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How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

theage.com.au

11–20 of 65 posts

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#11
There is a clear cognitive dissonance in articles like this and the actions of protestors. They highlight on the extreme wealth of certain founders/executives, yet direct their wrath (and stones) on the entire tech industry.

Regular Facebook employees aren't Mark Zuckerberg, and certainly aren't paid like it. Most tech workers make less than twice the median family income in the Bay Area—good pay, but not obscene.

If people have a problem with income inequality, they should be siding with tech workers—we're way closer to barista wages than being in the 1%.

So why are tech workers the ones getting attacked? You can bet Larry Page isn't taking the bus, but he's the one making the money.

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#12

Certainly Silicon Valley has their fair share of douchebags, but the media hype surrounding this is simply nonsense. The world hates Silicon Valley? You're telling me that somehow all these SV douchebags outweigh Hollywood or Wall Street douchebags? Come on, now.

The ethics of the power players in Silicon Valley are far worse than those on Wall Street. (I don't know dick about Hollywood other than its reputation.)

Wall Streeters are greedy, but they don't go out of their way to ruin peoples' careers (except in the movies). They'll do a lot of things to get that $10 million bonus, but they don't hold long-term grudges and wreck careers of people who've since flown away from them. A trader will get you fired if it suits his career goals, because he is ruthless, but once you're out of his way, he'll take an active interest in making sure you get a better job afterward. Valley people, when they separate, tend to make it really ugly: lots of gossip, negative references, long-term grudges and other nonsense that wouldn't exist among people who cared more about themselves winning than about other people losing.

Silicon Valley attracts people who want power, and those tend to be worse than those who want money. It also attracts, more than nerds, people who come on specifically to take advantage of nerds. The latter set tend to be horrible, and to rise fast.

Finally, there's the false poverty effect. If you make $10 million in a year, you're rich. If you're a trust-fund kid, but you're only paying yourself a $25,000 salary because that's all your investors will let you take out, you feel more entitled to fuck people over because you're "the little guy" and because, being "scrappy" (or "lean"), you "can't afford" the costs of being ethical.

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#13
Uh, except for a single mention of taxes in Britain, this is an article about How San Francisco came to hate Silicon Valley. I mean, seriously, Valleywag really capturing the zeitgeist of the common man? Jesus.

(I thought the plural "bricks through the window" in the subheadline was particularly indicative, when as far as I know that was brick singular)

The world, meanwhile, follows a bit of news about tech companies, they have opinions about some of the bigger ones, and they like taking sides over their favorite phone brand, but they continue to steadfastly not care about Silicon Valley. Seriously. Go on vacation, get out of the bubble, talk to people. They don't even have an opinion on the place.

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#14

There is a clear cognitive dissonance in articles like this and the actions of protestors. They highlight on the extreme wealth of certain founders/executives, yet direct their wrath (and stones) on the entire tech industry. Regular Facebook employees aren't Mark Zuckerberg, and certainly aren't paid like it. Most tech workers make less than twice the median family income in the Bay Area—good pay, but not obscene. If…

They highlight on the extreme wealth of certain founders/executives, yet direct their wrath (and stones) on the entire tech industry.

Not even, the protestors manage to direct their wrath at the employees low enough level to be riding the shuttles.

It's pretty ironic seeing the ostensible radical leftists following the lead of the Valley Wag's middle brow demagoguery.

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#15
Sean Parker, the founding president of Facebook, spent a reported $US10 million on his wedding

Wow, how unbelievably arrogant. Spending his money however the fuck he wants? Paying people to render him services of their own free will? What an asshole. He must've forgot signing that social contract with angry poor radicals that once you hit $(whatever today's immoral amount of money is) you no longer have the right to spend it... oh wait.

Whatever. Give me a break. This article is really about the worst side of SF - not the successful businessmen, but the unsuccessful, jealous, negative, unproductive "radicals" whose politics boils down to "I hate everything that I don't understand, and I'm not going to bother to try and understand it because I hate it."

an arrogant and often tone-deaf industry

The only arrogant people here are these fucking losers who think they deserve to live in the one of the world's most expensive and desirable cities, and think they deserve to dictate how other people can and should behave, despite providing absolutely nothing of value to anyone.

Perkins is right. The closest parallel to the mindless, hate-drenched opprobrium of these people is Nazi Germany turning on the Jews (a similar group of successful, largely innocuous businesspeople.)

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#16
Seriously, employees who ride buses to their 10-hour jobs who are probably scrabbling to get some work done on the commute (those buses have wi-fi for a reason) are causing "heightened anxiety about the widening income gap between tech workers and "ordinary" citizens"?

These protesters are either misinformed or being deliberately malicious if they are targeting the ordinary tech employee. At $39000 average spending per year ($3250/month according to the article), how much do they exactly think SV engineers get paid? At say, 100k, which would be considered pretty decent by an SV engineer, the 28% tax bracket, leaves 72k actual income. Minus the $39000 housing expenses mentioned, that's $33000/year, or $2750/month for food, clothing, paying for your kids' education. etc. If your spouse doesn't work, you will be living a pretty Spartan life. Hardly the kind of money you imagine rich assholes throwing around, is it?

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#17

There is a clear cognitive dissonance in articles like this and the actions of protestors. They highlight on the extreme wealth of certain founders/executives, yet direct their wrath (and stones) on the entire tech industry. Regular Facebook employees aren't Mark Zuckerberg, and certainly aren't paid like it. Most tech workers make less than twice the median family income in the Bay Area—good pay, but not obscene. If…

[deleted]

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#18
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but the players deeply love this game, and play it ruthlessly. What then?

The people being targeted by the hate are low- and mid-level engineers at companies like Google and Twitter, who have nothing to do with San Francisco's absurd housing policy or the economic inequality in general. They might be better-paid peons, but they're still peons. They aren't responsible for "this game" and many of them detest it. (Would you want to have no savings at age 37 because, despite your relatively hi…

I believe they're using the Google buses as symbols in lieu of direct knowledge of the First Estate's whereabouts or access to them.

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#19
post #15

Sean Parker, the founding president of Facebook, spent a reported $US10 million on his wedding Wow, how unbelievably arrogant. Spending his money however the fuck he wants? Paying people to render him services of their own free will? What an asshole. He must've forgot signing that social contract with angry poor radicals that once you hit $(whatever today's immoral amount of money is) you no longer have the right to…

> Perkins is right. The closest parallel to the mindless, hate-drenched opprobrium of these people is Nazi Germany turning on the Jews

This perverse non-analogy is an embarrassment. It reads like absurd satire. Please stop repeating it.

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#20
post #17

There is a clear cognitive dissonance in articles like this and the actions of protestors. They highlight on the extreme wealth of certain founders/executives, yet direct their wrath (and stones) on the entire tech industry. Regular Facebook employees aren't Mark Zuckerberg, and certainly aren't paid like it. Most tech workers make less than twice the median family income in the Bay Area—good pay, but not obscene. If…

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For the 1%, I was using the $394,000 figure put forward by Emmanuel Saez. [1]

At $140k or anything near it, you're far closer to barista wages ($30k?) than the 1%.

[1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/phildemuth/2013/11/25/are-you-ri...

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