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Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

economist.com

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Re: Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

#41

Post by techperson20007 »

shams93 wrote: post #18

Being laid off at 50 is fairly brutal but hoping to find something using my django experience and get back to work. Fortunately my mom is still alive I had to move in with her, I had already been laid off once, when you are laid off 2 times in one year they force you to go 6 months with no income whatsoever as a form of punishment.

Sorry to hear this and good luck in the search.

Out of curiosity, at age 50, wondering why you wouldn't have a substantial savings by this age, enough to avoid losing housing? Or are you simply living with your mom to reduce the impact on that savings? Sorry if i'm making it sound like everyone at 50 should have a ton of money, I know thats not the case. Just curious.

Re: Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

#42

Post by marvin »

derstander wrote: post #10
jebarker wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: how is the Bay Area housing market artificially inflated? I assumed the high prices were the normal market response to high demand from many people with deep pockets.

> … how is the Bay Area housing market artificially inflated? I shouldn’t have an opinion on this because I don’t live in the Bay Area or closely follow its politics, but the most common refrain I see is that policies (e.g., zoning) prevent building more and higher density housing, thus artificially limiting supply.

Artificially constrained supply combined with marginal buyers that earn >$300k/year and 0% interest rates would lead to extremely high prices.

Re: Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

#44

Post by temporarara »

t-3 wrote: post #8
jebarker wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: how is the Bay Area housing market artificially inflated? I assumed the high prices were the normal market response to high demand from many people with deep pockets.

IIRC, new housing is not being approved for construction mainly because the local gov is full of people who own real estate. In a natural situation, supply would be increased to meet demand.

It's important to take into account the construction costs (and all the parties that are profiting from building new stuff). I think the cost of construction has gone up a lot in recent history. People in general also have much more luxurious requirements for housing than in the past which contributes to the cost. So, building just more is not some magical way to solve this. It's one efficient tool, however, especially if legislative point is made to strongly prefer affordable housing (and be strict about it).

Re: Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

#45

Post by notac »

techperson20007 wrote: post #41
shams93 wrote: post #18

Being laid off at 50 is fairly brutal but hoping to find something using my django experience and get back to work. Fortunately my mom is still alive I had to move in with her, I had already been laid off once, when you are laid off 2 times in one year they force you to go 6 months with no income whatsoever as a form of punishment.

Sorry to hear this and good luck in the search. Out of curiosity, at age 50, wondering why you wouldn't have a substantial savings by this age, enough to avoid losing housing? Or are you simply living with your mom to reduce the impact on that savings? Sorry if i'm making it sound like everyone at 50 should have a ton of money, I know thats not the case. Just curious.

Honestly I'm sick of seeing people post this kind of thing. There's _all kinds_ of reasons people can not have the "expected" amount of savings at _any_ age. Medical. Divorce. Other life disasters. Failed investments. Business failure.

These kinds of questions frankly just lead to victim blaming and expose the asker as either (a) having grown up wealthy and staying that way their entire life, or (b) completely callous.

Re: Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

#46

Post by frumper »

atlgator wrote: post #36
scotuswroteus wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Where are the non-engineers going, and is it to somewhere that will continue to give them north of 200k per year so they can keep borrowing millions and propping up the artificially inflated housing market in the periphery of the Bay Area," is the question on the minds of those whose clicks I imagine this headline is trying to attract.

It’s not necessarily the tech workers. 42% of US existing home purchases were from foreign investors (defined as non-residents). That’s for the US as a whole, and it stands to reason that outsized investment is happening in high demand areas, driving up the price. https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/annual-foreign-investment-i...

I think you're misreading that 42%. "Foreign buyers purchased 98,600 properties" compared with "Overall in the U.S., existing-home sales totaled 6.12 million in 2021".

The 42% number you're citing is the percentage of foreign buyers living abroad out of all foreign buyers. So 100k/6.1M or 1.6% of homes in the US were bought by foreign buyers, and of that 1.6% we see that 42% of those live abroad.

That is quantity of homes, if you'd like to look at dollar values of those purchases, it is also given as "International buyers accounted for 2.6% of the $2.3 trillion in existing-home sales during that time period."

Re: Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

#47

Post by Bukhmanizer »

atlgator wrote: post #36
scotuswroteus wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Where are the non-engineers going, and is it to somewhere that will continue to give them north of 200k per year so they can keep borrowing millions and propping up the artificially inflated housing market in the periphery of the Bay Area," is the question on the minds of those whose clicks I imagine this headline is trying to attract.

It’s not necessarily the tech workers. 42% of US existing home purchases were from foreign investors (defined as non-residents). That’s for the US as a whole, and it stands to reason that outsized investment is happening in high demand areas, driving up the price. https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/annual-foreign-investment-i...

That’s not what your reference is saying. It’s saying 42% purchases * by foreign buyers * are from investors who live outside the USA. Not existing home purchases.

Re: Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

#48

Post by labcomputer »

solarmist wrote: post #29
atlgator wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is “they?” Who is forcing you to go without income?

I would assume OP is referring to unemployment benefits.

Do you know where I can learn more about this? I’ve never heard of a rule like that before

Re: Where have all the sacked tech workers gone?

#49

Post by jonathankoren »

whitemary wrote: post #32
atlgator wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is “they?” Who is forcing you to go without income?

The ruling class. In the contemporary US, this constitutes the owners of capital; not as a whole but as an aggregate of their competitive behavior.

Every policy is a choice. The questions always are who benefits, and who are harmed?
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