The Great Vancouver Exodus: Why I'm almost ready to leave the city
It is a bit of a read and it is an opinion piece from a writer on VanityBuzz, I guess. I'm not going to quote it as it is long and is an interesting read. I think there is a great concern with Vancouver and possibly Canada with regards to brain drain. Young people leaving for greener pasture due to whatever reason. There are definitely legitimate issues to discuss about that in the Vancouver-context due to our high cost of living and stagnant wages. I would love to hear some opinions from fellow Vancouver GAFers on their thoughts of this.
With regards to this particular article in question though, I have ton wonder about a few things. She seems more interested in places with diverse culture and history, far more than the natural beauty that BC offers. That's a fine personal preference and certainly she will find a lot more of that in Europe, which seems to be her preferred destinations. Places like London and Paris have far more museums and things she like than we can ever provide here. However, I hope people realize the high cost of living in a lot of those cultural centres too. You can't buy a place in London at all without a $500k POUND minimum. Compare that to a $400k spacious condo you can buy in Burnaby, New West... etc. Heck, you can spend that and get a single bedroom condo around downtown. Don't even bother thinking about getting a place in San Francisco with $400k USD. You will get laughed out of there in no time.
In terms of wages, yes it is true that certain industries will pay you a lot more depending on the city you're in. For example, you will make a lot more money as a programmer/engineer in San Francisco than compared to here. But I doubt you'll be getting a similar pay grade raise as a teacher, nurse or other professions that's not part of the main specialty of said city. You can make a lot more working in finance/investing in Hong Kong or London compared to here in Vancouver, for example. Further more, average wage stagnation appears to be a global issue with all the developed countries according to the news. Everybody is complaining about wages not keeping up with the cost of living. Honestly, I would love to live and work in a place like London, but I am not disillusioned by the monumental financial hardship that I would face living in a place like that. I work in a very diverse industry with people from all over the world. My friends from London, Hong Kong and other magnet cities tell me Vancouver is cheap compared to where they came from. The young people in those places have no concept of ever owning a place there and I truly feel like that's going to create a long-term repercussion when you got a whole generation of people with no assets to grow. How is that going to effect the long term economy since it's so unprecedented.
She managed to save up money to go travel in Europe for a few months. Dare I said she must have been making good money here then. I'm not understanding her issue on the finance side if she's able to do that ! But ultimately, I guess yeah this whole metro region can be a bit boring if you're not at all into the outdoor stuff. The lack of "culture" isn't something that can be fixed anytime soon just because this is such a new city relatively speaking too. I'd love to give the hustle and bustle a try in big cities like NYC, London and Tokyo... etc, but those cities are definitely too expensive to live in especially when compared to Vancouver.
What time is your flight?
