> Ask for more and if you think you are being undervalued look elsewhere.

I have a hard time following your logic here.

The only way to get a SV salary has been to move to SV, because that's the only place the companies are willing to pay it. They'll want you there so much that they will pay the cost of moving, pay for a relocation consultant, pay for three months of hotel while you look, pay for immigration, visas (visas are not cheap), give an extra lump sum just for "extra costs you'll incur moving".

Yet you think that it's possible for someone in Poland and India to just go "yeah, can I get the cash equivalent of all that, and also the SV salary?".

I agree that remote work logically is remote work. But it's not that SV employees used to be paid "just right" and everyone else was a sucker. SV employees were and are overpaid.

> "no sane person", seriously?

It's hyperbole, sure. But survey after survey shows that even internal transfers within a company (say moving from the Poland office to Bay Area) makes for people who hate where they live, but they do it for the money.

So the company is paying (bribing) people to move to SV against their will. Just like they're paying salary at all for you to do other things you wouldn't otherwise do.

Compare this to finance. People who leave my company generally go to finance, because it pays 50-100% more. But then you work in finance. And if you already make $300k then (empirically) another 50% won't make you think finance is worth it. Some do leave. Just like some do move to SV. But they don't like it.

Clearly the company wants people to live there. Clearly people don't want to. So if you don't do it, why should you be paid to live there?

[p.s. I don’t think we have an argument to be honest. You are arguing facts on the ground, and I am arguing that these facts are distortions that need to be addressed. Peace out. (I sometimes get irritable in the morning. Appy logies fellow code slinger.)]

You are having a hard time because you already have your little thesis in hand regarding “SV salary” and are not listening to what I am saying.

I am saying that you as an engineer are providing quite a lot of value in today’s world and if the collective you are unable to take the necessary measures to negotiate value for value employment agreements with international corporations, it does not invalidate the fact that a competent SWE working in location X (given that X is effectively and practically accessible to employer) is creating a given measure of units of labor and intellectual value that is independent of location X.

I do not agree that SV salaries were excessive. Have you seen lawyer rates? All they do is jaw bone. We are creating the very fabric of tomorrow’s societies. We are creators and builders. What is excessive is the greed of the C Suites. They should be spreading those corporate profits wider, and yes, pay equivalent pay to whoever is pulling their weight.