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Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

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Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#131

Post by sjg007 »

newhotelowner wrote: post #61
danhak wrote: post #34

California's tax regime is really backward. I suspect Tesla's departure is just the tip of the iceberg and that the repeal of the SALT deduction in 2017 really hastened this trend. High earners pay an effective tax rate of > 50%. They are partially picking up the slack from Prop 13, which artificially distorts the housing market by allowing longtime homeowners to pay property taxes based on decades-old assessed value…

> The exodus will only pick up steam unless policymakers get their act together. I used to live in California. There is no better state than California. If house price falls, I would buy another house in California.

I concur. If you can’t get a house though and have to live in crappy apartments California can suck.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#133

Post by dralley »

cletus wrote: post #27

Good. This will both alleviate pressure on the Bay Area as well as accelerating the political shift to the left in Texas. It's a win all around. I actually think that living in the Bay Area as a tech employee is increasingly unjustifiable from an ethical point-of-view. It was once the case where that was necessary for many career paths but that's increasingly not the case and the pandemic has hastened that shift. Why…

I'm pretty sure Tesla was one of the lowest paying tech companies in the Bay Area.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#135

Post by andyxor »

pmorici wrote: post #109
cjensen wrote: post #76

When CEOs move, they often move their headquarters closer to where they live. Somehow Tesla managed to survive all the problems of California until shortly after Musk moved to Texas. Folks talking about the advantages and disadvantages of California vs Texas may be overthinking this.

Wonder if it had anything to do with this… https://mobile.twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/14462517624...

or this https://nypost.com/2021/10/05/tesla-ordered-to-pay-137m-to-e...

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#136

Post by SavantIdiot »

brightball wrote: post #43
danhak wrote: post #34

California's tax regime is really backward. I suspect Tesla's departure is just the tip of the iceberg and that the repeal of the SALT deduction in 2017 really hastened this trend. High earners pay an effective tax rate of > 50%. They are partially picking up the slack from Prop 13, which artificially distorts the housing market by allowing longtime homeowners to pay property taxes based on decades-old assessed value…

I’ve long suspected that the Democratic obsession with federal policy is to try to reduce the appeal of other states where companies may want to move. It’s often seemed like people in California would prefer that a manufacturing operations operate in Asia and come through their ports rather than operate in the middle/south US.

Naw, Cali just wants clean air and water, and manufacturing doesn't want to pay to not screw the planet. That's why companies pillage Asia: their environment is for sale to the lowest bidder. Capitalism without regulation, baby!

You're making the same conservative argument about wages: if you pay a living wage companies will flee. No, if a company can't pay a living wage, it shouldn't exist. Likewise, if a company can't manufacture products without destroying the environment, it shouldn't manufacture those products.

I'm just a conservative. A nature conservative.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#137

Post by dane-pgp »

nunez wrote: post #41
NikolaNovak wrote: post #9

I know this is charged but it's genuine question due to my ignorance - why are companies having or moving HQs to Texas? It feels that : 1. It's way out of temperate climate that one would live in when given full choice and all things equal (understanding they never are of course - I live in great white North :) 2. Politics are highly conservative and frequently invasive. now clearly half of Americans like it that way…

Corp taxes low, cost of living low (for now), HEAPS of open space (important for Tesla), UT Austin's compsci program (which is ranked) provides a good pipeline, engineers from the Bay are moving to Austin at an increasingly high rate, and demographics are shifting more progressive. I think the writing is on the wall for tech in CA honestly

If the demographics of Texas is really shifting more progressive, then the writing could also be on the wall for Republican presidential campaigns.

Perhaps at that point the party will suddenly find itself again embracing the wisdom of the proposed Lodge-Gossett constitutional amendment, which got as far as approval by a super majority in the US Senate in 1950.

https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/analysis-fractional-prop...

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#138

Post by paxys »

nkohari wrote: post #114
_jal wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> middling infrastructure Compared to what?

There were literally rolling blackouts in CA last summer and the state came dangerously close again this summer. Edit: Not sure why everyone is assuming I'm saying Texas is somehow better. I'm well aware of the power grid problems there as well. The question was "in comparison to what" and setting aside CA and TX, at last count there are 48 whole other states in the nation.

I don't think electricity grid is the example to use to highlight Texas' superiority over California

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#139

Post by m0zg »

Apocryphon wrote: post #56

The official reason is because of housing: "To be clear we will be continuing to expand our activities in California," Musk said. "Our intention is to increase output from Fremont and Giga Nevada by 50%. If you go to our Fremont factory it's jammed." But, he added, "It's tough for people to afford houses, and people have to come in from far away....There's a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area." https://ww…

I've looked at properties in Austin area a few months back. It's more affordable than CA, but it's still way out of reach of most non-HQ staff that Tesla employs. I've read the stat that property values have gone up 43% due to exodus from locked down blue states over the course of just the past year. Couple this with Texas' higher than average property tax rate (_especially_ in Austin area) and you've got some pretty un-affordable housing. FWIW, I'm looking at FL now instead.

Re: Tesla’s headquarters will move to Austin

#140

Post by davidw »

jeffbee wrote: post #70
andreygrehov wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are homeless issues in Austin, just as there are in SF (though not as bad as SF, it's getting worse every year). - Homelessness in Texas has decreased by 55% since 2010. - Homelessness in California has increased by 35% since 2010. So, there is massive a 90% gap. California is obviously doing something wrong there. Source: United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.

Obviously, Texas has out-built California in housing every year since 1990. Housing solves homelessness for reasons that should be clear.

This parent comment from jeffbee is pretty obviously correct. There are more homes and they cost less and... amazingly, there are fewer people without homes.

People get this logic when you talk about, say, Ferraris. Of course not everyone has one! They cost a lot of money!

But with housing it's like "no! It must be drugs! Or they don't work hard enough! It can't have anything to do with the cost of a home being nearly a million dollars!"

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