How dare they.
Waiting to see if you pick up on how that works.
Or do you think a freshly minted BS in Computer Science has a better shot at a job in the small town of Cariboufart, Alaska than a larger California city? Average prices can be whatever they want, the jobs that pay off your student debt (or at least make debt service less of a pain) tend to be in distinct places rather than fulfill an even distribution nationwide.
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Thanks for your reply, but would you like to make an actual statement of some kind?
Well, actuallyâŚ
If your goal is to pay off that debt, than yes, you probably are better off not taking the job in the âdesirableâ coastal city.
The data is clear. But instead Iâll go for anecdotes.
I know a young married couple (both coders) who just left San Francisco for a pair of jobs in Orange County, Ca. They went from renting a shitty apartment to owning their own 1,800 sq ft condo. And a shorter commute. And closer to a Trader Joes.
I chose Pittsburg intentionally. There are a surprising number of software jobs â like Uberâs entire autonomous vehicle effort â in the area. Pittsburg has a lot of âbig cityâ amenities: parks, zoos, orchestras, colleges, museums, world-class hospitals, public transit, and the Pirates are having another good year, and the Penguins are currently ahead 3-1 for the Stanley Cup.
I have a colleague who runs a significant software firm â in Oxford, Mississippi. The cost of living is miniscule.
Yes, the great bulk of software jobs are in a few areas. But so are the most people who want those jobs, and the political culture of these areas has chosen to not accommodate the housing needs of these well-compensated professionals.
Also, if a couple needs to find two professional jobs, especially in disparate fields, they will almost have to go to one of the major metropolises. and have terrible commutes.
But donât fool yourself: one doesnât have to be in the âbig cityâ to be part of the âaction.â
p.s. Your choice of example, âCariboufart, Alaska,â suggests your sense of âhow that worksâ is as much an emotional stance as an analytical conclusion.
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Near zero interest rates have pretty much forced everyone in the world who has money to invest into bidding up real estate and bidding up stocks far beyond their intrinsic values.
If you think thatâs a good thing, just because some âconservativeâ doesnât like it, fine, I guess.
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Those bubbles happen because certain investors chase after the highest returns and get into speculative markets. If youâre simply trying to save for retirement, your risk appetite is going to be such that youâll probably just put it all into an index fund and some bonds and call it a day.
But thereâs a broader reason I prefer low rates. We have historically high inequality. Traditionally, what you do is you can just inflate your way out of it. But as I mentioned, itâs starting to get very difficult for inflation to kick in, so perhaps that doesnât work anymore.
I think you have a good point, to the extent that some very wealthy people may end up blowing bubbles not because theyâre speculating, but because it is rational for them to invest via hedge funds.
But, putting the two together: just ban hedge funds! 
You said Orange County. I live in a city that is orders of magnitude smaller in terms of population: 80K versus 3 mil with similar population density. The fact that you donât think thatâs small shows that your conception of âsmallâ is skewed.
But I donât want anecdotes. I want data. Your accusations of my supposed emotional bias strike me as projection. I would be happy to be proven wrong. It opens up my options considerably- my emotions donât matter to me half as much as my pocketbook. So by all means show me the data so I can run with it.
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Thank you for your honest reply. I mis-interpreted your initialpost.
I apologize for the vague nature of what I write below. â I am leaving for a trip and donât have ready access ot the data you ask for.
A few comments. I started my programming odyssey in a town of 50,000. Also, Oxford, MS, one of my anecdotes, is a similar sized town. I know about small towns. Opportunities do exists. But I agree these opportunities are far, far rarer than in the larger cities.
I donât know your specialization. Depending on what you do, you may have to be in a major city. I have friend who specializes in analyzing upper atmospheric chemistry from satellite measurements. He is only employable in about 5 places in the world (Pasadena, Ca; Boulder, CO; Cambridge, England; wherever the French have their major atmospheric lab,âŚ) You may be in a similar situation.
The data, which I have seen, but I donât have time to gather, is that if one can find an equivalent professional job in a âlesserâ city, the decrease in salary is usually more than compensated by a lower cost of living, especially housing. When one adds in âquality of lifeâ (especially the stresses of commuting), itâs a clear win. I know a woman who is web programmer who supports herself with âfreelanceâ work she finds over the web. She can live anywhere. Are your skills that geo-graphically portable?
I have seen people move âlaterallyâ to get out of high cost areas. Does you company have a customer for your product that would love to hire someone with deep knowledge of the software? That just might be you. Often the need for computer-skilled people in âlesserâ cities isnât in hardcore software development, but in applying computer solutions to business situations. I have a friend who lives on a multi-acre spread an hour north of Phoenx who, among other things. develops software to help rental companies ( eg U-Haul franchisers) keep track of their stuff.
You are right that the greatest number of opportunities for a software engineer are in few, expensive places. Finding a position in a lower-cost of living area will be more challenging. But I have seen enough people do this that I would encourage you dig deep if that career approach appeals to you and there is an area you would like to move to.
Again, I apologize for not being more specific. I donât know your situation, and I am a bit time constrained at the moment.
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So if banks are holding more money as physical cash, I predict a new golden age of bank robberies. Which of course will lead to a new boom in heist films about twenty years afterwards.
I see no downsides.
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My risk appetite is yearning to graze on a 4% passbook account like I had when I was fifteen years old. An âindex fundâ is just putting a ten-spot on every location of the craps table.
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Government asking business to please comply.
"Please donât let the policies you demanded ruin or economy! "
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I know what it is. My contention is long-term, broad based investment of this kind leaves it to a few remaining market makers to assign an intrinsic value, as you put it. Things wonât get frothy, and you can have your 4% (at least).
Or are you just nostalgic for tight money, is the question.
In other words, there has never been a better time to start robbing banks. Buy your balaclavas, zipties and fast four-door sedans today!
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A way to get around storing huge piles of cash would be to buy or invest sums of money into a representation of a given value.
Giant pigs of raw aluminum? I guess there are giant metal exchanges where that happens.
The increasingly extreme attempts by central banks to push banks into lending money can seem amusing, but represent a total failure on the part of governments in Europe and the US. Negative interest rates, QE, and all the rest of the âunconventionalâ policies are desperate attempts to gain traction in the face of political deadlock and unwillingness to use fiscal policy. Governments should have been using this incredibly cheap money to invest in infrastructure. Build for the future, employ people and get the economy going to the point where normal interest rates could return.
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Not just art. All sorts of assets now - eg vintage cars.
I smell a crash coming.
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