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Tech Workers Backing Candidates Looking to Break Up Their Employers

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Re: Tech Workers Backing Candidates Looking to Break Up Their Employers

#131

Post by tdhoot »

treis wrote: post #115
skybrian wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, maybe. But on the other hand, the biggest tech companies seem to pay the most? Why is that?

Say you write some code that increases conversions by 0.01%. Thats worth 10 bucks to momandpop.com compared with millions to Amazon. No wonder that programmers can make more at Amazon.

Analogy doesn't really hold up. Increasing conversions by 0.01% probably takes an hour at momandpop.com and maybe a year or more at Amazon. Not to mention low-hanging fruit already being picked at large corps.

Re: Tech Workers Backing Candidates Looking to Break Up Their Employers

#132

Post by Gibbon1 »

bobbytherobot wrote: post #121

A decade of working in Bay Area tech meant watching kids of rich parents get rich off dubious business plans by creating a startup in San Francisco while their parents buy them a house, pay their expenses and tap into their networks for seed funding all the while the company loses money for over a decade while they become millionaires from selling shares during rounds of fundraising. Then I go for the big guy where t…

> we are scared of what Jim Cramer will say about us instead of the everyday impact on the people who use our products

Reminds me of a thing I read by someone that worked Broadway for at that time 40 years. He said the best thing for Broadway would be to take the NYT art critics out for a ride in the country. Because no one was making plays for the regulars or the tourists, they were making plays for the critics. Same complaints have been made about the wine industry.

Re: Tech Workers Backing Candidates Looking to Break Up Their Employers

#133

Post by dlp211 »

tootahe45 wrote: post #19
sedeki wrote: post #2

Can someone explain why SV tech workers are more left-wing to me as an outsider? I always thought these tech workers were more libertarian.

Left-wing views tend to be highly agreeable views and there's almost no discomfort or backlash in expressing them. IMO, it starts at the top with CEOS who do things like banning firearms sales after a mass shooting for huge PR gain, and propagates throughout the company. Oh and if multiple execs call a meeting and were almost tearing up over an election loss (Google), I highly doubt i'd be comfortable even mentioning…

You can just look at political donations from employees at these companies. Tech skews heavily Democrat.

Re: Tech Workers Backing Candidates Looking to Break Up Their Employers

#134

Post by tracer4201 »

kaibee wrote: post #98
tracer4201 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big tech companies are able to try 100 things out instead of 1 because they can rely on their stable revenue streams to pay the bills. I’m not sure how it would be a boon to innovation but am open to learning why you think that. The major damage big tech is doing is in my opinion dodging regulations or inventing business streams that have no regulation, moving as fast as possible to get a solid footing, and then aski…

> Big tech companies are able to try 100 things out instead of 1 because they can rely on their stable revenue streams to pay the bills. I’m not sure how it would be a boon to innovation but am open to learning why you think that. Is Apple trying 100 things out or are they hoarding insane amounts of cash in Ireland?

Sure, but on the other hand, you have FB, Amazon, Google, Microsoft. Look at all the things these companies are involved in.

Re: Tech Workers Backing Candidates Looking to Break Up Their Employers

#135

Post by rayiner »

dlp211 wrote: post #125
zozbot234 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can have a functioning safety net and pay for it via a progressive consumption tax. That's actually what most Western countries outside of the U.S. seem to do, broadly speaking. Some countries even tried out a wealth tax, like France - they had to reverse it real quick because the unintended effects were so dismal.

France/EU is not the United States. There are structural reasons that make a wealth tax virtually impossible to implement in the EU, but aren't present in the US.

Like?

Re: Tech Workers Backing Candidates Looking to Break Up Their Employers

#136

Post by debatem1 »

I'm a tech worker and I'll be voting Warren.

Technology really does have the power to change the world and the lives of the people in it profoundly. It is important to recognize that some of those changes are areas of public interest, public concern, and even public policy. The government will-- and rightly should-- demand that such changes be shaped not to cause unnecessary harm.

Re: Tech Workers Backing Candidates Looking to Break Up Their Employers

#137

Post by golemiprague »

They vote as they always voted, to the extreme left, nothing changed. It's not like people in facebook or google supported republicans ever. They supported Sanders when he praised Hugo Chaves and they will support Warren when she praise breaking their own companies, exactly like they broke Venezuela. Let's face it, had Hillary won nobody would have heard anything about those "problems" with big tech companies, they would be praised for being on the right side of history all along.

Re: Tech Workers Backing Candidates Looking to Break Up Their Employers

#138

Post by GhettoMaestro »

deevolution wrote: post #128
dickeytk wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a difference between big companies and monopolies. Big companies will likely always be the ones offering the highest salaries and they'll always exist. Once they monopolize the labor market though: they'll no longer have a need to offer those wages as high (even if they're the highest within the market).

How do you break up alphabet?they will just move their corporation over seas, set up in africa and avoid any monopoly breakers. The government has no power over these companies. They would have to raid the offices and send the ceo to prison before alphabet agrees to break their monopoly.

Yeah that's not how laws work. Sure, they can move overseas, but for the business they conduct in the US they would need to comply with the post-breakup laws (assuming that happened, I don't think it will).

And if they don't comply? Fairly simple. Indictments. Raids. Arrests. Asset seizures. Public shaming of employees and executives working for the company. Etc.

Re: Tech Workers Backing Candidates Looking to Break Up Their Employers

#139

Post by toast0 »

deevolution wrote: post #128
dickeytk wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a difference between big companies and monopolies. Big companies will likely always be the ones offering the highest salaries and they'll always exist. Once they monopolize the labor market though: they'll no longer have a need to offer those wages as high (even if they're the highest within the market).

How do you break up alphabet?they will just move their corporation over seas, set up in africa and avoid any monopoly breakers. The government has no power over these companies. They would have to raid the offices and send the ceo to prison before alphabet agrees to break their monopoly.

Restructuring the company as Alphabet with a set of subsidiaries was a start to setting up lines to divide the company along.

The way to divide up Google is into the ad network, the search engine, operating systems, and everything else. Allow them to contract each other on public FRAND terms to start with, but setup annual reviews to consider a bigger hammer.

If they play games with moving house to avoid jurisdiction, ban payments to and from them.

Re: Tech Workers Backing Candidates Looking to Break Up Their Employers

#140

Post by klaudius »

abalone wrote: post #94
vidarh wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Libertarianism started on the far left - The "original libertarian", the anarcho-communist Joseph Dejacque, attacked Proudhon, the "original anarchist" for being a "moderate anarchist, liberal, but not libertarian" for his regressive views on women. Right-libertarianism was an attempt to unite the libertarian parts of the left with socially liberal elements on the right against authoritarian ideologies; their main di…

> Right-libertarianism was an attempt to unite the libertarian parts of the left with socially liberal elements on the right against authoritarian ideologies; their main distinction are views on property rights I don't think this is correct at all. What's called right libertarianism or laissez-faire capitalism emerged in the mid 20th century (e.g. Ayn Rand). It stole the term which had historically been a left term a…

Imagine if the mafia went around to collect protection money from business owners and then spent tiny percentage of that money funding various projects, many of which went nowhere and there are some projects that benefit their victims.

This is the setup you're in with the government. Wealthy people pay most of the taxes and support the government system. Tiny percentage of their confiscated wealth was apparently used to create the internet. Government was simply a middleman just like they are a middleman between people and construction companies when it comes to building roads.

People could have come together to create a non-profit that would do some basic research into various things. They could've pooled their money and paid for it collectively. However, you are already taxed, so why not use those funds to create an agency inside the government and do the same thing?

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