> if you are competing against engineers who are willing to accept lower salary due to low CoL in another area, the company would offer less. Of course, that is not how things should be.
Why shouldn't it be? The market uses prices to signal things you should and shouldn't do. This particular price signal is saying, "move away!" If you don't have another, stronger signal that overrides it, it is not an efficient use of resources, and society suffers a dead-weight loss.
Why should all the software engineers all have to cram into Silicon Valley, pay California income taxes, and bid up the prices on a housing supply which remains wholly inadequate for the region? If tech stopped paying the California premium, the companies would see higher profit, their customers would see lower prices, their engineers more disposable income.
I would love for programming jobs to be available in every major city in the nation. Sure, the Mission is pretty cool, but there's hundreds of other cities in the US that have some pretty cool stuff too.
Why shouldn't it be? The market uses prices to signal things you should and shouldn't do. This particular price signal is saying, "move away!" If you don't have another, stronger signal that overrides it, it is not an efficient use of resources, and society suffers a dead-weight loss.
Why should all the software engineers all have to cram into Silicon Valley, pay California income taxes, and bid up the prices on a housing supply which remains wholly inadequate for the region? If tech stopped paying the California premium, the companies would see higher profit, their customers would see lower prices, their engineers more disposable income.
I would love for programming jobs to be available in every major city in the nation. Sure, the Mission is pretty cool, but there's hundreds of other cities in the US that have some pretty cool stuff too.