally for income. Middle class in California is upper middle class everywhere else, even adjusting for salary reduction. Leaving California put us in the 90th percentile for family income in our new region even accounting for change in salary, vs 75th back in the South Bay. That opens up a lot more opportunity for leisure and better schools - we don't…

Sounds like Texas, except you got a basement (and snow)!

I really wish more homes in Texas had basements, but they add a lot of unnecessary costs to the building that aren't required for code reasons. Plus, then you can spend that money above ground increasing your living area. Unfortunately, most people don't factor in the extra expense of cooling more above ground space, whereas a basement would hold the temperature better. I'd reckon after a decade or so, the energy savings of putting some extra square footage in a basement would event out.

Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas

#482

Post by kobayashi »

yxwvut wrote: post #439
beambot wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean abatements & subsidies required to push "clean" vehicle policies that are among the most aggressive in the world? Without Tesla & CA's policies, auto electrification would be at least a decade behind what it is today... Being at the forefront of environmental policy has real costs.

Perhaps the private beneficiaries of those subsidies should bear some responsibility for covering the costs?

That would drastically undermine the point of those, and any future, subsidies. I would also find it to be immoral.

Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas

#483

Post by boringg »

rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #470
ddoolin wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question: how do states like Texas, Florida, etc. get by without taxing income? Do they not need that money for their operations? What is the difference between their government and California's? I figure Florida makes it up with their tourism industry but Texas decidedly does not have that.

Compared to California, most states depend less on income taxes and more on property taxes, which is part of the reason why property prices are higher in California.

I think California would have higher property taxes if they hadn't implemented prop 13 back in the 80s. Really messed up the state tax dynamics imho. Policy started from a good place but ended up with weird ripple effects.

Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas

#484

Post by uoaei »

S_A_P wrote: post #158

Pretty interesting to see this move makes people so salty. There does seem to be a trend of people fleeing California, I dont know enough about the situation out there to comment on whether or not its valid. I suspect something must be going on for several high profile folks moving out. And before you bash Texas, its not perfect. But its pretty diverse, and it seems that folks with opposing viewpoints can still coexi…

This may be glib, but: snowflakes who can't handle or else absolve themselves of the responsibility of taking care of the community they inhabit don't generally get much support from said community.

Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas

#485

Post by tharne »

monoideism wrote: post #244
boringg wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

California still has every viewpoint that is imaginable though there does seem to be less space for far right. What's making everyone salty about Elon leaving is there was considerable amount of people who helped him build up in the state (i.e. state benefits, staff who worked incredibly hard for many years, consumers who bought his cars [drive in the bay area]) and he's peacing out, with a slap in the face to everyo…

How do you describe "far-right"? Edit: the reason I ask the question is that I've noticed a trend among people from very left-leaning areas to define anyone slightly right of center as being "far-right". I've been called "far-right" because of beliefs that were typical of moderate Democrats in the 1990s. What label that leaves for people like actual Nazis, fascists, neo-Confederates, etc, I'm not sure. Far-far-far ri…

[flagged]

Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas

#486

Post by ranman »

busterarm wrote: post #44
zaroth wrote: post #6

California is actively looking for ways to extract more money from Elon. It likely posed an appreciable risk to his business ventures that CA at some point will try to tax unrecognized capital gains, which would require him to liquidate shares to pay the tax. Basically akin to a hostile government takeover. If CA were to aggressively pursue such a policy, they would likely go after anyone they perceived as fleeing ju…

Or, framed differently, California is looking for deep pockets to bail out their failing budget rather than adjust their policy to match what they can afford. The same has been happening in New Jersey with its insane taxes that don't really go to pay for services anymore and have diverted from transportation & infrastructure projects for decades now to bail out their severely underfunded pension funds...where the pen…

> Or, framed differently, California is looking for deep pockets to bail out their failing budget

They certainly waste money but... they also make a lot of it... why is the budget failing? This is a common refrain I hear but I've never really understood it.

Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas

#487

Post by jokethrowaway »

techsupporter wrote: post #220
S_A_P wrote: post #158

Pretty interesting to see this move makes people so salty. There does seem to be a trend of people fleeing California, I dont know enough about the situation out there to comment on whether or not its valid. I suspect something must be going on for several high profile folks moving out. And before you bash Texas, its not perfect. But its pretty diverse, and it seems that folks with opposing viewpoints can still coexi…

My birth certificate says "Texas" across the top and people have been "fleeing California" to Texas for as long as I've been alive. There's nothing special about Musk; he just happens to be high-profile about it and managed to extract more from California before decamping to a "cheap" state than several of those who came before him. I disagree with your assessment that Texas has wide acceptance for opposing viewpoint…

>I disagree with your assessment that Texas has wide acceptance for opposing viewpoints, at least out in the suburbs where I grew up. If you were not religious and conservative (I have my own anecdotes), you did not fit in. Only when I went to college in a college town did people largely seem to want to live and let live. Sure, inside the larger cities it is more cosmopolitan...

That doesn't sound very specific of Texas, that's the case pretty much everywhere

Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas

#488

Post by yurishimo »

ryandrake wrote: post #372
scop wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We will be moving out of CA in the coming months. We are lifelong residents. We are leaving due to cost of living and especially quality of life for our children.

I would love to move out of CA in the coming months. My spouse is begging me to. If my job were to finally announce permanent, optional WFH for employees, I list my house for sale that day. Same complaints: cost of living / taxes, quality of life, and kids' education. The only thing keeping me here is my current job and clear opportunities for future [tech] jobs. If WFH became the norm, I'm out of here in 50 millisec…

The key is to get out and keep your salary. If your job does go full WFH, you can most likely keep your salary and then move, but then if you want to find a new job in a couple years, finding that same SF salary will be much tougher. I live in Dallas and have friends in Austin. 6 figure jobs are available, but you won't find many (if any) of these 180-200+ type jobs outside SF and NYC.

Granted, $120k-150 for a single earner is plenty to live a good life in Texas, even in the cities (as long as you don't have excessive personal debts). Something to think about that I'm sure you've probably considered.

Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas

#489

Post by boringg »

fairity wrote: post #480
boringg wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(1) Tesla actually used to pay below market rate (bay area) and had incredibly demanding working conditions (see drive from Elon carries through the company and that it was a mission based company) for a good period of time. I'm not saying thats good or bad just that they weren't paying above-market. Not sure what the calculus is now that the equity value has gone right off the charts. (2) No you get additional benef…

> No you get additional benefits for being in-state manufacturers. (I think its 10% vs 30% in state off capital costs). Can you link me to a source that explains the additional benefits that in-state EV manufacturers accrue? Thanks!

I'm talking solar and storage in this case. See CPUC's SGIP program (https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/sgip/).

Re: Elon Musk moves to Texas

#490

Post by nrmitchi »

jdbernard wrote: post #458
nrmitchi wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also disproportionately impacts mid-tier earners. Ie, those who earn enough to own their home, but still have it make up a significant portion of their net worth. Someone making 100k/year, and making 1M/year, both living in 400k houses (not uncommon in the Austin area), will be paying the dollar-amount in tax. Ie, a high property tax and low income tax is very regressive.

Wait a minute, where are all these $400k homes you're finding in Austin? I thought those disappeared about 5 years ago... Joking aside, it wouldn't surprise me if $400k was close to the median price for homes within the city limits.

Within the city currently I believe 400k is actually on the low end.

Originally I wrote 500k, but changed it to avoid "no one should be complaining if they life in a half a million dollar home, that can buy so much in Ohio!!" type comments.

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