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SpaceX To Shift Starship Work From California To Texas
SpaceX is reportedly shifting its work on prototypes of its next-gen "Starship" launch vehicle from Los Angeles to Texas. The news comes less than a week after the aerospace company announced its plans to lay off 10% of its 6,000-person workforce to tackle its more ambitious projects. An anonymous reader shares the report from Space.com: In a statement, SpaceX said it was now planning to build prototypes of its Starship vehicle, the upper stage of its next-generation reusable launch system, at its site in South Texas originally designed to serve as a launch site. An initial prototype version of that vehicle has been taking shape in recent weeks at the site in advance of 'hopper' tests that could begin in the next one to two months. A shift to South Texas, industry sources said, could be a way to reduce expenses, given the lower cost of living there versus the Los Angeles area. However, that region of Texas has a much smaller workforce, particularly in aerospace, compared to Southern California.
There is no "exodus of people and companies from California to Texas". Including in this case. Did you forget that you're reading Slashdot, your source for the news of three days ago? ;) Work is not "moving from" California; only prototypes are being built in Texas (because it's impractical to transport prototypes to Texas by ship for testing). Musk notes that in this case that the misinformation wasn't the LA Times's fault, it was SpaceX's fault for giving an unclear press statement.
Hey, guys, I'm just pleased as punch to report that it's a fleet of a hundred Vogon Battle Destroyers!
Only housing is 400% more expensive. Gas is about 20% more. Most other things are about the same. Fresh produce is cheaper.
Housing is by far most people's biggest cost so that's not a minor thing. Let's get some better data Cost of housing in San Francisco is about 7X that of the US average and California overall is about 3X that of the US average. Median house price in California is around $500K and in the Bay Area it is over a million. Groceries are more expensive on average in CA, albeit modestly so. Gas and transportation in CA are 40-70% more expensive. Gas prices in the Bay area as I type this are around $3.40/gal versus around $2.10/gal in the midwest. That is ~60% more expensive for those counting at home.
So the tl;dr version is that CA has substantially and provably more expensive cost of living than most of the country. Not saying that is a good or bad thing, but it is a fact. If Silicon Valley or Manhattan is where you need to be to get where you want to go then do what you need to do. But there is a price tag attached to that.
When I moved to Silicon Valley, I lived in my van for two years.
I'm going to stop you right there. Obviously you didn't have a wife, children, and were young enough to find that a palatable option. (or if you had any of the above you had a VERY unusual wife) That sort of thing is fine when you are young, single, and have limited responsibilities and social obligations outside of work. If you are all about the job and in a position to do that then good on you but few people can or will live that sort of lifestyle and expecting others to do it is unrealistic.
Then I got a private office, and slept on a roll-up mat.
Yeah there are damn few employers who would be ok with you sleeping in the office. Maybe that sort of thing is normal at some companies where you are but that is not normal in general. Certainly not outside silicon valley.
Here's an interesting fact: the 3.7 meter Falcon 9 cores are the largest size boosters that SpaceX could get away designing to be transported on roads without making it entirely uneconomical. Here we're talking about nine meter tankage. I can't see that getting from LA to Texas in any other way than through Panama...which is both expensive and inconvenient. And slow.
Ezekiel 23:20
Company after company has moved away from high-tax, high-cost California to low-tax, low-cost Texas.
California's big government system is so pension-debt riddled that Californians pay more and get less, and in return get unsafe streets, failing roads, failing schools, and sky-high housing prices.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Only housing is 400% more expensive. Gas is about 20% more. Most other things are about the same.
Actually, Texas is cheaper in many categories.
Also many areas of Texas have no zoning laws. The Towns/Counties arent telling people what is and is not allowed. They just let the free market handle it, and it works.
Ah, you mean no-zoning like in West, Texas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
TL:DR -- A free-market fertiliser plant blew up, killing fifteen Americans and injuring 160, destroying and damaging homes and a school sited next to the plant because there were no zoning regulations.