How the world came to hate Silicon Valley • Hacker News Board

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#21

Post by apsec112 » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 5:23 AM UTC

The real story here is not the protests, which are very small. (Compare to the Iraq War protests, which involved ten times the entire population of SF.)

The real story is how a certain section of the media loves to blow up anything anti-Google, no matter how trivial or insignificant (a few dozen people staging a rally? two months ago?), into The Biggest Problem Ever. One imagines that they make big advertising dollars from spreading their ideology of hate, just as William Randolph Hearst did a few generations back. Or maybe Bill Gates ran over their puppy back in 1982 and now they've dedicated their lives to petty revenge.

"Look Who’s Gawking: Inside Nick Denton’s phony, hypocritical class war against tech workers": http://pando.com/2013/12/26/look-whos-gawking-inside-nick-de...

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#22

Post by Fomite » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 5:37 AM UTC

steven2012 wrote: post #5

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.

> You're telling me that somehow all these SV douchebags outweigh Hollywood or Wall Street douchebags?

This is not a comparison group you should aspire to be in at all.

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#23

Post by mercutio2 » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 5:39 AM UTC

parennoob wrote: post #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 p…

While I don't in any way think the antagonism towards tech workers make sense, I don't think you're quite on target with your numbers.

A) income tax is progressive and continuous, you can't say $28k in taxes for the 28% bracket (however, FICA and CA income taxes mean that number is in the right ball park)

B) a couple living on one income in a 2-bedroom isn't considered a birthright in dense cities like SF

C) $100k would be an unusually low salary even for someone just out of school taking the megacorp buses, and this is before bonuses and RSUs

So I disagree with the thesis that Bay Area tech workers are by any measure living a spartan life.

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#24

Post by noamsml » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 5:40 AM UTC

apsec112 wrote: post #21

The real story here is not the protests, which are very small. (Compare to the Iraq War protests, which involved ten times the entire population of SF .) The real story is how a certain section of the media loves to blow up anything anti-Google, no matter how trivial or insignificant (a few dozen people staging a rally? two months ago?), into The Biggest Problem Ever. One imagines that they make big advertising dolla…

I live in SF, and I can confirm that I'll walk past people and overhear the same fragments of conversation, talking about the buses and gentrification. The tone varies, but just because not everyone is protesting doesn't mean the ideas aren't out there.

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#25

Post by FLUX-YOU » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 5:44 AM UTC

kaa2102 wrote: post #4

This reminds me of a tweet from Alexia Tsotsis saying that everyone will either work for Google or Walmart in the future. It looks like San Francisco is giving us a preview of that future.

Just as long as we get to call google neighborhoods the burbclaves

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#26

Post by unepipe » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 5:48 AM UTC

I was wondering if this was serving as some kind of rebuttal to the occupy wallstreet stuff. As in - "don't pay attention to the actual wealth inequality that is choking the economy in many places, these recent grads who work in the Valley but live in SF are the bad guys"

Sure conjecture and conspiracy-theoryish but why the fuck else would any part of the media be paying attention to 10 protesters and a staged, crass fake "nerd" pretending to be a Google employee?

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#27

Post by bengrunfeld » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 5:51 AM UTC

Australians despise the U.S. and The Age is simply airing the rank and fetid feelings of the people that read their newspaper.

Trust me, I know - I was born and raised in Australia, and because of the country's heavy Socialist/British background and identity, we were taught to hate everything about America. My wife and I lived in Melbourne from 2009-2012, and she suffered horrible discrimination for being from the US.

Silicon Valley is one of the great monuments to American individualism and entrepreneurial spirit, and it sickens most Aussies to see the success and fortune that has come of it.

The Age is ensuring that the anti-American sentiment is kept at a poisonous and noxious level.

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#28

Post by carbocation » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 5:51 AM UTC

morgante wrote: post #20

[deleted] wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

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...

140k is about 1/3 of 400k, but about 4x 30k. Perceptually, you're closer to the 1% than to the baristas.

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#29

Post by TDL » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 6:03 AM UTC

michaelochurch wrote: post #12

steven2012 wrote: post #5

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 th…

"Wall Streeters are greedy, but they don't go out of their way to ruin peoples' careers..."

How confident are you about this claim?

Re: How the world came to hate Silicon Valley

#30

Post by epoxyhockey » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 6:08 AM UTC

joe_the_user wrote: post #14

morgante wrote: post #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…

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.

employees low enough level to be riding the shuttles

Yes, SF's banking-class and politicians are loving this. The middle-class is distracted fighting their middle-class peers.