The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash • Hacker News Board

Re: The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

#31

Post by erbo » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 7:20 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #23

Every article like this is yet another reason not to start a business in bat-shit crazy San Francisco. Its advertising for Seattle, New York, Austin, Chicago, etc.

I'll put in a good word for the Denver-Boulder area. :-)

Seriously, I read things like this:

"Cohen said one concrete way the tech industry could ease the affordability crisis would be to cut big checks. He notes that San Francisco’s hotel tax produces about $5 million a year that goes into subsidized housing, and said it’s appropriate to call on the tech sector for similar contributions since their workforce is primarily responsible for driving up housing costs."

And then I read the "suggestions" in an article[1] linked to this one immediately following that quote, and one word comes to mind: shakedown.

Instead of cooperating with the moral equivalent of a mugging, perhaps companies should move to places where they're appreciated, rather than reviled.

[1] - http://www.poormagazine.org/node/4999

Re: The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

#32

Post by kevingadd » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 7:21 PM UTC

apsec112 wrote: post #29

memracom wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is another way. In London a group of businesses got together and lobbied government for better bus service among other things: http://www.londonriversidebid.co.uk/our-achievements/ For that matter England has http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/about_us which lobbies for improved transport all over the country. You want to disrupt the old way of doing things? Setting up a private bus service is not disruption. Th…

If, tomorrow, Google bought Caltrain and started running it competently (unlike the current clowns), I'd throw a party to celebrate. But I'm sure the anti-Google-bus crowd would condemn that too. It would be 'corporatizing our cherished community institutions' or something.

I don't think anyone could decry better management of Caltrain with a straight face. everyone hates how Caltrain is run.

Re: The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

#33

Post by rayiner » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 7:21 PM UTC

pm90 wrote: post #26

swalsh wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't overwhelm your ego here, the guy who prepared my lunch today is working harder than me. And since that job doesn't pay enough to survive, he has two of them. You get paid more, not because you "worked hard" or "studied harder"... its because you have a line of work that both creates a shit ton of value, and the supply and demand for people with our skill sets works out in our favor.

...and this is why I love the tech community. I'm guessing (guessing because that is just the impression I get) that such a humbling observation on one's profession would not be given by, say, a banker. But maybe, that's just my impression...

Bankers tend be less humble, but they also work the hours of illegal immigrants with two jobs.

Re: The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

#34

Post by api » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 7:23 PM UTC

On a side note... I find it kind of amazing how pollyanna many techies' view is of their own industry. The fact is that the tech industry is often surprisingly sleazy and includes quite a few very shady characters. Some of the sketchiest people I've ever met have been businesspeople involved in tech, and when I was in college I had friends who were into drug trafficking and thus had a little bit of indirect contact with that scene. Let me put it this way... I met people heavily involved in drugs who I'd trust with my kids before I'd trust many of the tech businesspeople I've met. We're talking major fucking sleaze here, hard-core reptilian sociopaths.

Re: The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

#35

Post by bowlofpetunias » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 7:25 PM UTC

If there is a tech backlash, it's not about Bay Area gentrification, which is a local issue and happens in urban areas around the world. The fact that in SF the money comes from tech is irrelevant.

(The cognitive dissonance of the fortunate techies on HN who refuse to acknowledge that they are no different from self-centered 80's finance yuppies is amusing, but nothing new is happening here.)

The more universal backlash is about the industries arrogant disregard for existing values, regulations, social conventions and traditions. As if anything done by non-techies is inherently inferior, disruption has become an ideology.

Similar to "greed is good", tech promotes the ideology "disruption is good". Millions who see their society mutilated, their rights trampled and their livelihoods disappearing do not agree.

We like to see ourselves as the good guys, and things like the NSA spying or the British censorship filter as the work of the bad guys. As far as the general public is concerned however, they are two sides of the same coin: technology as a means for the elite to take away what once was theirs.

That is the backlash we may soon be facing. And that backlash may not distinguish between the NSA, the mighty Google empire and your plucky little start up.

Re: The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

#36

Post by kevingadd » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 7:25 PM UTC

rodrodrod wrote: post #19

> Ellis Act evictions, used to eject all tenants from a building to clear the way for a sale, soared 170 percent in the last three years. For some context, that's an increase of 73 evictions per year (from 43 in 2010 to 116 in 2013[0]). Of course, 73 in the absolute doesn't have the same ring to it as 170%, so it's clear to see why the data is presented the way it is. I think it's rather disingenuous and makes that p…

what is the math that leads you to say 116 entire-building evictions impacts 0.014% of the population? are numbers provided that describe the total number of tenants affected? A large apartment building/complex can be home to hundreds of tenants, many of them families.

Re: The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

#37

Post by gaius » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 7:25 PM UTC

andyl wrote: post #25

The tech industry isn't perfect - not by a long shot. But tech companies aren't putting the climate at risk. Tech companies didn't crash the economy. Over the past decades there isn't another industry that has delivered more growth and value. The grave threat is to non-credible Media who deal in link-bait and manufactured controversy.

I guess you are too young to remember the NASDAQ meltdown of '01. The recovery from that wasn't a real recovery at all, it was the housing bubble of '08. So we are still feeling the aftershocks .

Re: The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

#38

Post by calibraxis » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 7:27 PM UTC

apsec112 wrote: post #14

If tech companies pay their workers generously, then it's their fault for rising rents. But if they are misers and pay little, then it's their fault for mistreating working people (see: Apple and Foxconn). If the tech companies all move to San Francisco, then it's their fault for changing the fabric of local communities. But if they leave San Francisco, why, it's their fault for crashing the local economy. If the tec…

False dichotomy to set up "damned if I do, damned if I don't". Then conclusion likens SF's privileged techies to women facing literal witchhunts, a form of terrorism.

Techies are free to engage in activism to help their fellow humans.

Re: The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

#39

Post by gaius » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 7:28 PM UTC

bowlofpetunias wrote: post #35

If there is a tech backlash, it's not about Bay Area gentrification, which is a local issue and happens in urban areas around the world. The fact that in SF the money comes from tech is irrelevant. (The cognitive dissonance of the fortunate techies on HN who refuse to acknowledge that they are no different from self-centered 80's finance yuppies is amusing, but nothing new is happening here.) The more universal backl…

Disruption is the polite word for a business model of making money by skirting regulations, e.g. AirBnB vs hotels. To borrow a phrase, it's not scalable.

Re: The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

#40

Post by Patrick_Devine » Fri, Jan 03, 2014, 7:29 PM UTC

kevingadd wrote: post #32

apsec112 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If, tomorrow, Google bought Caltrain and started running it competently (unlike the current clowns), I'd throw a party to celebrate. But I'm sure the anti-Google-bus crowd would condemn that too. It would be 'corporatizing our cherished community institutions' or something.

I don't think anyone could decry better management of Caltrain with a straight face. everyone hates how Caltrain is run.

It's still better than BART, which isn't saying much.