I agree with flu…Being an “old” tech worker in the bay area during the tech boom, I think the majority of people who are there living in the more expensive areas are hoping to join a place which will get acquired or go public…Most “worker” bees live in areas off the prime areas or in older, small places. Mountain View didn’t use to be that expensive and my guess is people living in these places are “stuck” and don’t know where else to go (for work). SD isn’t the place for most tech jobs and neither is LA. Especially when all your business and work referrals make it nearly impossible for you to leave.
I really think after you start making a bit of money to not notice the difference due to taxes being so high, you realize that income increases are pretty useless and you are better off investing a lot more in stocks in general and find companies which will make it (seems like a lot recently…)
All you need is 1 and it doesn’t even take that many options…