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Dear Silicon Valley: America’s fallen out of love with you

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Re: Dear Silicon Valley: America’s fallen out of love with you

#231

Post by jacalata »

xversilov wrote: post #27
carbocation wrote: post #8

As someone outside of SV (Nevadan living in Boston and practicing medicine), I think this article largely misses the mark. I think it is true that there is a diversity problem in SV, just like there is a diversity problem in medicine. It’s a problem, because there is no a priori reason for women and ethnic minorities to be less prevalent in our high-paying fields. But that’s probably the only point that resonates. Th…

There is no a priori reason that society feels comfortable acknowledging, but for anybody without those hangups, the reasons are actually quite obvious.

Do explain.

Re: Dear Silicon Valley: America’s fallen out of love with you

#232

Post by lr4444lr »

santaclaus wrote: post #211
touchofevil wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Middle America generally lives in the suburbs and does not interact with homeless people everyday who are dying on the streets in front of them like those who live in SF, LA, and NYC do. Basic Income is meant as a "floor" that those people will not be able to fall below.

> with homeless people everyday who are dying on the streets in front of them like those who live in SF, LA, and NYC do You see very few homeless people on street or in trains, and zero tents, in NYC. Its kind of strange -- NYC has a larger homeless population than SF no matter how you slice it (total count, per capita, per square foot) but the issue seems way worse in the major California cities. I have friends who…

That's because the encampments are not tolerated in NYC.[0] There's lots of patchwork "solutions": shelters, hotels, housing vouchers, and roaming the subways (as long as they keep moving or don't congregate too many), but not long-term encampments. It's kind of like how spreading unwanted food around on your plate makes it look as though it's been eaten - is indeed weird how it affects the perception.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx-drug-lair-cleaned-...

Re: Dear Silicon Valley: America’s fallen out of love with you

#233

Post by Zhyl »

ng12 wrote: post #212
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Middle America is not too keen on your "basic income" solution to all the problems you are creating. It brings to mind a future of living in a 300 square foot government apartment in some hideous Brutalist concrete block of a building, eating our daily Amazon rations, knowing that's just how life is going to be, forever, no need to have dreams anymore. Except that all of those things are the exact opposite of what…

And what happens when we inevitably converge on a price point where BI only buys you a concrete block and government cheese?

Why is it inevitable?

Re: Dear Silicon Valley: America’s fallen out of love with you

#234

Post by thesagan »

aylmao wrote: post #204
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Middle America is not too keen on your "basic income" solution to all the problems you are creating. It brings to mind a future of living in a 300 square foot government apartment in some hideous Brutalist concrete block of a building, eating our daily Amazon rations, knowing that's just how life is going to be, forever, no need to have dreams anymore. Except that all of those things are the exact opposite of what…

A different approach, one in which people can still work to get paid, but wages are reasonable. Fulfillment is not all about the money and what you can buy with it. It's about feeling that your'e serving some purpose, and there's value to what you do.

This would be preferable to me, which is maintaining some degree of power over my own destiny by being able to build my own economic value.

I wonder why this is not a well received idea?

Re: Dear Silicon Valley: America’s fallen out of love with you

#235

Post by matt_wulfeck »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #210
aylmao wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A different approach, one in which people can still work to get paid, but wages are reasonable. Fulfillment is not all about the money and what you can buy with it. It's about feeling that your'e serving some purpose, and there's value to what you do.

That's what a universal basic income does . It lets the person whose labor is only worth $3/hour take a $3/hour job and still not starve to death.

Or a $3/hour jobs becomes a $1 an hour job because markets are incredibly efficient at pricing in a new, free flow of money.

Re: Dear Silicon Valley: America’s fallen out of love with you

#236

Post by iak8god »

api wrote: post #116
nsxwolf wrote: post #105

Middle America is not too keen on your "basic income" solution to all the problems you are creating. It brings to mind a future of living in a 300 square foot government apartment in some hideous Brutalist concrete block of a building, eating our daily Amazon rations, knowing that's just how life is going to be, forever, no need to have dreams anymore. There will be torches and pitchforks coming for you.

It reminds me of the endless ghettoes of William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy (Neuromancer, etc.) where people are basically warehoused and left to jack into "simstim" and rot. In reality the pitchforks will come out as you say and this endless ghetto will be paired with a total surveillance police state to contain the angry aimless masses. Perhaps not coincidentally this is exactly what Silicon Valley seems to be buildin…

Not that I agree with everything you’ve said here, but I just wanted to say that I really appreciate this comment and the ensuing thread.

> The solution is a massive increase in our ambition as a species. Here are some real first world problems we could be tackling: …

There must be some way to get people to work on all this without dangling homelessness and starvation constantly over their heads. Can’t we have a basic income to at least take care of the basics, and still motivate people to participate in these projects using some carrots like a) desire to be a part of something bigger than oneself, or even b) consumerism?

Re: Dear Silicon Valley: America’s fallen out of love with you

#237

Post by aylmao »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #210
aylmao wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A different approach, one in which people can still work to get paid, but wages are reasonable. Fulfillment is not all about the money and what you can buy with it. It's about feeling that your'e serving some purpose, and there's value to what you do.

That's what a universal basic income does . It lets the person whose labor is only worth $3/hour take a $3/hour job and still not starve to death.

> It lets the person whose labor is only worth $3/hour take a $3/hour job and still not starve to death.

You'd still know that your labor is worth only $3/hour, and if you're not starving to death it's because you're on this safety net.

How is this feeling "you're serving a purpose" and that "there's value in what you do" as per my parent comment? Again, a job is about much more than the money, and "not starving to death".

Re: Dear Silicon Valley: America’s fallen out of love with you

#239

Post by aylmao »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #235
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what a universal basic income does . It lets the person whose labor is only worth $3/hour take a $3/hour job and still not starve to death.

Or a $3/hour jobs becomes a $1 an hour job because markets are incredibly efficient at pricing in a new, free flow of money.

Exactly, which is why even with UBI we need reasonable minimum wages.

Re: Dear Silicon Valley: America’s fallen out of love with you

#240

Post by pdimitar »

bogomipz wrote: post #111
austenallred wrote: post #24

People generally do love Silicon Valley and what it creates. It’s the media that doesn’t. Ask the average person what brands and products they like and use the most (or just look at the data on where and how they spend their time and money) and you’ll see that Silicon Valley is doing just fine in the eyes of the populace. In fact, Silicon Valley has never been more influential. Ask people to go to a world without iPh…

>"People generally do love Silicon Valley and what it creates." No, your average non-techie consumer knows and cares very little about Silicon Valley. People like convenience and innovation that leads to convenience in their lives. There is no transitive property where if I "love" ride-sharing I "love" Uber's leadership, business tactics and company culture. >"Ask people to go to a world without iPhones, Facebook, Go…

That's exactly the truth. Well articulated.

The companies came along and gave us things we needed. There are such events in history that would inevitably happen regardless of the person (or people) who started it. People needed electricity. People needed long-range quick communication. People needed places to form groups, physically or not, etc.

Most of the corporations' products were inevitable. Thing is, they are abusing this fact to infest them with a load of stuff we don't want.

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