- Anyone who sounds like a wrecker must be reeducated. (q.e.d. https://twitter.com/DanielDoWrite/status/1015263695558135808 )
The fuck???
"He writes code for @google and puns for fun." The layers of comparison are increasing!
Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union
211–220 of 252 posts
Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
How had growth ever been possible in the era before the last 20 years or so?
I'm no economist. But I think it has something to do with how we used to grow in ways that didn't monopolize people's needs. (better equipment, better networks, new consumer products, holiday travel, toys, fashion, etc). But now our growth is mostly in ways that do monopolize people's needs (healthcare, housing, childcare, education, transportation). If you evaluate the last 30 years using, for example, TV's or telep…
No one has a right to keep living somewhere if they are being priced out. The only exception I can think of are unconscionable rent increases and that's largely beside the point.
Just because the previous population can no longer afford to live in SF or many parts of the Bay does not mean we have a problem or someone's rights are being violated.
Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
I understand why you feel that way. People are moving here so fast ! They're changing everything, and there's no way we could ever keep up with how large the hordes of new migrants are. However, I think it might actually be possible to build homes rapidly enough to meet demand. We should at least try, and if we fail we'll have a lot of new housing. That's a nice prize no matter the outcome. What's convenient about th…
My original post was sensationalist and a 'new resident tax' is ridiculous - and no, I'm not scared of the migrant hordes ;) But I do get a bit frustrated with the morally superior stance that many housing advocates take (not saying this is you). Many folks seem to believe that by repealing prop 13 and removing all barriers to development, we will magically be able to build the millions of housing units necessary to…
* Repealing prop 13 and by-right development processes would solve a lot of problems. But, as you say, not all of them. Repealing prop 13 would help with school funding, though...
* You're completely right. Transportation needs fixing. This is mostly a governance problem, I think. There are too many agencies, too much overhead, and too little accountability.
* Demand management always struck me as needlessly authoritarian. Why do it so explicitly, when prices are doing it for us? And what keeps politicos from going "Well, we convinced a bunch of the evil rich techies to leave. Now they can be replaced by worthy natives! Mission complete!". It would be dangerously politically popular, and lots of local politics tend towards populist and short-term-ist.
Have you looked at how much of SF and the Bay works in tech? Most days, it feels like the answer is absolutely everyone. Yet, in SF the actual number is something like 6% of the workforce. That's half of the number working in finance. If a sixth of the tech workers left SF tomorrow, the population would be replaced within a year or two (recent rates are around 1% yearly). The approach might get some very short-term relief, but without major reform a lot more time would be needed to get long-term changes in place. Never mind the politics of handing tax cuts to tech companies!
Your monoculture concerns are real, valid, and rooted in reasonable worries. You are absolutely right to have them! Yet, they could be better-aligned with reality.
Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
My original post was sensationalist and a 'new resident tax' is ridiculous - and no, I'm not scared of the migrant hordes ;) But I do get a bit frustrated with the morally superior stance that many housing advocates take (not saying this is you). Many folks seem to believe that by repealing prop 13 and removing all barriers to development, we will magically be able to build the millions of housing units necessary to…
Many good points. Also whenever I talk to "just build more" advocates, few demonstrate they thought about scaling infrastructure. Traffic is steadily getting worse, grocery lines are getting longer and classroom sizes keep growing. I really wish these two things were bound together.
Repealing prop 13 would do a lot to bind together building housing and funding for transit and schools.
Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll go ahead and say the United States is the greatest country the world has ever seen. It's not perfect, but once you live in other countries for a bit, even if you enjoy the experience, you appreciate the U.S. a lot more.
This claim sticks in the throat of a lot of Europeans, because of the visible level of inequality in the US. We see many of your citizens suffering in ways that simply wouldn't happen in our countries; we struggle to find a charitable way of reconciling that with the claim that America is the best country. If you're the richest and most powerful nation in history, why do you have the highest incarceration rate in the…
If there was a European nation of comparable size and diversity (class, race, history, etc) as America then these Europeans would have a point. I just roll my eyes when I read points like infant mortality, gun violence, literacy, etc are better in some European countries than the US (and thus, by proxy, said European country is better than the US) because we're comparing apples and oranges.
I'll echo GP's statement. America isn't perfect, but from the many countries I've visited (and with the many challenges that the US has to face), it's "The Greatest Country In the World".
Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
> As a contractor for startups in SF for 6 years and now a founder for 1, I have found the opposite of what you have about business relationships. I'm glad not everybody had such a callous experience as mine. > The homeless problem is not caused by the tech industry I don't buy either tech nor housing as the root cause, but at the end of the day I didn't really care who to blame, I just wanted to be able to walk down…
This is an insanely privileged thing to say though. The problem, in your mind, is that you have to see sick people, not that there are sick people who need help.
>> But nobody felt safe even acknowledging the problem ("How dare you admit that a half-dressed drug-addict screaming sexual profanities at the woman in front of you makes you uncomfortable! Privilege much?").
> This is an insanely privileged thing to say though.
...
Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union
#217> - living five adults to a two room apartment > - 'totally not illegal taxi' taxis by private citizens moonlighting to make ends meet > - the plight of the working class is discussed mainly by people who do no work > - the currency most people are talking about is fake and worthless So true it hurts. > - mandatory workplace political education Is it really a thing?
Yup. Read about James Damore. Don't take people's words for his essay though. You can find copies online to read yourself to see if it's as bad as others would want you to believe.
Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
> - the currency most people are talking about is fake and worthless Not quite sure what that is a dig at. Unless you are dealing in fresh produce or something, everything can be considered fake and worthless... As for the political education thing: I don't think they would be overt (or perhaps even conscious) but they do have various team building exercises, no?
I guess fake currency most people are talking about in the Silicon Valley could be the Bitcoin et al.
Yeah i guess. Just too used to seeing people riff on the dollar being fake and so on...
Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except not that long ago the Iranians DID revolt, following a sham election where the reformists/progressives should have won. They got into the streets. And then they got shot. You seem to be living in a phantasy world where subjects of a dictature are just "asking for it", and a 50%-or-more majority should magically change everything. That's not how power works. Money and bullets, you see, matter more than ballots.
The US did the same, revolted against a well armed adversary. The people are the power, paper money is no match.
The revolting side was well armed as well. It's not the case in Saudi Arabia.
Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
This claim sticks in the throat of a lot of Europeans, because of the visible level of inequality in the US. We see many of your citizens suffering in ways that simply wouldn't happen in our countries; we struggle to find a charitable way of reconciling that with the claim that America is the best country. If you're the richest and most powerful nation in history, why do you have the highest incarceration rate in the…
If there was a European nation of comparable size and diversity (class, race, history, etc) as America then these Europeans would have a point. I just roll my eyes when I read points like infant mortality, gun violence, literacy, etc are better in some European countries than the US (and thus, by proxy, said European country is better than the US) because we're comparing apples and oranges. I'll echo GP's statement.…
Aggregate statistics for the EU is pretty much the same as for any single member state. You don't get any more complicated history than that, also half bigger than US. I don't see how you're so exceptional an orange. But then I don't roll my eyes as a proxy for thinking.