We’re all aware there's been a slew of tech layoffs in the past few years. The latest victims to the great culling is 10% of the META workforce. What I don't understand is how on earth then are rents in the San Francisco Bay Area still so god-damn high? You'd think with all the tech firings, there's got to be a net negative pressure on demand in the region. I guess not!
For those of us in the peasant class, it's difficult to muster sympathy for these highly-paid workers losing employment. It's simply math: a software engineer with a total comp of $250,000 getting fired is not the same as a Target team member losing all his shifts. Above a certain sustenance level, the amount of extra money earned allows for plenty of leeway. I would generally say that any laid off tech worker that don't have at least a year of runway money stored up is doing it wrong.
Of course that is predicated on spending discipline. A deep six-figure earner who lifestyle inflates is in no better position mathematically than someone making $50,000. However, it's far easier for the high earner to shut off the spigot and reverse the deficit. The high inflow is such a strong lever to tackle debt. $25,000 in credit card debt means differently for someone earning $250,000 compared to $75,000.
To quote Andrew Yang: "It's just math."
I'd argue that any software engineer, after a decade of work, who does not have at least $1 million socked away in equities, has done it incorrectly. You’ve got a generational opportunity at earning an outsized income! It's just smart of save a chunk of it for much later. Besides, isn't the FIRE movement largely made up of tech workers busting ass for a solid decade and stocking up enough to last for the rest of life?
The extravagant compensation comes at the expense of job security. This isn’t public government work, where you expect to stay all way to retirement on that sweet pension money. Therefore the onus is on the tech worker to absolutely save for a rainy day. And if you didn’t, and you got laid off in recent times? Again, don’t expect sympathy tears from the peasant class.
Higher and higher.