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Poor Kids of Silicon Valley

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Re: Poor Kids of Silicon Valley

#101

Post by unreal37 »

onion2k wrote: post #75
mgraczyk wrote: post #20

This may not be the most popular thing to say, but ... Just move? If you are the head of a large household living in an area where the cost of living is too high to support your dependents, you would do a whole lot of good for them and yourself by starting new in some other part of the country. At the very least it would be wise to relocate across the Bay. I realize that people have families, social networks, and sma…

My sentiment is not classist or elitist. The fact you fail to recognise it as elitist doesn't mean it isn't. You are elitist because you fail to understand that life can be a great deal harder for other people. "I did it so they can too" assumes that other people don't live in circumstances that prevent them doing things. That is plain wrong. If I had a family to look after, I would have (and arguably ought to have)…

I admit to not understanding the mindset. So I honestly want to understand it.

One family in the article has two parents both with full time jobs. And they're living in a homeless shelter. I understand that they can't afford $3,000 per month rent in the city. But how is it that they don't have enough money to relocate? Even a few miles away to something more affordable?

If the father works in construction, that's skill that is in high demand and easily transferable. You can walk into a construction office tomorrow and be swinging a hammer by Monday right?

There must be more going on. Some important piece of the puzzle is being withheld from their story.

Re: Poor Kids of Silicon Valley

#102

Post by yitchelle »

rodgerd wrote: post #34
maerF0x0 wrote: post #10

It skips some important points. The cost of living is high due to zoning laws and a lack of building. Subsidizing families' rent will just make existing landlords richer. It would just drive rents up further. What is needed to get fewer people bidding on the same unit. If landlords are finding <1 suitable tenants per vacancy then suddenly it becomes a renter's market.

Public housing is an anethma in the English-speaking world these days, but it's one answer. Mixing public housing/apartments in with private would provide accomodation while also providing a base price.

I would imagine that silicon valley could draw some positive insights from the public housing scheme in other countries such as Singapore. 80% of the Singaporean population live in public housing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing_in_Singapore

Re: Poor Kids of Silicon Valley

#103

Post by nsnick »

Lawtonfogle wrote: post #56
codemac wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moving is expensive too. If you're hand-to-mouth poor, you cannot afford a rental truck, let alone time off work and still feed your children. You will probably lose your job if you move, and not find another one where you land, especially if you're in the service industry. Good luck with that East bay -> peninsula commute on your minimum wage. The reason many cannot get jobs other places is due to felonies or other…

Assuming government resources are needed to be spent to help resolve this, would they not be put to better use helping individuals relocate to somewhere sustainable (especially those who would be making a living wage elsewhere) than to subsidize the difference year after year?

Lets not forget that these people would be middle class anywhere else.

Re: Poor Kids of Silicon Valley

#104

Post by Domenic_S »

bobmagoo wrote: post #87
Domenic_S wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was sitting here trying to figure out how to say basically the same thing. Growing up my dad had a good job but we never were able to afford to live in $NEAREST_METRO_AREA, so we always lived a commute away -- sometimes a long commute away. Charity idea: provide moving & job placement help to get homeless or nearly homeless families into lower cost of living areas. I always have mixed feelings about stories like th…

Being a parent I have tons of empathy for how hard life is for single parents. That said, I really lost a lot of sympathy for the woman in the garage though, kids are hugely expensive (about a quarter million dollars to raise them to 18) and I just can't understand how she thought having a second kid would improve her situation. Obviously it could have been an accident or similar, but damn, maybe now isn't the right…

The striking thing to me is that it seems it's rarely one major event that plunges someone into a bad situation like these (consider that none of these videos had one "this is what happened" sound bite). It seems like it's the snowball effect of bad decision after bad decision.

Re: Poor Kids of Silicon Valley

#105

Post by svachalek »

dvirsky wrote: post #44

As someone from outside the US, how much do you need to earn in order to live well in this area? There was one slide stating a minimum of $100K for a family of four just to "escape poverty". Is that really the case? And if so, how do early stage founders who aren't already rich manage to get by?

$3000/mo for rent is pretty basic but safe housing for a family of 4 in most of the area; there are broad areas of the bay area map that you won't be able to find it that cheap at all. On the other hand it's possible to go lower by driving a bit more or compromising a bit.

Part of the trouble is that income taxes are not based on local economies, so they'd be taxed as if they were quite well off even though they're struggling.

A startup founder is not likely to have dependents so can divide by 4, and then not worry about things like how good the school district is. Although they may not be "rich" in the conventional sense, they likely have an education and connections that the guys who are stocking the grocery shelves can only dream of, and parents or someone else they can always fall back on if worst comes to worst.

Re: Poor Kids of Silicon Valley

#106

Post by Mz »

For people saying "Just move":

I lived on the West Coast (Washington State and two places in California) for about ten years as a military wife. I had to leave California during my divorce because I could no longer afford it. I returned to California three years ago as a homeless person. I returned for my health. My medical condition is hellaciously debilitating and expensive to treat. Being not so sick to begin with both raises my quality of life and lowers my cost of living.

I currently live in San Diego County. I have plans to move within the next few months to someplace cheaper, because (in a nutshell) I would like to get off the street and I can't afford housing in this county. But, I plan to remain in California -- because the climate here and the far lower than the national average levels of ragweed do good things for my serious health problems.

So, I think it's an incredibly shitty position to take to say "just move." What you are saying is: Only rich people can live where they choose and the rest of y'all -- fuck you.

I will suggest that is not good for the nation as a whole. Fucking over too many people is a good way to eventually get to a place where the nation just doesn't work at all. Not being rich should not be the same thing as being a prisoner of your problems, with no real options.

Re: Poor Kids of Silicon Valley

#107

Post by refurb »

coderzach wrote: post #36
mgraczyk wrote: post #20

This may not be the most popular thing to say, but ... Just move? If you are the head of a large household living in an area where the cost of living is too high to support your dependents, you would do a whole lot of good for them and yourself by starting new in some other part of the country. At the very least it would be wise to relocate across the Bay. I realize that people have families, social networks, and sma…

> My sentiment is not classist or elitist. You just think poor people should have to move out of their homes because rich people decided they want to live there. Got it. > The same argument applies to people of all socioeconomic background. Yeah, rich people get forced out of their homes because they can't afford them all the time. /s

You just think poor people should have to move out of their homes because rich people decided they want to live there. Got it.

I'm not poor by any means, but if SF rents keep going up, I'm going to be leaving if I can't find affordable housing (even on a relatively high salary).

Re: Poor Kids of Silicon Valley

#108

Post by unreal37 »

larrys wrote: post #66
mgraczyk wrote: post #20

This may not be the most popular thing to say, but ... Just move? If you are the head of a large household living in an area where the cost of living is too high to support your dependents, you would do a whole lot of good for them and yourself by starting new in some other part of the country. At the very least it would be wise to relocate across the Bay. I realize that people have families, social networks, and sma…

"This may not be the most popular thing to say, but ... Just move?" The other question is (don't know the answer) how many people who owned homes (instead of renting) were able to cash in in some way on rising property values? My guess is that at least some of the people renting made the decision to not purchase and some of the people owning made the decision to not rent. Of the people who could choose an option. As…

One of the most shocking things I saw in the Philippines was exactly this. A mother living and working in a city as a nanny/maid, while her husband and children lived "back home" fairly far away. She saw them only a couple of times per year. That's some sacrifice she's making to put food on her family's table!

Re: Poor Kids of Silicon Valley

#109

Post by jkot »

hypnos1 wrote: post #68

The lack of empathy on display here is astonishing. Is this quality a prerequisite to participating in the luckier side of the wealth-gap of silicon valley?

Why lack of empathy?

Most people here share the pain. I know guy with "good job" who lives in van. I personally would love to come to SV, but simply can not effort it with family.

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