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user-inactivated  ·  3121 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Dropbox cut a bunch of perks and told employees to save more as Silicon Valley startups brace for the cold

The sadly enjoyable thing to watch is what happens when all the service people can't live and work in the same city and have to leave. There are a thousand service jobs that need to be done and done well every day else a city stops functioning. Everything from the teachers, to the police and EMS to the guys who pave the streets to the guys who monitor and repair the sewers. Then you get into the service industry: bartenders, waitresses, the guys who stock the store shelves overnight etc.

All these jobs are not going to earn 100K a year, no matter what the housing market. How many of these people, with 'traditional' skills, are going to start looking at their situation and say "Fuck everything about this shit" and leave?

There are almost 40 million people in California. If 10% of them leave like what happened in the first dot-bomb in '98, where are they going to go and what are they going to do?