Last week, after speaking to a local rotary club on California’s housing affordability issue, a member of the club came up to me and asked an interesting question: if the Bay Area is so expensive in which to live, why do people still move here? While there are likely nuanced answers to this question, generally speaking, the Bay Area is where the jobs are.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to explore this issue is some depth, specifically exploring how the Silicon Valley-Bay Area factors into California’s economic and fiscal health. To do so, I’ll examine the region’s contribution to California’s labor force, gross domestic product (GDP), personal income, and tax revenue. A theme should emerge; since the Great Recession, the Silicon Valley-Bay Area has become absolutely essential to California’s economic and fiscal health (to show this, I’ll compare this region versus Greater Los Angeles – the part of the state historically connected to the ethos of the Golden State).
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