[bufordsharkley]

When something is good for the landed and bad for the landless... it's generally bad.

Now, we could reform our policies so that the landless get a fair shot, but realistically, what are the chances of this happening?

[throwaway1748]

Yes, but Amazon and the companies that spring up around HQ2 will enable many landless people to become landed.

And if that happens to an extreme degree where it becomes unsustainable, maybe an HQ3 would be in order?

[deong]

If you're already landless, Amazon coming in isn't going to help you become landed, outside of a handful of the earliest people to get in before the speculators hit. They'll create high paying jobs, but they'll create equally (or likely more) expensive houses.

Anyone wanting to live in Nashville (just to pick one city from the list) who's capable of working for Amazon is also capable of working for someone in Nashville today. And generally, the economics of being tech talent outside these hotbed markets like SV and Seattle are vastly favorable.

That is to say, you're probably better off buying the cheap house in a smaller market on the salary you can command in that market than you are buying a very expensive house on the salary that the very expensive market offers you. Google would pay me more than my current job, but my cost of living would go up by more than my salary -- massively so.