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Silicon Chasm: The class divide on America’s cutting edge

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Re: Silicon Chasm: The class divide on America’s cutting edge

#51

Post by blisterpeanuts »

Interesting article. I wonder how much of the income disparity would be relieved if there was more room to build affordable housing, as in the "limitless" cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas where you can buy a nice 3 bedroom 2 bath for $150K.

In Phoenix, there are also rich people and poor people, but not the stark contrast of Silicon Valley. Fewer billionaires, I think and also the neighborhoods are so vast and more or less homogeneous in tract size that you don't really notice wealth disparity. The average family pretty much lives in a house with a yard and 2-car garage, regardless of income. You can get in your car and drive to tony gated communities in Scottsdale and peek over the walls, but who would? You have your job, your two cars, your Harley, and your flatscreen, and life is good.

Maybe California can find a way to build out onto the ocean as was done in Singapore, and relieve the housing pressure a little. God, I'd love to be making the kinds of software engineer salaries that they offer out there, but the housing -- yikes!

Re: Silicon Chasm: The class divide on America’s cutting edge

#52

Post by mark_l_watson »

Great article. I have been living in Silicon Valley for the last tree months because I accepted a contracting gig at Google. My wife absolutely loves Mountain View and she would like to move there. I resist because our home is in the mountains of Central Arizona - a very affordable area to live. My argument against living in high cost areas like Silicon Valley is that for a lot of knowledge work, location does not much matter. Remote work is very easy to get especially if consulting rates are adjusted for lower cost of living and no commuting costs.

I view Silicon Valley as a really fun place to visit and live for a while, but if I was not very wealthy I would not make it a permanent home.

Re: Silicon Chasm: The class divide on America’s cutting edge

#53

Post by noonespecial »

knowaveragejoe wrote: post #32
venomsnake wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of the other side ... all the hacker movies that we watched - they could become a reality. When you launch your startup why not just try to use zero day exploit to mess with the brakes of Zuckeberg's tesla (that is PS4 on wheels) while he is near a cliff. Home made drones - with the advance of 3d printing why not? If 10 people could create a billion dollar company today just think what a rogue genius could do i…

That's all within the realm of possibility, sure. But keep in mind that the affluent could simply buy a drone(or what-have-you) with all sorts of bells, whistles, and 10 years of improvements to security. The amount of work necessary to DIY something that even begins to approach the capabilities of something built by a company that knows what they're doing would be extreme - I'd argue insurmountable in many cases - e…

Right now, the Americans spend billions to defend against men with $5 boxcutters from Wal-Mart. Defense is more expensive than offense by a large multiple. A little more capability to attack requires an immense amount of additional capability to defend against.

Re: Silicon Chasm: The class divide on America’s cutting edge

#54

Post by bcbrown »

UweSchmidt wrote: post #25
JVIDEL wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the real news here is stuff like this: According to figures collected by Joel Kotkin, the dotcom crash wiped out 70,000 jobs in the valley in a little over a single year, and since then the tech industry has added only 30,000 new ones, leaving the bay region with a net 40,000 fewer jobs than existed in 2001.

If it's true that anyone who could say "HTML" in 2001 was called a "programmer", then that year is not a good baseline for tech job statistics.

Not all tech jobs are for "programmers". Writing HTML may not be glamorous or prestigious, but it's undeniably a tech job, as is being a sysadmin or ops or qa or technical writer.

Re: Silicon Chasm: The class divide on America’s cutting edge

#55

Post by 7Figures2Commas »

dpritchett wrote: post #44
7Figures2Commas wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's true that anyone who can say "Ruby on Rails" in 2013 is called a "programmer"...

Ruby is an actual programming language that runs on most platforms, what's the problem? Do you have a specific flavor of Real Programming that you prefer?

Ruby is a programming language. Rails is a framework. I guarantee that you can, in 2013, find "Ruby on Rails programmers" who wouldn't know what to do if you took the Rails away.

Re: Silicon Chasm: The class divide on America’s cutting edge

#56

Post by venomsnake »

userulluipeste wrote: post #40
venomsnake wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of the other side ... all the hacker movies that we watched - they could become a reality. When you launch your startup why not just try to use zero day exploit to mess with the brakes of Zuckeberg's tesla (that is PS4 on wheels) while he is near a cliff. Home made drones - with the advance of 3d printing why not? If 10 people could create a billion dollar company today just think what a rogue genius could do i…

"Technology is an enabler. It also enables the nasty stuff. And the elites while more powerful than ever will also be more fragile and vulnerable." I'm trying to imagine the risk exposure with and without technology regarding the benefit for one's safety. In the past the rich people have always been exposed to robbery and other kind of crimes, and the only real solutions have been keeping a low profile or employing p…

Why would anyone be? I don't know - ask Lenin, Robespierre ... if we live in a world where there is only the 0.1% and all the rest - some people will try out of desperation, spite or just for the thrill.

The middle class is the great buffer - the promise that keeps the poor invested in the system. If it disappears - the future will be darker for everyone.

Re: Silicon Chasm: The class divide on America’s cutting edge

#57

Post by ryandrake »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #51

Interesting article. I wonder how much of the income disparity would be relieved if there was more room to build affordable housing, as in the "limitless" cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas where you can buy a nice 3 bedroom 2 bath for $150K. In Phoenix, there are also rich people and poor people, but not the stark contrast of Silicon Valley. Fewer billionaires, I think and also the neighborhoods are so vast and more…

Even if there was room for affordable housing, who would build it? Home builders need to make a profit, and you do that by building $900K luxury townhomes, not by building $400K roach traps that need tax payer subsidy to break even. Do you think the tax payers lounging in their Atherton mansions give a crap about housing for poor and middle class people?

Re: Silicon Chasm: The class divide on America’s cutting edge

#58

Post by venomsnake »

knowaveragejoe wrote: post #32
venomsnake wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of the other side ... all the hacker movies that we watched - they could become a reality. When you launch your startup why not just try to use zero day exploit to mess with the brakes of Zuckeberg's tesla (that is PS4 on wheels) while he is near a cliff. Home made drones - with the advance of 3d printing why not? If 10 people could create a billion dollar company today just think what a rogue genius could do i…

That's all within the realm of possibility, sure. But keep in mind that the affluent could simply buy a drone(or what-have-you) with all sorts of bells, whistles, and 10 years of improvements to security. The amount of work necessary to DIY something that even begins to approach the capabilities of something built by a company that knows what they're doing would be extreme - I'd argue insurmountable in many cases - e…

Isn't the silicon valley creed that a small group of skilled trained passionate about the product people can put huge multinational order of magnitude companies on their knees?

Re: Silicon Chasm: The class divide on America’s cutting edge

#59

Post by woah »

7Figures2Commas wrote: post #55
dpritchett wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ruby is an actual programming language that runs on most platforms, what's the problem? Do you have a specific flavor of Real Programming that you prefer?

Ruby is a programming language. Rails is a framework. I guarantee that you can, in 2013, find "Ruby on Rails programmers" who wouldn't know what to do if you took the Rails away.

I'm sure you could also find a lot of C programmers who wouldn't know what to do if you took the compiler away. Talentless amateurs.

Re: Silicon Chasm: The class divide on America’s cutting edge

#60

Post by woah »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #51

Interesting article. I wonder how much of the income disparity would be relieved if there was more room to build affordable housing, as in the "limitless" cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas where you can buy a nice 3 bedroom 2 bath for $150K. In Phoenix, there are also rich people and poor people, but not the stark contrast of Silicon Valley. Fewer billionaires, I think and also the neighborhoods are so vast and more…

Screw the ocean, I wish California could find a way to build in the Sunset!
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