You’re not going to find a place that has great weather and cheap property value and proximity to great cities; that’s not how efficient markets work.
That’s not entirely true—these are only three variables. Efficient markets says that everywhere will be on some pareto frontier, not on this particular pareto frontier. And given the extreme distortions in the Bay Area housing market, there’s a plausible argument that the area isn’t on any pareto frontier.
Sure, one could argue that Oakland actually fits the three desiderata, because I left out “low crime,” altho I don’t think Oakland is actually cheap. The broader point of “you get what you pay for” holds, I think, and the only way you get something ‘acceptably cheap’ is deliberately deciding to not pay for some things you could pay for.
“You get what you pay for” isn’t really the rule. The rule is more like: in order to get it, you must pay for it. But the converse does not hold: just because you pay for it, does not mean you get it.
In the Bay Area case specifically: there’s a lot of people in the Bay Area with very high-paying jobs, who would not make nearly as much money living elsewhere. In order to get those high-paying jobs, they have to shell out for expensive Bay Area living costs. (In order to get “it”—i.e. the high-paying job—they must pay for it.) This was certainly the main reason I lived there for many years. But paying those high Bay Area living costs will not magically cause one to make lots of money. (Just because you pay for it, does not mean you get it.)
In terms of pareto frontiers: the Bay Area is on the “software engineer salary” pareto frontier, but that has very little value to people who do not currently work in software. (Going by the numbers from this survey, I’d guess that about half the LW community is in the software industry. The other half can probably make about as much money elsewhere, at much lower living cost.)
That’s not entirely true—these are only three variables. Efficient markets says that everywhere will be on some pareto frontier, not on this particular pareto frontier. And given the extreme distortions in the Bay Area housing market, there’s a plausible argument that the area isn’t on any pareto frontier.
Sure, one could argue that Oakland actually fits the three desiderata, because I left out “low crime,” altho I don’t think Oakland is actually cheap. The broader point of “you get what you pay for” holds, I think, and the only way you get something ‘acceptably cheap’ is deliberately deciding to not pay for some things you could pay for.
“You get what you pay for” isn’t really the rule. The rule is more like: in order to get it, you must pay for it. But the converse does not hold: just because you pay for it, does not mean you get it.
In the Bay Area case specifically: there’s a lot of people in the Bay Area with very high-paying jobs, who would not make nearly as much money living elsewhere. In order to get those high-paying jobs, they have to shell out for expensive Bay Area living costs. (In order to get “it”—i.e. the high-paying job—they must pay for it.) This was certainly the main reason I lived there for many years. But paying those high Bay Area living costs will not magically cause one to make lots of money. (Just because you pay for it, does not mean you get it.)
In terms of pareto frontiers: the Bay Area is on the “software engineer salary” pareto frontier, but that has very little value to people who do not currently work in software. (Going by the numbers from this survey, I’d guess that about half the LW community is in the software industry. The other half can probably make about as much money elsewhere, at much lower living cost.)