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Tech Workers Backing Candidates Looking to Break Up Their Employers

bloomberg.com

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

#51

Post by rmrfrmrf »

electricslpnsld wrote: post #13
changchuming wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Being in extremely left-wing Bay area with historic ties to the free speech movement. 2. They're not, it just benefits both the tech companies and the media to portray them that way. Based on personal observations.

Eh, Bay Area isn’t that left wing. It’s more neo-liberal than anything else, just look at the area’s reps in congress.

Worth noting that the difference between neoliberal and left-wing wasn't really brought into focus until a few years ago. Also worth noting that Pelosi advocated for single-payer in the 90s then made a rightward turn.

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

#52

Post by adamsea »

throwaway713 wrote: post #42
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.

I work at one of the companies often cited as having very left-wing employees, and my impression is that the media heavily overplays this. I would instead say there is a small but very active group of employees that push a left-leaning political agenda, and most of these people tend to have non-STEM backgrounds (I don’t know why this is the case, but it is what I have observed). Most of the software engineers and dat…

Not to poke too much fun but a non-STEM background could mean significant coursework in history, political science / theory, philosophy, and sociology or anthropology (which although sciences are usually mor colloquially implied by STEM).

So maybe non-STEM folks tend to lean left because they are better educated on the issues ;)

I’m a bit tongue-in cheek here, but, couldn’t resist :)

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

#53

Post by methodover »

recursivecaveat wrote: post #36

Pretty telling that the idea of voting against one's own financial self-interest, even as a single part of a large platform, is a wild idea to these business journalists.

How is it voting against their self interest?

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

#54

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o »

What a surprise. I'd love to be a billionaire, but I like Sanders opinions about whether they should exist. I'd love to be worth enough for it to hurt me, but I like Warren's wealth tax idea. I'd love to pay lower taxes, or less progressive taxes, but I'm happy to support those less fortunate. As a matter of fact, I'm not even a single-issue voter! Perhaps most controversially, I think altruism is good for society. Shocking, I know.

What a crazy idea, voting against your own interest. gasp!

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

#55

Post by methodover »

hos234 wrote: post #24
mc32 wrote: post #6

To some degree I agree that some of these companies have too much control over users and collect too much information and give users too little control in that. With that said, I feel there’s some irony in this. These companies essentially have encouraged and enabled these attitudes in their workforce thinking this would make the employers look like they shared the same goals and had to good of workers in mind. Essen…

Zuckerberg is known to rave about Emporer Augustus achieving 200 years of world peace through "harsh methods". So they cherry pick whatever stories they want from history to justify their mistakes.

Do you have a source for the Zuckerberg quote?

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

#56

Post by geofft »

option wrote: post #25
pytester wrote: post #5

Wasn't too surprised to see that Bloomberg neglected to mention a pretty self evident reason why tech workers might want that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L... I'm pretty sure that if the anti-trust litigation in 2001 hadn't battered microsoft then tech wages would not be as high today. Competition among employers is good for wages, and the fewer and bigger the employers, the less the co…

I am not quite sure that smaller companies can offer higher wages. Also, keep in mind a story of Bell Labs - the innovation power house hugely responsible for tens of Nobel Prize winning inventions such as transistor and solar cells. You need an insanely rich and powerful parent company to fund something like this (only Alphabet is kind pf doing it these days)

Bell Labs was prohibited from commercializing UNIX thanks to an antitrust settlement, which led to it being widely distributed to both academic and commercial users (who could commercialize it themselves). This led to the Berkeley Software Distribution of UNIX, as well as numerous improvements by both academic and commercial users sharing patches. According to ESR, when the settlement was made irrelevant by the Bell breakup, "AT&T promptly rushed to commercialize Unix System V—a move that nearly killed Unix." http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ch02s01.html

Funding and profit motive are different things and optimize for different results.

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

#57

Post by throwaway713 »

adamsea wrote: post #52
throwaway713 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at one of the companies often cited as having very left-wing employees, and my impression is that the media heavily overplays this. I would instead say there is a small but very active group of employees that push a left-leaning political agenda, and most of these people tend to have non-STEM backgrounds (I don’t know why this is the case, but it is what I have observed). Most of the software engineers and dat…

Not to poke too much fun but a non-STEM background could mean significant coursework in history, political science / theory, philosophy, and sociology or anthropology (which although sciences are usually mor colloquially implied by STEM). So maybe non-STEM folks tend to lean left because they are better educated on the issues ;) I’m a bit tongue-in cheek here, but, couldn’t resist :)

> So maybe non-STEM folks tend to lean left because they are better educated on the issues ;)

I totally agree with you, but would add the caveat that more education on social issues doesn’t mean more likely to be correct ;) (poking fun back haha)

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

#58

Post by adamsea »

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…

In principle I agree with your point but imho our current president is an exception to that rule.

How often does a self-confessed sexual abuser get elected president?

And the sad thing is that comment of mine is not even slander - it’s a statement of fact, since the “Grab ‘em by the pussy” comment === admitting to being sexually abusive.

If I was a woman, and an exec, I would certainly be tearing up regardless of my political views.

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

#59

Post by mc32 »

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #54

What a surprise. I'd love to be a billionaire, but I like Sanders opinions about whether they should exist. I'd love to be worth enough for it to hurt me, but I like Warren's wealth tax idea. I'd love to pay lower taxes, or less progressive taxes, but I'm happy to support those less fortunate. As a matter of fact, I'm not even a single-issue voter! Perhaps most controversially, I think altruism is good for society. S…

>”What a crazy idea, voting against your own interest. gasp!”

I know you mean it differently but people in the middle class get accused of voting against their interests and it’s said as something negative in their political choices.

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

#60

Post by methodover »

vuln wrote: post #22
wpasc wrote: post #3

I'm sorry but this article is beyond stupid. It is a narrative in search of data. Opening line: >Silicon Valley software engineers seem more loyal to the left wing of the Democratic Party than to their own employers. Then proceeds to include no data that any donations are actually from software engineers. Then the actual amounts: >Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, who has called for breaking up Facebook, Amazo…

I find it weird that she picks and chooses. Limits the execs but takes money from the low level employees. https://www.wsj.com/articles/elizabeth-warren-limits-donatio...

I see no contradiction there. She’s fighting against the influence wielded by those at the very top of the ladder.
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