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Comment by ehnto | Hacker News Reader

I actually think this decline will have a positive impact on more local issues. Here is my reasoning:

Software Developers (and I am one) are too expensive for most companies. This caused a brain drain into "Big Tech" which while a valuable bubble of technologists, is only a niche in the greater community.

If software wages come down, more local, non-tech, smaller scale companies will be able to afford to have in house developers, and the world needs way more bespoke software to truly capitalize on the power of small software.

I would rather see software developers be on par with your local machinist or trade specialist rather than a tool to upper-echelon companies in big tech.

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I don't see why all software roles are seen as in the same category. There is a huge difference between the difficulty level and experience requirements in different tasks and roles.

So one of the few profession that allows owning a home (not necessarily house) would be gone. I'm afraid I can't agree with that

Everyone should be able to own a home, not just tech workers.

Often it's software developers that made homes unaffordable for everyone.

No, failing to build enough housing and apartments over the last 30 years made homes unaffordable. Software developers were just lucky enough to be making above average income, enough to afford a house even while prices rose.

We have plenty of homes to go around. They're just not affordable.

Not anymore.

Which is crazy. Where I live, even upper-middle class can't afford a house, so what is going on? Who is actually participating in the market to keep prices so high, and who ultimately benefits from all this imaginary value on non-productive asset speculation?

No one mentions it but the problem is immigration. It pushed the demand curve too high.

No one mentions it because it's ridiculous.

While we are at this.. the real reason is that we have too many kids.

The U.S. is really big, if housing was built there wouldn't be a problem

Not all land is equally valuable. People need access to water and food. There's a reason why every big city is located next to a river.

Please - not another us vs them blame game between the lower classes, it distracts from the govt policies and financial industries that got us into this mess.

There is no one cause that leads to housing shortages, but tech salaries are a huge issue in and around tech hubs like the SF Bay and Seattle. And especially during covid, with remote work, the rich spread out to towns nearby and bought up all the housing there too and pushed out the locals.

That's not the government's fault (besides lockdown), it's because tech workers were way overpaid (and hence all the layoffs and salary deflation now).

sure, in silicon valley. The rest of the US? Nope…that would be due to a variety of factors:

- allowing corporations to “own” homes.

- allowing individuals to personally own more than 1 home, EVEN if those other homes were vacant for 95% of the year. (this encourages the rich to “invest” in 2nd homes, or make them AirBnb’s)

- allowing foreign buyers at all (this encourages wasteful ultra-luxury real estate in places like manhattan)

- not building _enough_ housing, especially starter homes.

- corporations and billionaires taking a larger piece of the pie, which has cause stagnating income growth (except for a minor bump post-covid) for decades.

i could go on. Most of this problem was “manufactured” by the US govt via greedy (or in some case shortsighted) laws and policies. In other words, there are almost no strict policies on housing in the US. It’s a free for all, and the rich win. How surprising.

For context i own a home so im not personally affected. But i’m bitter because the people “at the top” in the US seem to hate everyone else. It’s an “i got mine attitude”. Shameful.

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