A moment of silence...

From: Geoff Roberts <geoffrob_at_stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au>
Date: Mon May 29 23:58:17 2000

----- Original Message -----
From: "Vintage Computer GAWD!" <foo_at_siconic.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 12:32 PM
Subject: Re: A moment of silence...


> Workers will start to realize spending 3-5 hours (or more!) a day in
> traffic just doesn't make sense anymore at ANY salary and will move
> somewhere else to find work.

3-5 hours? Wow. I thought I had it bad in Sydney when a long commute
was around 45 minutes.
I now live in a country town/city where 10 minutes is the maximum
commute time. 2&1/2 hours to the capital city when necessary. Average
home prices around AU$70,000 for a 3-4 bedroom, depending on which part
of town. Lots of cheaper places in the AU$40-50k range. Downside is
that only people making $50k a year are 12 hour a day shiftworkers at
the lead smelter. I get AU$24k for administering a Vax/VMS
box(Mail/web/proxy/ftp etc),a Novell Server and 200+ PC's in a school.
Permanent part time 25 hours a week. Run a small business (internet
cafe/retail new & s/h systems/repairs etc) in the spare time. Not easy
to survive on that, even here. BTW,the exchange rate to the AU$ is
around US58c at the moment, and petrol just went through the 94c a litre
mark again, so it ain't necessarily as good as it sounds.
I don't believe we have a single area like Silicon Valley here, much
more spread around, there was an attempt to build a 'high tech city of
tomorrow' (polispeak) near Adelaide a couple years ago, but it never got
off the ground.

> It's an equilibrium. I think we have seen the peak of the Silicon
Valley
> money machine and it's all downhill from here. It's just not fun any
> longer.

Doesn't sound like it. Time is more precious than money. Ask anyone
over 40.

Cheers

Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Mark's College
Port Pirie,
South Australia
geoffrob_at_stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au
netcafe_at_pirie.mtx.net.au
ICQ: 1970476
Received on Mon May 29 2000 - 23:58:17 BST