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Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

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Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#51

Post by rezistik »

ryandrake wrote: post #27
rezistik wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like that survey. The lower class is completely unrepresented in tech. It's been one of the weirdest and hardest things for me to handle personally.

You know what's weird and uncomfortable sometimes? Going to lunch with your co-workers and listening to them talk about the awful problems of their lives, like how they wish their maids could come twice a week instead of every two weeks, and how difficult it is that they have to pay [my salary * 0.5] for their kid's private school. How worried they are about things like the stock market and how high the property taxe…

Absolutely, it causes feelings of shame to bubble up from childhood that I didn't expect to feel again as an adult.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#52

Post by tyre »

tn13 wrote: post #47

As an Indian immigrant when I see people complaining about Privilege and Inequality in SV (and in America) I feel like laughing. I lived in a society where everyone was almost the same, similar economic status, similar privilege etc. etc. Life sucked. I decided to move out to be among the top 10% instead of one of the 100%. I eventually ended up in SV. This place is awesome and the very reason I am here is because I…

This is getting downvoted because it is a shallow and selfish outlook on life, but this is not uncommon. Psychological research shows that humans care far more about their relative status than "objective" wealth.

Unfortunately, happiness quickly loses its correlation with wealth. Unsolicited advice to the parent: seek out a strong community. Being "better than everyone" is a great path to dying alone.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#53

Post by rezistik »

sotojuan wrote: post #29
rezistik wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like that survey. The lower class is completely unrepresented in tech. It's been one of the weirdest and hardest things for me to handle personally.

I think low-income people who go into tech do not go into start ups. It's a risk. If you fail (very likely), you are back to being poor. I'm a student and notice that a lot of the other low income students and underrepresented groups (of which I am a part of) in my CS program go straight to "safe" jobs, usually enterprise stuff. Actually now that I think about it: I work in my university's IT department, helping out…

I was "lucky" in that my parents were so terrible with money that every year around tax time assuming we weren't homeless they'd head into Rent-A-Center and rent a computer for the house. If it weren't for that I never would have been exposed to start ups and programming. I didn't go to a real school, opting instead for some community college because the fear of debt and failure were too real, but the years of hustling, jail breaking peoples iPhones, designing sites for other local hustlers, and reading /. and digg meant I'd been exposed enough to the web that I had good js experience. Lucky twice because JS wasn't nearly as enterprise-y when I started wanting to work at start ups.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#54

Post by jonathankoren »

danielvinson wrote: post #49
keithba wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is this: http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/2010/05/the-anat...

This is unfortunately very outdated. (07/08/09) I would wager that a lot has changed in the last 7 years.

I doubt it. Has access to capital changed? If anything, the trend is towards more concentration.

Cronyism is just a given when it comes to finance and business dealings.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#55

Post by rezistik »

asift wrote: post #36
rezistik wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like that survey. The lower class is completely unrepresented in tech. It's been one of the weirdest and hardest things for me to handle personally.

Does that surprise you? As far as I know, they are underrepresented in medicine, finance, and law as well. There is more mobility than most people realize, but it's not like employment approaches anything near a random distribution. Given the potential advantages of being born into a wealthier class (both hereditary and non-hereditary), I would expect to see underrepresentation.

It doesn't surprise me at all. Being in tech usually means starting earlier than medicine, finance or law and if you're poor you likely had less opportunities to own or use computers. Access might be provided through school or libraries but you won't generally have access to installing programming languages or anything.

While it didn't surprise me I'd still like more surveys and insight to exactly how hard it is for the lower class to join the tech and start up booms.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#56

Post by danielvinson »

keithba wrote: post #7
dtran wrote: post #3

Has anyone done a survey of the family socio-economic status of startup founders and early employees? I'd be curious to see how many founders/early employees are from low-income families, whether their parents graduated college, etc. If not, I'd love to create one.

There is this: http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/2010/05/the-anat...

"More than 90 percent of the entrepreneurs came from middle-class or upper-lower-class backgrounds"

I'd like to offer a potential explanation of this: Middle and upper-lower-class individuals have the most to gain by doing things on their own.

* An upper-lower-class or middle class child will not have the same burdens and problems as a lower-class individual as describes in this post. They likely have just enough of a support system to be able to make it on their own.

* An upper-lower-class or middle class child will NOT be able to get into a great college with scholarships. They will likely choose a safer route, like a cheaper state school. This makes them less desirable to employers, so the "safe" route doesn't exist.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#57

Post by 13thLetter »

paulv wrote: post #28
67726e wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you could stop using the fact that someone is white, male, or straight as some kind of attack, insult, or excuse. There are certainly issues in society, real problems but I'm tired of hearing it. Somehow all of my hardships in life are reduced to nothing, because I'm "privileged".

"...if you think having privilege means that you’re a bad person, or that you haven’t had struggles, or that you haven’t worked hard for what you have – then I can totally feel why you might be frustrated. If that were the case, then yes, it’d be completely unfair of me to claim that all white people or straight people or men or people of any other dominant group are living easy off their unearned privileges. But hav…

Then perhaps Ms. Johnson should take that up with 90% of the people who use the word "privilege" in arguments nowadays, because they're not using it the way she thinks they're using it.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#58

Post by some-guy »

ryandrake wrote: post #27
rezistik wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like that survey. The lower class is completely unrepresented in tech. It's been one of the weirdest and hardest things for me to handle personally.

You know what's weird and uncomfortable sometimes? Going to lunch with your co-workers and listening to them talk about the awful problems of their lives, like how they wish their maids could come twice a week instead of every two weeks, and how difficult it is that they have to pay [my salary * 0.5] for their kid's private school. How worried they are about things like the stock market and how high the property taxe…

My biggest shock was during my first internship during college making $30 / hour at an enterprise software company. For background: I went the community college / go-get-a-degree-in-your-late-20s-route in life, living off nearly minimum wage for many years before going to CC.

The first paycheck comes after two weeks, $1800 after taxes and withholding. I am in awe of how much money I suddenly have in my bank account. My fellow students who were interning instantly started complaining about the tax rate and how they wouldn't be able to afford SF rent and the lease payment on a sports car.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#59

Post by Swizec »

Xyik wrote: post #14
pfarnsworth wrote: post #9

This is a really poorly written post. Where exactly is the inequality in Silicon Valley? The OP got into Stanford, and then got an entire free ride something most people can't get. How exactly does this prove inequality? And then he got into YC. If anything this proves how equal things are in the Valley, if you're hardworking enough, there isn't anything you can't do, regardless of your social status. Sure, you have…

"Yet this OP disproved this. So I don't get what the point is." From the blog: "David and I are living proof that if we can upgrade and improve the way we think, and overcome our mindset inequality, then maybe we can help others do the same" Yes the blog clearly states that its not impossible, the OP is simply sharing how he overcame hurdles despite the challenges he faced being poor. It's meant to help others do the…

That's like saying "The fastest human can run at 27mph. That means it can't be that hard and most people should be able to do it. They just aren't trying hard enough."

You're missing the point. Privilege/inequality isn't about something being possible/impossible, it's about something being systemically harder for a whole section of the population. That this exists in Silicon Valley is a fact.

Whether this is good or bad, something to be fixed or not, is a matter of opinion.

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