You do have a choice, you can leave. Lots of people are doing it, apparently its all the rage. I have never heard software developer salaries are higher in most places (excluding SF/NYC/Boston) than here. The only thing thats really cheaper is housing and that is correcting itself as we speak.
Of course its going to take a while and I can totally understand people not wanting to move here till it does. If you have an outdoors kind of life there is nowhere that combines the quality of life of San Diego with the ability to make a living. In high tech, not even close.
So as far as companies moving out of SoCal, yes they do all the time and will continue to do so. Eventually, they will realize the error of their ways and move back to find the quality of employees that just don’t exist in places like Dallas in any quantity.
