> Companies are already hiring nation-wide. How many SFBay employees were born there, and how many relocated from all other parts of the country for a job?
Yes, but employees had to relocate to the Bay Area so companies had to pay that level of salaries. But if people can work from whatever cheap location then why would any company keep paying that much?
> As for global: global competition has been upon us for decades now. Most big tech companies have foreign offices in countries like India.
Sure, and they get paid on Indian levels. I am also not from the US, I work and live in Europe but both my current and previous employers are big American tech companies with HQs in the Bay Area, and guess what they pay here? Standard European salaries that any other local company does. Maybe a couple of percent more, but nothing outstanding, definitely not close to Bay Area level salaries. And that is exactly the point I'm trying to make here: companies adjust the salaries considering the cost of living of the area their employees live in. If you move to a cheaper place, that will definitely have an impact on your salary.
> Finally, you are mistaken if you believe pay will drop so much.
Well, time will tell. I hope you'll be right there.
Do you think if everyone works remotely and companies can hire from all over the country (or the globe for that matter) you will still get a salary that you'd get in SF? I'm pretty sure this will push down the salaries, so you probably won't end up in a "quiet, zero-crime suburb, in a nice big home", but a quiet, medium-crime suburb, in a decent home maybe.
I haven't read the linked paper so I don't know how they'd define poor in it, but in my opinion in times of cavemen everyone was free to catch any prey to feed their families, everyone was free to pick any fruits from any trees and bushes, everyone was free to move in to any caves on any land.
I'd say they had everything they needed. Nowadays I wouldn't call that poor as masses of people working several shifts to be able to pay the rent and feed their families while they are feeding others to obesity higher up in the chain.