It just hit me that housing and services in the Bay Area are so shitty and such low quality, that it makes our TC completely pointless, because by making us stay here (thanks, RTO!) we're literally captive to California's third world quality of life. - Shitty schools that indoctrinate rather than teaching. And this goes for private schools too. They promote the same kind of garbage. There simply is no alternative, even if you're willing to pay for it. Also since 2020 many early education teachers left, so now many daycares and preschool dropped in quality significantly. - Shitty healthcare. Even with insurance there are long wait times, unexperienced poor quality doctors, medication shortages (literally it was hard to find cough medicine last year!). Literally I feel that since 2020 all medical staff that were halfway decent packed up and left (I guess they didn't look kindly into Newsom trying to muzzle them over masks and vax mandates). But now we're stuck with crappy doctors! - No public safety, literally drug addicts living in tents and shooting up on the streets in SF. Smash and grabs. Police does nothing. Heck, nobody even wants to be a policeman anymore, because the city literally ties their hands and doesn't let them do their jobs. And yes, many retired - No freedom of speech. People can literally get fired for saying that "gender" is a made up BS and that humans only have 2 sexes: male and female. You can agree or disagree with the statement, but nobody should get fired or penalized for saying what they genuinely believe is true. - Poor housing quality and inflated prices, due to artificial housing bubble. All these "in this house we believe..." lawn signs owners at their 5 mil worth house also very actively make it impossible for new housing to be built. - Rising antisemitism, promoted by said amazing schools from my first point. And if you object you're a "settler colonialist" or whatever. - Third world infrastructure. At the first gush of mild wind or rain I go charge my generator. Because I am already anticipating the power outages. Also, 101 is ridden with potholes, and parts of it flood at the slightest rain. - Ridiculous energy policy. CA invests in bird traps instead of in reliable nuclear. - Insanely high state taxes. All in all, TC ain't worth it for me anymore. Why would I bother working hard if my TC cannot give me a better quality of life because I'm stuck in a state that behaves like a third world country? Why would I give a f*ck? TC: $280k Edit: the problem isn't that the TC isn't enough (combined with my spousal TC we make north of $500k), it is that it is pointless because in the Bay Area there simply aren't adequate products and services you could buy. And as I said earlier, I'm not an SWE so for my role this TC is actually above market. The problem is that there is nothing I want to buy even when I have the money, because all the products and services offered in the Bay Area suck, and the upgrades that you can get by paying a little more aren't actually significant. You can pay for private school but all private schools in the Bay Area are woke and they all push gender ideology so it doesn't help to pay; you can have the best health insurance and still you have to wait in line to be seen and you get a crappy doctor that offers you a Covid test when you complain about something completely unrelated; you still have to drive on the 101 even if you have an expensive car; you still get power outages. I guess if I was a billionaire I would get the good stuff (private jets, mansion, private tutors, private doctors, my own private grid?, private guards, etc), but given that this is unlikely to happen the TC is completely worthless (even if we had double, or even tripple it would still be worthless because it would not significantly change anything).
Why don’t you move ?
It's true
Time to move.
Love it or leave it. Texas and Florida are nice heard. Perhaps you’ll like that flavor of indoctrination more.
Can you maybe try to internally transfer to G office in Reston, VA? Might be a better lifestyle for you, be slight TC drop but maybe not by much when considering all the Cali based factors you listed that you dislike?
That TC low. Work hard.
It's not low for my role (non SWE). Working hard has got nothing to do with it, BTW, right now it's all politics at Google anyway.
Everything is pretty much like you said. But weather is the best. If that doesn't matter, best to move out.
Move to Dubai or Saudi Arabia
Tldr but based on the first few sentences you have to find ways to extract the worth at minimal cost. Roommates, commute, whatever you have to do. Then either promote and earn more or invest for dividend payments or move away when done.
Oh good, you're awake.