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Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

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Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re evergreen anywhere you find people who low-key wish they could live in CA but can’t. It’s weird; just enjoy your state and do the best to make it better. Truly don’t get why people who don’t live in CA have so many opinions about it. Most states have problems on par with their economic power and population size; not much more too it than that but “hurr liberal policies are gonna ruin the whole country!” get t…

It's because CA has perfect weather which is the one thing that is completely impossible to replicate anywhere else.

The 50 square miles of SF has perfect weather, if you're not put off by cold and clingy fog. The other 160,000 square miles is as much of a mixed bag as any other state (with the exception of Hawaii, which actually has perfect weather).

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey! If you have a moment: I’m a Christian and a gun owner who is not a fan of the Democratic Party. I live in SF and was born in the East Bay. Would you mind sharing some concrete examples of what you mean by CA being more intolerant than other places? I keep hearing about this but have never really experienced it myself.

Are you openly any of these things? Do you espouse your Christianity or commitment to proactive self-defense publicly or professionally? What sort of company do you work for and do you self-select for a certain kind of person in your friendships?

Before I answer, could you please give concrete examples of what you mean by intolerance? I’m genuinely curious and trying to be open minded, I hope I’m not coming across as confrontational.

At my last job I was open about my Christianity. I haven’t really had a chance to do that at my current job because of COVID. At my current job though I do talk about the fact that I own a gun in the context of recreation, and at my last job I defended the second amendment in a lunch conversation, but I haven’t really run into an opportunity to espouse a commitment to proactive self defense in a work context… I do talk about self defense with friends though, some of whom strongly oppose the second amendment. My current friends are to my knowledge entirely not Christian.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#153
post #7

I wonder if the people fleeing California will end up voting for the same bad policies that are the reason they had to leave in the first place. That is, do they connect the bad policies to the bad outcomes, or will they still favor the bad policies? There is one major area for tech people where Texas may prove a nasty surprise to employees: non-compete agreements. For large employers this may be a bonus though as th…

This is a possibility, since an average Californian is far to the left of an average Texan and if we randomly picked few million Californians and transported them to Texas it would have indeed moved the voter base to the left. However, I've seen reports on the new voters in Texas voting to the right of the native Texans (e.g. from Ted Cruz's campaign, might not be a good source for HN, but there is no evidence of the opposite) and since majority of these are from California it could be that California expats in Texas are far to the right of the average Texan. It could be that more conservatives than liberals are escaping California or it could be that liberals prefer to move to other states (like Washington?) or a combination of the two.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey! If you have a moment: I’m a Christian and a gun owner who is not a fan of the Democratic Party. I live in SF and was born in the East Bay. Would you mind sharing some concrete examples of what you mean by CA being more intolerant than other places? I keep hearing about this but have never really experienced it myself.

Also a gun owner in CA. Came from a state with open carry/no license needed. I found CA’s laws to be quite reasonable; I was told all variety of stories about guns being taken from my home when I told people I was moving out. Weird stuff. I think CA is highly demonized and I don’t really get it, even as someone originally from a very conservative (and also evangelical Christian) background/area. I actually live in a…

Hey! Thanks for replying, good to hear from another resident :D Yea, I certainly don’t agree entirely with CA’s gun laws. I also definitely don’t believe CA is perfect. But I agree that the state seems unfairly demonized, I’ve been trying for a bit now to try dig into why. Agree 100% about loving the diversity in this state.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#155

As a long term resident of the bay area, I'm happy to see companies relocate elsewhere. The unbridled growth of companies here without improvements to infrastructure like housing and transportation are what caused many of the problems. From 2010 to 2018 my commute roughly doubled in time. As the quality of life degrades in the bay area, it's natural for people and companies to act in their own self interest to reloca…

> ... I'm happy to see companies relocate elsewhere. The unbridled growth of companies here without improvements to infrastructure like housing and transportation are what caused many of the problems.

This seems like an odd mindset. Why are you happy to drain the local economy, instead of working to fix those problems and support a good economy?

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#156
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 28,995,881 people living in Texas vs 39,512,223 in California. There are 151,278 homeless in California vs 25,848 in Texas. Is homelessness a problem in Texas? Yes, but it isn't remotely as bad as California. And of course, then there are states with nearly non existent homelessness.

Huh it's almost as if it's been forever known to anybody paying attention that other states literally give their homeless bus tickets to California. Wonder how that affects statistics like yours people like to tout

Always coming up with excuses to blame the other states, as if poor little CA can't afford bus tickets either.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#157
post #7

I wonder if the people fleeing California will end up voting for the same bad policies that are the reason they had to leave in the first place. That is, do they connect the bad policies to the bad outcomes, or will they still favor the bad policies? There is one major area for tech people where Texas may prove a nasty surprise to employees: non-compete agreements. For large employers this may be a bonus though as th…

If the policies were so bad, they probably wouldn't be there in the first place.

If this is how to fail at policy making, more places should try failing.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's diversity of the uninteresting sort. Ethnic diversity doesn't imply ideological diversity.

The Bay Area is home to a lot of immigrants from all over the world, as well as first generation American citizens whom were raised by their immigrant parents. Is the implication here that they all have the same ideologies?

They all moved to the Bay Area didn't they? And they left behind people that didn't. Given that they don't spend much time segregating themselves into Chinatowns and Little Italies one should expect some preference for the culture of the Bay Area to explain the selectivity and staying power, when other locations are just as prosperous (New York, Texas, Boston).

An analogy from my own experience: in my youth I was raised in a third world country, but within a community of international expats who worked for the local NGO. They came from countries as diverse as America, Germany, India, China, and what is now South Sudan. What could this ethnic smorgasbord possibly have in common? Answer: a belief in, and commitment to, international cooperation in science. This ideology is what drove the composition of the community.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#159
post #30

Given that the Texas GOP leadership recently mused publicly about seceding from the United States I wonder how many of the people and companies that left California for Texas would be pleased to wake up one morning and discover they now live in a foreign country? My guess would be: "not so many".

"seceding"

Fixed, and sincere thanks. Not a word I think I've ever referenced, let alone spelled, recently.

Re: Silicon Valley exodus: Bay Area tech companies leaving for Texas

#160
post #7

I wonder if the people fleeing California will end up voting for the same bad policies that are the reason they had to leave in the first place. That is, do they connect the bad policies to the bad outcomes, or will they still favor the bad policies? There is one major area for tech people where Texas may prove a nasty surprise to employees: non-compete agreements. For large employers this may be a bonus though as th…

For me a very frustrating thing was trying to figure out where my tax money went in California. Roads suck. Public education sucks. Tent cities everywhere. Then COVID-19 hit and you could tell, early on, that it was going to be mismanaged, similar to our tax money. So glad I bailed back in May. No Texas for me. Arkansas instead!

I think the last new tax I voted for was in 2004. Back when I was 25 and didn’t fully understand how terribly mismanaged the funds were.

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