How Silicon Valley Fuels an Informal Caste System
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Re: How Silicon Valley Fuels an Informal Caste System
#2It is really weird if we talk about issues from Marxist class struggle framework.
Homelessness exist because rich don’t care, which is an empty argument.
The better argument is that we don’t have systems in place to deal with the problem. Let’s build them.
Re: How Silicon Valley Fuels an Informal Caste System
#3This is an odd use of of the term caste. Or even class. Both of these imply low or no mobility within social hierarchies. But I don’t think this is the case.
“An Outer Party member could reach the Inner Party by chancing into an early job at a lottery-ticket company (such as Facebook or Google) or by becoming a successful entrepreneur. But that’s rare; most of the Outer Party prefers working for the Inner Party, gradually accumulating equity through stock grants and appreciating real estate.” -If you look at the bios of VC “inner party” people, very few were born VC. Many became VC based on their work experience. The quote calls this a “lottery-ticket” experience implying that there’s no free will involved with the shift between statuses.
The article also calls out the difficulty of moving from service to skilled worker “outer party”-“The Service Class will likely never be able to drive/shop/handyman enough to rise to the Outer Party, at least not without additional training or skills.“
This is really odd because how else would you change status of not through training or skills? Complaining about randomness for skilled->VC and also about need for education for service->skilled seems like a mixed message.
Caste means a rigid hierarchy with no ability to change or even being born into ones status and no or limited marriage between castes [0]. This is not the case based on the level of mobility into and out of status that clearly breaks the definition of caste. This old paper from 1999 shows 24% of firms led by just Chinese or Indian immigrants [1]. So obviously they could not have been born into Silicon Valley castes if they are new to the US altogether.
The mobility to enter, exit, and change between these four defined statuses seems, to me, to disprove the entire premise of this article.
Perhaps the article would be more accurate if addressing issues of wealth and wealth segmenting social constructs like marriage, socialization within communities, etc.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste [1] http://wwww.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_502ASR.pdf
Re: How Silicon Valley Fuels an Informal Caste System
#4"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."
- John Steinbeck
Are you temporarily embarrassed?
You may not realise it, but you could be a temporarily embarrassed millionaire. Do you plan to someday in the future have more money? Are you concerned that your taxes are too high, because someday you might pay too much tax. Do you ride the bus only because this year you can’t afford that luxury car you’re going to have? Do you live pay cheque to pay cheque like most people just because you haven’t had your lucky break.
Re: How Silicon Valley Fuels an Informal Caste System
#5It is really weird if we talk about issues from Marxist class struggle framework. Homelessness exist because rich don’t care, which is an empty argument. The better argument is that we don’t have systems in place to deal with the problem. Let’s build them.
With blockchains and machine learning!!! /s
Re: How Silicon Valley Fuels an Informal Caste System
#6It is really weird if we talk about issues from Marxist class struggle framework. Homelessness exist because rich don’t care, which is an empty argument. The better argument is that we don’t have systems in place to deal with the problem. Let’s build them.
Such systems cost money, generally collected through taxation. At least in the US, the rich have largely demonstrated that they would rather direct money towards lobbying against a rise in taxation on them, than to the taxes that would fund such a system. So at its core, "the rich don't care" isn't an empty argument, but rather an accurate assessment of one of the root causes.
Re: How Silicon Valley Fuels an Informal Caste System
#7It is really weird if we talk about issues from Marxist class struggle framework. Homelessness exist because rich don’t care, which is an empty argument. The better argument is that we don’t have systems in place to deal with the problem. Let’s build them.
Such systems cost money, generally collected through taxation. At least in the US, the rich have largely demonstrated that they would rather direct money towards lobbying against a rise in taxation on them, than to the taxes that would fund such a system. So at its core, "the rich don't care" isn't an empty argument, but rather an accurate assessment of one of the root causes.
As someone who has to pay taxes but not rich enough to lobby on my own I am very thankful for these citizens efforts
Re: How Silicon Valley Fuels an Informal Caste System
#8"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." - John Steinbeck Are you temporarily embarrassed? You may not realise it, but you could be a temporarily embarrassed millionaire. Do you plan to someday in the future have more money? Are you concerned that your taxes are too high, because someday you might pay too much t…
HN might not exactly be the right audience for this message, given the nature of Ycombinator.
And even on an average American software engineer salary, it's not extremely challenging to become a millionaire - you just have to be frugal and save a large percentage of your salary for a decade or two (depending on your compensation & stock options).
Re: How Silicon Valley Fuels an Informal Caste System
#9It is really weird if we talk about issues from Marxist class struggle framework. Homelessness exist because rich don’t care, which is an empty argument. The better argument is that we don’t have systems in place to deal with the problem. Let’s build them.
Such systems cost money, generally collected through taxation. At least in the US, the rich have largely demonstrated that they would rather direct money towards lobbying against a rise in taxation on them, than to the taxes that would fund such a system. So at its core, "the rich don't care" isn't an empty argument, but rather an accurate assessment of one of the root causes.
It's perfectly possible to care about an issue supported by taxation and still be opposed to higher general taxation.
I'm very much pro-UBI, yet anti government waste. Too much of government acts, or at least appears to act, as little fiefdoms, employing people with relatively comfortable salaries, no market pressure, and little other controls to ensure they run tightly, efficiently, and effectively.
If you want to raise taxes to only fund UBI, I'm in. If you want to raise taxes because you don't like that some monkeys have more bananas and you think society could make better, unspecified, use of those bananas, I'm against.
Re: How Silicon Valley Fuels an Informal Caste System
#10"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." - John Steinbeck Are you temporarily embarrassed? You may not realise it, but you could be a temporarily embarrassed millionaire. Do you plan to someday in the future have more money? Are you concerned that your taxes are too high, because someday you might pay too much t…
HN might not exactly be the right audience for this message, given the nature of Ycombinator. And even on an average American software engineer salary, it's not extremely challenging to become a millionaire - you just have to be frugal and save a large percentage of your salary for a decade or two (depending on your compensation & stock options).
Keep in mind that a millionaire meant something entirely different when this phrase was first uttered. It'd be something closer to $10 million in wealth today. Today being a millionaire just means you won't eat cat food when you retire.