61–70 of 120 posts
Just like people repeatedly breaking the windows of a coffee shop nearby because the owners are "bankers from London" (this was stated as the #1 selling point for boycot in a flyer) this entire movement exposes the worst Kreuzberg has to offer: an incredibly self-righteous xenophobia. People think they are so incredibly open minded when they are pro refugees, but as soon as it's the "wrong kind of Ausländer" (the one…
If you kicked out every company that's done anything unethical or amoral, you'd have no companies left. If Berliners really want to shoot themselves in the foot like this then Google can take its operations elsewhere at no loss while the locals are out better paying tech jobs and a market signal that would invite more tech companies and startups to the area. I'm glad I don't live in Berlin right now.
I think you are overestimating the IT market's talent abundance right now. There are many people trying to get good programming wages and that doesn't make them good programmers. IMO Google -- and any other corp -- has a lot to lose if they close an office. Real talent doesn't just exist everywhere you go. I am not supporting or attacking the website, just clarifying the above point.
Colleges outside cities, like the one I went to, are brimming with compsci students that are then forced to move when they graduate, like I was. I'm sure if companies set up locations in such areas, they'd be able to tap into a decent amount of people like me who'd take a moderate pay cut to be able to live and work in a less dense region - not just the graduates I mentioned, but people who'd moved away from their home town and now could move back, or at least to somewhere more resembling it.
The rents in Kreuzberg already increased a lot this past decade: https://guthmann-estate.com/marketreport/micro-market-report... Gentrification is a problem, but long time renters in Germany are really having it good. An example of how does the system works here: I pay twice as much as some German friends living in my district because my parents didn't sign me up in a union 20 years ago. I'm OK with that, it's the ga…
I don't understand this new mentality that "Gentrification is a problem," companies and wealthier people moving in makes everyone in the area more wealthy. The problem of affordable housing has less to do with those companies moving in and more to do with local real estate monopolies that lobby against rezoning for residential and expanding building permits. That's basically the bay area in a nutshell. People complai…
I think the author is correct in thinking that Google will cause him discomfort by creating this campus. Everyone in this area not employed by Google will have to move because Google is basically buying the land, directly or through its employees. Some of Google's money will flow to locals not directly employed by Google, but will this offset the increased cost of their living expenses?
Everyone in this area should have bought the flats they live in, or should have signed long term leases with inflation-pegged rent adjustments.
Other than that it's simply people trying to tell someone to not eat their cake, because they want it.
The rents in Kreuzberg already increased a lot this past decade: https://guthmann-estate.com/marketreport/micro-market-report... Gentrification is a problem, but long time renters in Germany are really having it good. An example of how does the system works here: I pay twice as much as some German friends living in my district because my parents didn't sign me up in a union 20 years ago. I'm OK with that, it's the ga…
Can you maybe rephrase that? I have no idea what "union" you could be talking about in this context.
Just like people repeatedly breaking the windows of a coffee shop nearby because the owners are "bankers from London" (this was stated as the #1 selling point for boycot in a flyer) this entire movement exposes the worst Kreuzberg has to offer: an incredibly self-righteous xenophobia. People think they are so incredibly open minded when they are pro refugees, but as soon as it's the "wrong kind of Ausländer" (the one…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are tons of books written about Google's culture, but my favorite is ”How Google Works” by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg.
So we’ve reached the point where hagiography of corporations is now the same thing as culture? In that case, I hope Google doesn’t bring its “culture” of colluding with competitors to fix wages to Berlin.
Just like people repeatedly breaking the windows of a coffee shop nearby because the owners are "bankers from London" (this was stated as the #1 selling point for boycot in a flyer) this entire movement exposes the worst Kreuzberg has to offer: an incredibly self-righteous xenophobia. People think they are so incredibly open minded when they are pro refugees, but as soon as it's the "wrong kind of Ausländer" (the one…
That's not what they're saying. They don't want Google specifically, for reasons they detail in-depth on their website. Being welcoming to everyone doesn't really work, or otherwise we wouldn't have prisons. Being open-minded is a two way street, remember.
If you show up being German and wealthy, treatment will be way different unfortunately.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s up to the people of Berlin to decide, not a faceless American tech company.
Is that actually even true? Google already has an office in Berlin. They can just buy more buildings. Even if some local politician decides to block a construction plan, I’m not sure how they would stop Google from just buying existing stuff nearby their old office like Amazon does. Google in Manhattan bought a building the size of an entire block essentially. It isn’t even what I would call a campus there either.
Germany is not broken how America is, so it’s easier to put people ahead of corporations there.
> Google was caught red-handed participating in NSA’s illegall surveillance of almost everyone
PRISM was infiltration. The wiki also calls out Apple in this event, who are known to proactively limit surveillance. Many of the arguments also suffer from severely flawed logic, especially where the actions of others are held against Google.
There is some truth here, but it is far outweighed by false information.