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Comment by hooande | Hacker News Reader

What I don't understand is that everyone still has roughly the same expenses as they did before. The basic economics of rent, groceries, child care, car payments, etc have not changed. I'd think people might move from one industry to another. But how can a wave of people afford to quit?

I guess people are living off of their savings, but that seems like a temporary solution. At the least I'd expect to see a similar wave of people re-entering the job market in 6-12 months. I'm still not sure what to make of this general trend, though

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Capital assets went up a surprising amount during the pandemic. My stock portfolio and my house are worth a lot more than they were 2 years ago.

I feel a temptation to use that money. I also have a nagging feeling that it’s somewhat artificial (the govt pumped a ton of money during the pandemic) so I should cash out before it falls.

Stocks, sure. But don't sell your house (if you only have one).

I was lucky enough to buy into a great neighborhood in a city years ago. If I sold now and quit my job, I could live farther out and get more property for less money, and pocket the difference.

In the U.S., capital gains on your primary residence can be kept tax free up to $250,000 ($500k if you’re married).

You don’t have to sell your house to feel richer.

> The basic economics of rent, groceries, child care, car payments, etc have not changed.

For some people, they have though. Quite a few people moved out of the bay area/NYC, some have partners that lost jobs and have chosen to focus on child care instead, some have sold 1 of 2 cars because remote work no longer requires a commute.

I think by "quit" they mostly mean look for a job elsewhere with a different employer. "1 in 4 workers (26%) plans to look for a job at a different company once the pandemic has subsided, ... " [1]

[1] https://www.axios.com/post-pandemic-job-turnover-04cdedcb-dd...

I'm curious about this as well. In my market we've seen rent and child care costs go up roughly 40% in the past year. But, it may well be the people leaving higher COL areas driving up the prices here.

Lots of people are spending less than a quarter of their income on those expenses. So it's pretty easy to quit and use their savings on it for multiple years.

20% of Americans don't have $400 to cover an emergency.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/four-in-ten-cant-cover-an-...

I'm guessing most of the people we're talking about are well into the other 80%.

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