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

Silicon Valley’s Vast Wealth Disparity Deepens as Poverty Increased

sfgate.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 53 posts

Re: Silicon Valley’s Vast Wealth Disparity Deepens as Poverty Increased

#31

Post by runnerup »

refurb wrote: post #28
runnerup wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have spent a lot of time in GCC countries (Saudi, Qatar, UAE, Oman). It’s worse there in the sense that more people are dirt poor, but SF is worse in terms of more people being rich. What I mean is, in UAE/Saudi, the poor people are just as bad as the poor people in SF. But there are very, very few rich people. There’s also a lot of not dirt poor people (still poor). SF had so many many rich people and there or the…

Come to Asia. You'll see people far richer than those in Silicon Valley next to people who parasites and diseases the Western world eliminated 100 years ago.

Sure, but the rich won't be 15% of citizens of the city. It will be like 0.2-2%.

Re: Silicon Valley’s Vast Wealth Disparity Deepens as Poverty Increased

#32

Post by ddtaylor »

runnerup wrote: post #27
refurb wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go to a developing country and its worse, way worse. Not to say it isnt worth trying to fix.

I have spent a lot of time in GCC countries (Saudi, Qatar, UAE, Oman). It’s worse there in the sense that more people are dirt poor, but SF is worse in terms of more people being rich. What I mean is, in UAE/Saudi, the poor people are just as bad as the poor people in SF. But there are very, very few rich people. There’s also a lot of not dirt poor people (still poor). SF had so many many rich people and there or the…

I'm confused. How is there being more people with less a better thing?

Re: Silicon Valley’s Vast Wealth Disparity Deepens as Poverty Increased

#33

Post by otikik »

refurb wrote: post #24
otikik wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen poverty in a lot of places, and huge contrasts of wealth, but never the disparity I saw in SF. I’m talking about a Lamborghini parked next to a person lying on the floor, with no shoes, marred in their own excrements. It is crazy. > Hobbling these people will do nothing to help the poor There’s no one left to “hobble”.

Go to a developing country and its worse, way worse. Not to say it isnt worth trying to fix.

I have been to several developing countries. There was definitely more poor people there.

However, even if SF beggars might end up having more dollars in their pockets at the end of a day than someone in a developing country, the quality of life that they get is not so different. No shoes, spending the day sitting on a street, begging, sleeping on a cardboard box somewhere. SF weather is more benign than other what most developing countries have, granted.

My point is: I expected more from the wealthiest nation in the world. They have more than enough to dress, feed and shelter every one of their citizens, many times. Developing countries simply don’t. The fact that you are putting them together in the same phrase kind of makes my point. “Better than a developing nation” is an incredibly low bar to apply to the US.

Re: Silicon Valley’s Vast Wealth Disparity Deepens as Poverty Increased

#34

Post by jacooper »

mstipetic wrote: post #29
monero-xmr wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are on a website focused on tech startups. The people who succeed at tech startups become absurdly rich. I’m in agreement with the parent commenter that hobbling the superstars to give more to poor people is the wrong move. I’m disgusted that people disagree with me, but I also understand why most people remain poor.

If only they had invested early into scam internet tokens like you did, they wouldn’t have these problems

Saying monero is a scam token, shows how much you know about crypto.

Re: Silicon Valley’s Vast Wealth Disparity Deepens as Poverty Increased

#35

Post by marssaxman »

dehrmann wrote: post #30
favflam wrote: post #13

I visited San Jose Diridon station. It was surrounded by parking lots. It was amazing to me that a train station with connections south and north to both San Francisco and Oakland is a desolate wasteland of parking lots devoid of people. If this happened in another country, the city planners would be voted out of office or disappeared. That place should be full of 5-10 story buildings bustling with offices, shopping,…

This is probably just because more people are working remotely than 3 years ago. Those lots would have been full in 2019.

The issue is not that the parking lots are empty, but that the rail station is surrounded by parking lots at all. This is a terrible waste of transit infrastructure! Rail stations should be located in densely developed areas close to destinations. If you put a station in a low-density area, that creates an opportunity to build a new efficient urban center. (In some countries, the land-value increment created through this kind of development is a large source of funding for transit infrastructure).

Re: Silicon Valley’s Vast Wealth Disparity Deepens as Poverty Increased

#36

Post by fzeroracer »

jacooper wrote: post #34
mstipetic wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only they had invested early into scam internet tokens like you did, they wouldn’t have these problems

Saying monero is a scam token, shows how much you know about crypto.

This is what everyone says about their scam token.

Re: Silicon Valley’s Vast Wealth Disparity Deepens as Poverty Increased

#37

Post by pcthrowaway »

mc32 wrote: post #3

I don't understand these arguments much. They sound more like sour grapes to some extent: If tech had not begun and become the powerhouse it did would the people who lived there have been better off in real terms? There is no reason that it couldn't have remained farmland like the Imperial valley. Ok, Oakland would still be a port and SF would be a financial hub. But most of the industry that thrived till the 70s, we…

Before big tech came in, San Francisco was the mecca for the disillusioned, adventure-seekers, protestors, hippies, artists, writers, and many more groups of people who wouldn't be able to afford SF at today's prices.

I suspect they'd be doing just fine if not for the tech boom.

Re: Silicon Valley’s Vast Wealth Disparity Deepens as Poverty Increased

#38

Post by kerpotgh »

P_I_Staker wrote: post #19
dpatru wrote: post #2

This is like complaining of unequal vehicles at an airport: A relatively few can fly very fast and hold hundreds of passengers, but most are earthbound-bound and can carry only a few passengers. Of course Silicon Valley has inequality: it’s home to some of the most impactful people on earth. Hobbling these people will do nothing to help the poor, just like crippling airliners will not improve the cars in airports par…

This is one of the most disgusting things I've read in a long, long time. > it’s home to some of the most impactful people on earth. It's home to some of the most entitled jerkoffs on earth. This website needs to call out this rhetoric, because it's riddled with self-congratulatory garbage. Go ahead and flag me or downvote my comment, but I really can't believe what I'm reading here sometimes.

[flagged]

Re: Silicon Valley’s Vast Wealth Disparity Deepens as Poverty Increased

#39

Post by mc32 »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #37
mc32 wrote: post #3

I don't understand these arguments much. They sound more like sour grapes to some extent: If tech had not begun and become the powerhouse it did would the people who lived there have been better off in real terms? There is no reason that it couldn't have remained farmland like the Imperial valley. Ok, Oakland would still be a port and SF would be a financial hub. But most of the industry that thrived till the 70s, we…

Before big tech came in, San Francisco was the mecca for the disillusioned, adventure-seekers, protestors, hippies, artists, writers, and many more groups of people who wouldn't be able to afford SF at today's prices. I suspect they'd be doing just fine if not for the tech boom.

Fresno is there for the taking. Some of the above live in and around the Salton Sea. Yes, people can cling on for sure. The main point is there is give and take. You win on one side and you lose on the other. Sure, without tech it could be something like Galveston. But there are vastly more people benefitting from the boom than those who suffer from the boom.

If you ask people, would you trade this economy for the previous economy where you you keep blue collar jobs and keep your creatives like writers and protesters, or you trade that opportunity for high technology jobs but lose creatives and protesters I think the majority of people will chose the latter.

Re: Silicon Valley’s Vast Wealth Disparity Deepens as Poverty Increased

#40

Post by nobodyandproud »

otikik wrote: post #33
refurb wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go to a developing country and its worse, way worse. Not to say it isnt worth trying to fix.

I have been to several developing countries. There was definitely more poor people there. However, even if SF beggars might end up having more dollars in their pockets at the end of a day than someone in a developing country, the quality of life that they get is not so different. No shoes, spending the day sitting on a street, begging, sleeping on a cardboard box somewhere. SF weather is more benign than other what m…

Where is our resident homeless/hopefully formerly homeless HN resident? I hope she’s doing well.

I don’t think enough people realize that once you fall below a certain threshold, it’s virtually impossible to get back out without a lot of assistance.

Post reply on HN