alt Hacker NewsIgnoring the preference of people generally wanting to live in HCOL areas, this only works if every company hires equally from LCOL areas. One of the benefits of living in a HCOL area is access to the job market it provides. It's much easier to get hired for a software position living in San Francisco than it is living in Deming, New Mexico.
More importantly, in San Francisco, there are a lot more opportunities than in coming. I've never been to either city (i'm not going to come to the conference I was at because I never left the hotel.) however, I can still tell you confidently that if you have a weird hobby, you're much lower than you can find other people with that interest, stores that sell the things you need to complete the hobby, and all those other things in life that you want. If you love doing the types of things people in Deming do, well, it's a great life, I'm sure. However, as soon as you want to do something off the wall, well, you may not even find enough people in Deming to have your cricket team, while I have no doubt that San Francisco has a team that you could join.