Is it possible to move to SF and survive? (San Francisco: rent, lawyers)

[mkl654321]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

You wouldn't even fit in here if you're just a GOP defender. Are you even serious with this topic or are you just trying to troll us with a pretend topic like people do here from time to time?

Oh for Christly ****'s sake, not everyone on the internet who disagrees with you is a "troll". And not everyone who opposes blaming a given political group for all the evils of the world is a member, advocate, or "defender" of that political group.

I state the obvious, but obviously, in your case, the obvious needs to be stated. And the, as you put it, "pretend topic" of moving to SF was the original topic of this thread, and it is a real subject regardless of what you may feel, think, or say about it.

[mkl654321]

Originally Posted by nr5667

Yes, literacy is necessary, but it alone is not enough.

Obviously, but my point was that it is a sine qua non, even though many people (and businesses) seem to believe otherwise.

[mkl654321]

Originally Posted by etoile_filante

Maybe if I put it to you this way:

Hard (professional) skillset: Engineering, accounting, mathematics, chemistry, etc.

Soft (professional) skillset: Project management, product management, business analyst, marketing, etc.

Those are primary skills for which English majors learn ancillary attributes, such as critical thinking and analysis, which are mostly relevant to the "soft" fields. However, just being an English major does not qualify you for any of those jobs, as you need to have the relevant skillset as well, gained by "moving up" in the field.

Being an English major is not learning literacy - it's important not to conflate being literate with being an English major, they are not the same.

Really? You are saying that critical thinking and analysis are largely not needed in the "hard" fields? Maybe that's true, come to think of it--you just need to know what numbers to enter into what fields, and the computer does the thinking for you.

It's precisely the "soft" aspects of the human intellect, in fact, that are the most valuable. A computer can easily come up with how many tons of concrete it will take to pave Pluto, or what is 293.41 to the 3 billionth power--these are brute force calculations. To come up with complex strategems and to articulate them is something more germane and appropriate to the human intellect, and something present-day computers are far, far away from doing.

I agree that becoming an English major isn't equal to learning literacy--I never said that it was. However, you don't get an English degree without being or becoming literate.

I also never said that being an English major should qualify you for an engineering, etc. position. I did say that the skills attendant to becoming an English major (literacy; critical thinking) should be absolute prerequisites for ANY professional job. The person with advanced English skills is not, by that alone, qualified for very many professional jobs. But if I had to start cold turkey with someone as Third Assistant Widget Inspector in my factory, I'd rather have someone with an English degree than a recent graduate in Widget Science. At least I could be reasonably assured that the former candidate knew how to think.

[mayorhaggar]

I dunno, I get the feeling you only created this topic to argue with people.

[mkl654321]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

I dunno, I get the feeling you only created this topic to argue with people.

All feelings are true.

And if an argument exists, only one person is actually arguing--the other (hint: the one actually criticizing the argument) is wielding (reluctantly)the Flaming Golden Sword of Undeniable Truth.

But one thing puzzles me: why would you pick up the sword to fight someone who obviously (because he seems to disagree with you) is only trying to pick fights? Doesn't mankind need you for some nobler purpose?

[mayorhaggar]

[gone down south]

You want honesty? You're a guy in his 50s with no marketable skills, no plan and no money.
What answers do you expect to get from us? SF is one of the most expensive cities in North America to live in, but you seem to feel that you're entitled to live here because you have a nice degree.

Get some skills that pay, make a plan, generate some cash, then you can safely live in SF. Otherwise, stay in the Northwest and enjoy the much more affordable cost of living.

[mkl654321]

Originally Posted by gone down south

You want honesty? You're a guy in his 50s with no marketable skills, no plan and no money.
What answers do you expect to get from us? SF is one of the most expensive cities in North America to live in, but you seem to feel that you're entitled to live here because you have a nice degree.

Get some skills that pay, make a plan, generate some cash, then you can safely live in SF. Otherwise, stay in the Northwest and enjoy the much more affordable cost of living.

Well, I wanted honesty, but what I got from you was uninformed speculation.

I have plenty of "marketable skills", in addition to my degree. I've already explained what those are. And what psychic ability enabled you to divine how much money I have? I have about $25,000, in point of fact, but I don't want to deplete that in living expenses while unemployed, not if I don't have to.

I don't feel that I'm "entitled" to live in any particular location, but you seem to feel the converse, i.e., that I should have to "qualify" to live in your beautiful city. While I don't have hard data, it's my inescapable feeling that plenty--I daresay most, of wonderful SF's inhabitants do not even have a bachelor's degree--yet they survive, and are even, apparently, permitted by people like yourself to remain there.

I realize the tendency to try to exclude outsiders, but since I was born there, your xenophobia is perhaps misplaced.

[etoile_filante]

Originally Posted by mkl654321

I have plenty of "marketable skills", in addition to my degree.

Originally Posted by mkl654321

I was a small business owner for 15 years. That apparently counts for nothing, nothing, nothing (no references)... I'm pretty much a babe in the woods with no usable skills other than my English degree.

I think those offering advice were operating on the assumption that the latter was true, as you first stated, hence the advice that you would be competing with newly minted college grads with similar degrees and no experience, who command less salary.

[mkl654321]

Originally Posted by etoile_filante

I think those offering advice were operating on the assumption that the latter was true, as you first stated, hence the advice that you would be competing with newly minted college grads with similar degrees and no experience, who command less salary.

I was drawing the distinction between having a marketable skill and that skill counting for something in the current job market as I've perceived and experienced it so far. I fully realize that I don't have much chance competing with (other) freshly minted college graduates if my business experience is discounted. Also, my banking and accounting experience would certainly count for more if I were applying for jobs in those fields. All that said, I'd like to think that ten years in the accounting field and fifteen years as a small business owner would make me at least a tad more desirable than a fresh young college grad, no matter what position I was seeking. So far, that doesn't seem to be the case, which I find puzzling. But there's a discriminatory environment against the middle-aged white male just about everywhere (not just in SF), which means that age-prejudice outweighs any recognition of life experience, work ethic, responsibility, etc. that are positive attributes of older workers.