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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

#61

Post by confidantlake »

zozbot234 wrote: post #43
confidantlake wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> the left wing tends to be more science based Sorry, but the left wing is not "science based" at all when it comes to the social sciences - their attitude to social issues is very much religious in nature (see any mention of "socialism" and "wealth taxes" as perhaps the clearest and least controversial example) and "the antithesis of the enlightenment". Both sides are playing this game.

Agreed, but in my personal view social sciences are not really sciences at all. They have a largely ideological component. I expect there to be disagreements there. On the other hand denying hard sciences seems much worse.

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

#62

Post by Tagbert »

methodover wrote: post #53
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?

the article is using a single, narrow definition of self-interest: income.

that is one interest that we can pursue but we can also have value interests that are sometimes in conflict with each other.

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

#64

Post by claudeganon »

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 continued to be surprised by how much they got away with and how little in the way of consequences there seems to have been. After his involvement in the scandal, Lazlo Bock got a book deal for a work celebrating Google’s HR practices.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/google-apple-cl...

https://www.workrules.net/

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

#65

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

I wonder what the support is after Warren revealed her tax plans?

I would think that increasing the capital gains taxes and requiring taxes on stock appreciation regardless of they are sold would affect Silicon Valley workers who often have a large part of their competition as stocks/equity.

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

#66

Post by zozbot234 »

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…

Wealth taxes are actually bad for society, and especially bad for altruistic people who care about the less fortunate. A wealth tax is a tax on capital, period - and making capital more expensive hurts everyone, but it hugely hurts those who need capital the most. If you care about lowering inequality without hurting folks more than you have to, what you want is a mildly-progressive consumption tax. (I.e. an income tax which exempts most savings and investments from counting as income.)

(Oh, and perhaps get rid of assorted insanity such as Prop 13 in CA, so that the real estate market can become functional, and those who own lots of expensive real estate pay their fair share.)

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

#67

Post by epistasis »

zozbot234 wrote: post #66
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…

Wealth taxes are actually bad for society, and especially bad for altruistic people who care about the less fortunate. A wealth tax is a tax on capital, period - and making capital more expensive hurts everyone, but it hugely hurts those who need capital the most. If you care about lowering inequality without hurting folks more than you have to, what you want is a mildly-progressive consumption tax. (I.e. an income t…

> A wealth tax is a tax on capital, period - and making capital more expensive hurts everyone, but it hugely hurts those who need capital the most.

This doesn't really follow at all, and is directly in contradiction with your desire to get rid of Prop 13. Property taxes are the most common wealth tax!

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

#68

Post by claudeganon »

zozbot234 wrote: post #66
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…

Wealth taxes are actually bad for society, and especially bad for altruistic people who care about the less fortunate. A wealth tax is a tax on capital, period - and making capital more expensive hurts everyone, but it hugely hurts those who need capital the most. If you care about lowering inequality without hurting folks more than you have to, what you want is a mildly-progressive consumption tax. (I.e. an income t…

> Wealth taxes are actually bad for society, and especially bad for altruistic people who care about the less fortunate.

Maybe instead of depending on the sporadic largesse of billionaires and all the awful political and economic consequences that come along with that kind of wealth concentration, we can have a functioning safety net, like the rest of the developed world.

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

#69

Post by whateveracct »

zozbot234 wrote: post #66
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…

Wealth taxes are actually bad for society, and especially bad for altruistic people who care about the less fortunate. A wealth tax is a tax on capital, period - and making capital more expensive hurts everyone, but it hugely hurts those who need capital the most. If you care about lowering inequality without hurting folks more than you have to, what you want is a mildly-progressive consumption tax. (I.e. an income t…

I'm impressed HN is downvoting this brutal capitalist nonsense, give what this forum is all about :)

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

#70

Post by isoprophlex »

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.

Yes, and no. Megacorps are many smaller entities, sometimes at war with eachother.

Maybe it makes sense to vote for breaking up the mothership if that means your product stays alive. See: the retardedly long list of things Google killed...

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