Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New Study Indicates Silicon Valley’s Elite Are Not as Liberal as They Think

nymag.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–68 of 68 posts

Re: New Study Indicates Silicon Valley’s Elite Are Not as Liberal as They Think

#61

Post by cjhopman »

fzeroracer wrote: post #7
ojbyrne wrote: post #2

I don’t think anybody questions the fact that the “elite” (i.e the wealthy) are conservative. The 1% generally are. But the rest of the population of Silicon Valley generally aren’t.

While I haven't worked in SV yet, my experience across the tech sector has been somewhat similar. Developers tend to be socially liberal in a few areas but strongly conservative when it comes to issues of regulation, taxation and so forth. A lot of that is I believe because they tend to come from upper-middle class families or relatively more stable upbringings. It can make discussing some of the various social issue…

> but strongly conservative when it comes to issues of regulation, taxation and so forth.

That doesn't match what the study claimed. At the very least, they found SV "elites" and students to be for liberal taxation policies.

Re: New Study Indicates Silicon Valley’s Elite Are Not as Liberal as They Think

#62

Post by proginthebox »

goatlover wrote: post #42
proginthebox wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Liberalism is always against an axis. As such, there are two different factors in liberalism, Social and Economic. The so-called liberals in America Liberals are socially liberal but economically conservative. While American conservatives are economically liberal but socially conservative.

So American libertarians are the true liberals?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_compass

Re: New Study Indicates Silicon Valley’s Elite Are Not as Liberal as They Think

#64

Post by sheepmullet »

sharemywin wrote: post #51
sheepmullet wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think there is much dispute that developers tend to come from upper middle class families, which is exactly what the parent said. I’d love to see some data. Of course if you work at the kind of companies that only hire people with a top CS degree then you might be led to believe that. In my experience though it’s not the case. The majority of people in my office grew up lower middle class.

which still isn't extreme poverty.

The OP was talking about working class families. That’s a far cry from extreme poverty.

My parents were cleaners and although we were often tight on money we were miles away from extreme poverty.

Re: New Study Indicates Silicon Valley’s Elite Are Not as Liberal as They Think

#65

Post by masonic »

clairity wrote: post #60
virmundi wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's take nuclear. Jimmy Carter and the Liberals of his age were against recycling of fuel. They regulated that all spent fuel had to be stored in a super complex system that protected humanity from the fuel. The regulations are so onerous that to this day many power plants in the US are stockpiling their spent fuel because we can't build a facility that actually satisfies the requirements due to other regulations.…

this second comment is much more constructive than your first one, because you criticized specific policies for their results. let's keep putting aside the tribal and partisan language and come together to brainstorm and debate solutions. and yes, we need to ease nuclear regulations, protect all speech, and fix regulations around housing (including the regulation of interest rates through freddie/fannie). a key fix t…

  a few decades ago, the US taxed the 1% at up to 90%
Almost six decades ago. (Meanwhile, it was 95% in England).

The original driver of reducing rates in the US? John F. Kennedy. There's a great speech he gave before The Commonwealth Club on this very subject; audio is available online.

Re: New Study Indicates Silicon Valley’s Elite Are Not as Liberal as They Think

#66

Post by zorga »

lake99 wrote: post #24
zorga wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> liberal on social issues, staunchly conservative on regulation. That's what liberal actually means. To be liberal in both areas it to be a progressive.

You have it backwards. Liberal economics means fewer regulations, less federal planning, etc. In their more "socialist" phases, China and India had the government in control of a lot of manufacturing, trade, etc. After their economies were liberalized, private companies had a greater say in their own affairs (they got "liberated"). In India, the government started selling off its factories to private owners under a l…

No, I don't have it backwards; you do, perhaps you don't understand American politics.

> Liberal economics means fewer regulations, less federal planning, etc.

Not in America, here we call that conservative. In America, liberal economics mean more central planning and government control and more regulations.

Re: New Study Indicates Silicon Valley’s Elite Are Not as Liberal as They Think

#67

Post by zorga »

lake99 wrote: post #47
scarejunba wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funnily enough, that person does not have it backwards. It's the _article_ and the terminology it uses from the USA that have it backwards. This is revealed by the fact that the article claims that Silicon Valley's elite are both "staunchly conservative on regulation" and have "anti-regulatory zeal". So you're actually agreeing vigorously with the guy to whom you're responding.

Definitely not agreeing with GP. Progressives are not economic liberals. But you're right, the article has it backwards too. The phrase "staunchly conservative on regulation" seems to have a special meaning in the US that's not applicable elsewhere. In India and Pakistan, for example, "conservative" just means holding on to traditional religious values.

> Progressives are not economic liberals.

They are under the American meaning of the word liberal, you just don't understand what liberal means in America. You are agreeing with me whether you understand it or not. What you mean by liberal, we call conservative or "classical liberal".

Liberal here doesn't mean what it means in the rest of the world.

> In India and Pakistan, for example, "conservative" just means holding on to traditional religious values.

That's not what it means here.

Re: New Study Indicates Silicon Valley’s Elite Are Not as Liberal as They Think

#68

Post by [deleted] »

verbify wrote: post #38
isoskeles wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was said in a different direction. People who hold political opinion X must be from this background because they don’t understand the issue like I do. I’m from a working class background and arrived at a different conclusion in my own experience. But I get lumped in with people raised upper middle class just because I couldn’t possibly have such opinions. Granted, this is why I try not to be defensive about it: wh…

OP wasn't talking about a working class background - they were talking about extreme poverty. There are obvious differences. Can you confirm whether you grew up in an environment of extreme poverty?

[deleted]
Post reply on HN