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Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

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Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#71

Post by throwawaythekey »

grandmczeb wrote: post #45
Barrin92 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the jobs that are mentioned in the article that are being hit the hardest are teachers, firefighters, caretakers and so forth. How many of those have been automated away? It seems that tech workers in the valley have found their own analog to blaming immigrants for downward wage pressure, their particular boogeyman seems to be the robots. No, the answer is much more trivial. As the article points out, the huge influx…

> As the article points out, the huge influx of capital in the area is being returned only to the tech sector, who merrily spend it and drive up the cost of living. Most of the cost of living increase is due to bone-headed housing polices happily voted in by existing residents, the vast majority of which do not work in tech. I personally find it very sad that we've prioritized rewarding a tiny, vocal minority at the…

Are the policies bone headed?

I'm not American so may not have this perfectly right but the Detroit of the past seems to be a good analogue to SV. Lots of well paid jobs in a single industry. When the eventual downturn occurs you don't want to be left with a ghost town.

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#72

Post by hazz99 »

crankylinuxuser wrote: post #69
hazz99 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclaimer: I'm not a mod, so you don't have to listen to my opinion. This article is about low-skill workers, and has nothing to do with tech companies being against unions. But, it could simply be a tangential discussion, and those are often interesting! My main concern was the Capitalists are well known to conspire together and create capitalist unions to block workers of all stripes. generalization, which turned…

> Disclaimer: I'm not a mod, so you don't have to listen to my opinion. So... You're masquerading as a HN mod? Damn. Now, that seems like a bannable offense.

I'm not trying to masquerade as a mod, I'm trying to gently suggest that ideological battles be fought elsewhere, and for us to focus on the discussion itself (tech unions).

I've edited my first comment to make it more apparent - I thought that sort of comment was a common thing, but perhaps I'm wrong.

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#73

Post by Arbalest »

crankylinuxuser wrote: post #17
rayvy wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure you'll get downvoted to kingdom come, but I actually checked out the included links - interesting stuff

> I'm sure you'll get downvoted to kingdom come, but I actually checked out the included links - interesting stuff Oh, indeed I shall. Still, we're sold a bundle of goods by the capitalists that "unions are evil" and et cetera, yet when when it is advantageous to the very capitalists, they form unions of their own to hold down the very workers' wages. Now, some unions do indeed suck. They were ineffective and only la…

I think for organisations such a thing is called a cartel. Cartels are usually illegal, but only ever get noticed on the sale side, and some are downright legalised (eg OPEC).

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#74

Post by deanmoriarty »

How about:

1) Introducing a much higher tax rate for rental property income.

2) Making property taxes be reassessed every single year unless your AGI is lower than average and you are a resident.

3) Introducing a much (much!) higher tax for non-residents/foreign investors who buy a house purely for investment, and sometimes they don't even rent it out (I know a few rich folks from FAANG who bought a handful of houses in MV, and they keep them empty because they don't want the trouble of dealing with tenants, they say the appreciation is more than enough, to me it's borderline criminal).

I've seen numerous instances of those three events playing out against normal people trying to afford some housing while working a normal job. If it's not obvious, I'm heavily biased against real estate investors, because housing is a need for everybody, so the market should be much more regulated.

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#75

Post by ENGNR »

yjhoney wrote: post #60
snazz wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should post this as a Show HN. That’s a wonderful idea. I’m sure many people would gladly donate.

I'm currently just focused on helping students with their learning. I don't plan to do a Show HN until the remaining students get a job because I think the attention might be distracting. I plan to do a writeup after the remaining 6 students gets a job and while I take a breather, hope you get a chance to see it next year!

It sounds like you should apply for Ycombinator, they accept non-profits too

The hardest bit will be doing the marketing, getting sponsorship or donations from alumni so that it’s a sustainable organisation

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#76

Post by yjhoney »

space_fountain wrote: post #58
yjhoney wrote: post #34

I started a nonprofit 2 years ago (garagescript.org) that hires low income people in San Jose and their full time job is to learn how to code and teach new students. Our nonprofit started off with 20 students, most were making about 25k/year and had no coding experience. I paid each of them 2k / month to quit their jobs and focus on coding full time. From the original 20 students, 6 are left. The other 14 are all ful…

First thanks for what you're doing. I think it's definitely part of the solution. My worry though is that I don't think everyone is equipped to be a programer. The thing I keep coming back to is my younger brother. He's got mental disabilities which mean he can't read or do math at more than a very basic level (first grade maybe) and for what ever it's worth he also scored pretty low on IQ tests. Despite a bit of a f…

Thank you for sharing your story. I don't know the severity of your brother's disabilities but I believe that there is a potential place for him as a teacher to teach introductory courses (like JS basics, html, etc). The daily interaction someone like your brother might have with other people might help with his mental disabilities.

Just a my two cents, but I'm not trying to advocate for everyone to learn coding though. Simple jobs will always be there in the near future for those who need it. I just have a problem with people who are capable of a skilled jobs being forced into simple jobs because of financial reasons.

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#77

Post by yjhoney »

ENGNR wrote: post #75
yjhoney wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm currently just focused on helping students with their learning. I don't plan to do a Show HN until the remaining students get a job because I think the attention might be distracting. I plan to do a writeup after the remaining 6 students gets a job and while I take a breather, hope you get a chance to see it next year!

It sounds like you should apply for Ycombinator, they accept non-profits too The hardest bit will be doing the marketing, getting sponsorship or donations from alumni so that it’s a sustainable organisation

Tried to, but got rejected every time. I don't think we have the numbers. 20 doesn't seem like a number that scales very well. I might try again next year.

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#78

Post by [deleted] »

mlindner wrote: post #59
jchrisa wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rent. Are the landlords local?

All apartment complexes around here are owned by Californian corporations. So yes, they're local. For example, Essex: https://www.essexapartmenthomes.com/about They're even publicly listed: NYSE:ESS Or the Irvine company, after which Irvine, California is named after because they designed the city. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irvine_Company

[deleted]

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#79

Post by dragonwriter »

empath75 wrote: post #36
Barrin92 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the jobs that are mentioned in the article that are being hit the hardest are teachers, firefighters, caretakers and so forth. How many of those have been automated away? It seems that tech workers in the valley have found their own analog to blaming immigrants for downward wage pressure, their particular boogeyman seems to be the robots. No, the answer is much more trivial. As the article points out, the huge influx…

I think there’s a step missing in the analysis there. If tech workers are spending all this money — what are they spending it _on_? If they’re spending it locally shouldn’t that increase wages locally?

> I think there’s a step missing in the analysis there. If tech workers are spending all this money — what are they spending it _on_?

They often aren't, they are saving it (effectively, often directly, investing in the global capital markets and/or, insofar as their compensation has an equity component, directly in their own firm.)

Re: Silicon Valley wages have dropped for non-tech jobs

#80

Post by stanleydrew »

deanmoriarty wrote: post #74

How about: 1) Introducing a much higher tax rate for rental property income. 2) Making property taxes be reassessed every single year unless your AGI is lower than average and you are a resident. 3) Introducing a much (much!) higher tax for non-residents/foreign investors who buy a house purely for investment, and sometimes they don't even rent it out (I know a few rich folks from FAANG who bought a handful of houses…

Regarding #3, maybe something like Vancouver's vacancy tax: https://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/empty-homes-t...
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