This is the use case for universal basic income. Its largely not their fault for their current economic situation. They played by the rules. They worked hard. If we could only remove the "necessity" of a job and the puritan shame of unemployment to live a moderate life of meager means. People should be encouraged to contribute to society not to simply "get a job".
Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble
51–60 of 379 posts
Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble
#52[deleted]
Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble
#53> There isn’t an app to fix this.
Well, we could make it socially important to make remote work possible. The geographic concentration of tech thought and culture has been at least partly intentional.
Early internet culture seemed eager to do exactly the opposite. The inefficiencies of colocation were problems ripe for innovation.
If tech workers could live in small towns more easily, they'll have middle-class-squeeze conversations with friends and family, not just overhear other people having these conversations at local shops when they visit.
Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble
#54He should rename this to "Working outside the millionaire bubble". Plenty of people in tech feel the squeeze too. What it comes down to is that a lot of people with money have lost touch with the rest.
Plenty of people in tech, especially in the Bay Area, have never known anything but a quite comfortable middle class (or better) life. They're very much disconnected ("in a bubble") from what it's like to live a lower-class (which has an upper income much higher than the poverty level) life in this country. The disconnect between high-paid techies and the lower-class is in many respects far greater than between the b…
To me the main difference is whether people can afford housing , a family and be confident that their retirement will be OK. In that sense a lot of tech workers also have fears about the future whereas people like Blank will never have to worry about existential issues. That's the main difference to me. It used to be that a middle class job would ensure a safe future but that's getting less.
Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble
#55I wonder how long it will take for this thought to fade from Steve's mind once he returns to SV. It's easy for people come to these realizations after getting outside of their comfort zone but just as easily return to the status quo. I think one of the biggest myths about tech in general is that it's here to help people. It's really not. It's job is to remove barriers to make workflows more efficient, typically to th…
But this is a good thing.
In our Delhi office, each elevator has an attendant who's sole job is to push the button of the floor you want. This means less space in the lift for passengers, and lifts being taken out of commission because there's nobody to push the button.
Removing this job (by having the technology to allow passengers to select their floor themselves) means improvement for the users.
The same applies to shop checkouts - I'd far rather go through an automated checkout rather than deal with a person at a till, faster and less distracting from what I'm doing. Same thing with buying things from amazon rather than going to a legacy shop, watching a movie on Netflix rather than renting a video from blockbuster, or returning library books to a computer rather than a person.
The problem comes when those who lose the jobs lose out - the guy who's job is to push a button I can easilly push myself, or the taxi driver who's job vanishes when the computer does the driving instead. We deal with those issues by education (so people can do better jobs that aren't automated), and social safety nets.
If a robot can do your job, it's a terrible job. You may need it with our current economic system, But that isn't a good thing.
Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble
#56One of the main reasons I don't live in SF is the conversation.
The first time I visited, I heard tech talk in bars, cafes, on street corners. If I can't get a beer or a coffee or take a walk without hearing about work, it's not for me.
Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble
#57"....but it’s easy to see why they might feel as if no one in Washington is living their lives...." As an non-American I personally think this is why large number of working class voted for Trump, and something Clinton either missed or did not give importance to.
I don't think Trump lived a working class life before becoming president.
Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble
#58This is the use case for universal basic income. Its largely not their fault for their current economic situation. They played by the rules. They worked hard. If we could only remove the "necessity" of a job and the puritan shame of unemployment to live a moderate life of meager means. People should be encouraged to contribute to society not to simply "get a job".
The solution to some people getting played by the system surely isn't to play everyone even more by that same system.
I figure UBI will look like it's succeeding for ~10-20 years, then we'll see what the real impact of it is (as people grow up with it). There's also little consensus on how comfortable the basic income should be; I get the impression that if it is too comfortable, you'd be a fool to work, if it's too uncomfortable, the bleeding hearts will call everyone a nazi until it's made too comfortable.
Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
> He should rename this to "Working outside the millionaire bubble". Calling it a tech bubble or even a millionaire bubble is bordering on offensive. Sure I'm probably in a tech bubble and I'm probably in a millionaire bubble, but I'm not in Steve Blank's billionaire bubble. Compared to Steve Blank, I'm hurting financially. > What it comes down to is that a lot of people with money have lost touch with the rest. Have…
"Sure I'm probably in a tech bubble and I'm probably in a millionaire bubble, but I'm not in Steve Blank's billionaire bubble. Compared to Steve Blank, I'm hurting financially." That's exactly my point. He is trying to bond with all tech people but most of us make OK money but we are far from his position in life. Reminds me a little of polticians talking "folksy" while they probably never ever interact with working…
Yeah I agree with you.
I'm sure he interacts with the working class, but let's not lose sight of the fact that he has as much money as 2500 millionaires.
Re: Annual note to self: most of the world exists outside the tech bubble
#60Working class people are being subjected to ultra efficient hypercapitalism, as in Uber drivers discovering they worked for free when they need to purchase a new car.
Meanwhile Wall Street has been bailed out 2 times in the last 15 years alone with monetary policy. How many people went to jail? (And they haven’t learned a thing, on the contrary and quite spectacularly so.)
If you want to know where the tech bubble comes from, don’t think about the talent pool in SV.
Think 2008 and central banks. It's not normal for investors to accept visionaries wasting endless billions for years on end. Except when the availability of capital appears infinite and risk appears almost non-existent.
In contrast, a big group of people stagnate and even get squeezed. Not rich enough to enjoy the high life of the zero/negative yield world. Or to overcome decades of inflation. Not poor enough to just give up and go on food stamps.
Ultimately, it’s not about a tech bubble. It’s about a credit cycle on steroids, held together with spit, rope and gum and massive moral hazard. Who gets access to the funny money first? And who will be left holding the bag?