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The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

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Re: The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

#61

"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." This statistic is incredibly misleading - the absolute increase was only 73 evictions. [1] “From Google buses invading the neighborhoods, to the evictions of elders, to the very real effects of speculator-fueled evictions, the tech industry’s reaction has been shameful,” said Tony…

This can also be read as "Large companies pay employees too much money and provide too many benefits."

Shame!

San Francisco should kick the techies out. Then it can aspire to be Detroit. It's not pretty when a formerly vibrant industry fades away over time.

Re: The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

#62
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.

You're correct in that how hard someone works doesn't result in how much they earn. However, I got into the industry I'm in through hard work. Going back to my main point, people don't want to see that - they just want to see the success which fits into their narrative where anyone with any success got it because they exploited someone else.

People who succeed tend to assume the credit, and people who fail tend to blame others. Both are wrong.

Re: The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

#63

Everything in this article comes back to housing. That's not the tech. industry's fault. The tech. industry would love to have more housing in San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area. Housing prices have increased so quickly, and are currently at such a high level that even highly paid tech. workers are thinking twice about moving to SF. We see it often enough in the comment threads right here. The problem is that…

This is exactly it. I've posted about ideas for fixing this a few times in the past:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6549063

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6944259

The unfortunate thing right now is that these ideas have no real traction outside of econoblogs, the most popular being Matt Yglesias' MoneyBox. City Halls, historic preservation committees, online comment sections, community boards, and others have endless rants about their grievances, or piles of suggestions that don't touch the problem at all.

In the case of this article, it's mentioned in passing, but dismissed as the equivalent of "it'll be too little, too late." If a place is as important as it seems (like New York has been for a very long time in a number of industries), these problems aren't going anywhere - regardless of bubble pops - and should be dealt with right away. Are there any serious commentators or analysts that believe that the SFBA will disappear if "social" vanishes? I think that's incredibly short-sighted.

Short version: there are solutions, but those who matter aren't really listening.

Re: The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

#64

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…

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…

Campaign for Better Transport used to be Transport 2000, which was set up by the rail unions.

Re: The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

#65

"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." This statistic is incredibly misleading - the absolute increase was only 73 evictions. [1] “From Google buses invading the neighborhoods, to the evictions of elders, to the very real effects of speculator-fueled evictions, the tech industry’s reaction has been shameful,” said Tony…

That's not what they say is the problem at all. Look, Google's great crime - according to the article presumably written by a tolerant person - is

1) trading a few commercials for the keystone oil pipeline for some other political card.

2) Lunching with Inhofe (not sure who that is).

Google, like most Tech giants, contributes to a hell of a lot of political organisations. Surely that's obvious to anyone ? But apparently merely a tiny sliver of contribution to "bad" political organisations is enough to demonize a 40000 person company.

I hate how "tolerant" America works like this. Associate with the wrong political idea, even a tiny little bit when you're actually apolitical and you really just kind of agree with the idea, or you just want/need to get something done, and ... bye-bye tolerance. You've just become public enemy number 1.

I am sorry, but I was raised in an area with lots of merchants, lots of factory workers and lots of small political parties. A place, like most of the countryside in Europe, where neonazi's organize parties with communists, liberals (the European, rightist, kind) and christians, and imagine this : nobody fights (we have soccer matches for that). Nobody loses their job. Nobody gets nailed to the wall in the local newspaper for having a drink with a girl who is somehow associated with an unpopular party.

You see this in practice as well. San Francisco's tech elite is full with people who openly claim to be democrat even when they're obviously not. There's plenty of Tea Partyers on the street in San Francisco, among the "tech elite", but asking them never yields that answer. I used to wonder why.

I'm saying this from a distance, so I may be wrong, but it seems to me America (and in particular the left) is the least tolerant people I've visited. Especially the part of America that's arguing for tolerance.

Re: The Graver Threat of the Growing Tech Backlash

#66
post #34

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 w…

Many tech businessmen aren't nerds. They're in the game to take advantage of nerds' poor social skills, inability to organize or negotiate for their own interests, and willingness to overwork themselves due to a lack of long-term, strategic thinking. Also, tech has the Damaso Effect. The best of our world answer to the worst of theirs, because we've been colonized by the MBA culture, and most colonial soldiers and of…

I've been in this.
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