The San Francisco Bay Area Has a Values Problem

[Newsjock]

Source: East Bay Express

... The ugly sustained attacks on middle-class BART workers in the mainstream press over the last year, combined with a blind eye toward Silicon Valley arrogance and large-scale financial criminality, have exposed a growing and worrisome trend in the Bay Area. The heroes of the current age are not the hardest working or most caring or most helpful members of our society. Instead, they are the most arrogant, and in some ways, the most compromised.

Take the tech industry. For all of its coolness and shiny products, values espoused by the leaders of this industry are contributing to a hollowing out of Bay Area progressivism and humanism. This month, Farhad Manjoo, author of the "High Definition" column for The Wall Street Journal, wrote a piece titled "Silicon Valley Has an Arrogance Problem." In it, he argued that many tech entrepreneurs believe that due to "their cultural and economic power," only they have the ability to "shape the future." Non-techies are dismissed as "unimportant to the nation's future."

... Think about that for a minute. Silicon Valley knows it is building and promoting technologies that will cause major job losses. Yet instead of being concerned with the well-being of those who will be unable to find work, the techsters are worried about whether they will be able to escape with their skin — and of course with their money.

Tech is not alone in corrupting local values. Consider the powerful companies that inhabit the gleaming buildings of San Francisco's financial district. It is not an exaggeration to say that the greatest organized criminality that has taken place in our lifetime is thriving there today.

Read more: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/the-bay-area-has-a-values-problem/Content?oid=3762141

[FirstLight]

1. well...

it really isn't *just* the Bay...it is a permeating culture of money over substance. I got mine, fuck the rest...

[DJ13]

2. + a Brazillion

[Starry Messenger]

3. K&RRRRR

God, and they litter comments sections with their "You should just move somewhere that fits your budget then." Us poors work here too, guys. Or will you wonder when all services just stop, because it turns out that apps can't do everything.

[bobduca]

20. comments littering (sfgate is the worst)

A gathering place for right-wing morans. Most of these fools have never been to the bay.

[snooper2]

4. Most people are good..

I guess it's getting closer to the holidays so diatribes like this will get more frequent


The people fucking this country up are teabaggers in Missouri who think the World is 6000 years old. Not the lead Java and HTML5 developer making 163K a year.

[nomorenomore08]

8. It's the guys making 163 *million* a year that are more the problem, I'd say...

The Bay Area has, what, something like 90-100 billionaires? Such vast wealth contrasted with so much poverty is damn near Third World level.

[snooper2]

11. That stat you quoted sounded ridiculous so I looked it up

Here you go



Rank State Number of billionaires Billionaires per million population
1 California 85 2.26
2 New York 67 3.46
3 Texas 44 1.75
4 Florida 27 1.44
5 Illinois 20 1.56
6 Connecticut 11 3.08
7 Wisconsin 10 1.76
8 Michigan 10 1.01
9 Nevada 8 2.96
10 Oklahoma 7 1.87

[nomorenomore08]

23. Shit! I could've sworn I read that "90 in the Bay" stat somewhere. My mistake.

Still, I would bet that virtually all of those 85 live in either the Bay Area or the L.A. Metro Area.

[passiveporcupine]

28. you need to read that again

They have 85 billionaires...that is 2.26 billionaires per million in population. California has about 38 million people.

[Gormy Cuss]

31. Oops! You're right. I misread the column headings. n/t

[YoungDemCA]

19. +1

[DeSwiss]

5. You can try.....

...but I don't think you can get him back in.

- K&R

[brooklynite]

6. Guess you were opposed to the cotton gin...

...the electric washing machine? the diesel locomotive? No technological innovation since the dawn of civilization has incorporated a support system for those economically dislocated. That may be a lamentable development but expecting a utopian alternative is unrealistic.

[nomorenomore08]

9. Yeah, so "lamentable" that millions are going to be out of work with little to no safety net.

I can just smell the fucking human compassion wafting off of you...

[brooklynite]

13. My compassion isn't the issue.....

....and FWIW my wife and I provide financial and personal support for a range of charitable endeavors helping the economically disadvantaged, and work to elect Democrats who are more than willing to raise our taxes to provide a stronger safety net.

The point is that no technological innovation has EVER incorporated a support system for dislocated workers. It's simply not practical for a company to develop a product AND provide support for the people dislocated by the PURCHASER of the product. If it was, somebody would have tried to implement it by now.

BTW - any irony to the fact that you're lamenting the job losses of Silicon Valley technology on a Silicon Valley-designed computer?

[nomorenomore08]

18. Yeah, my last comment was a little over the top. But like a lot of people I'm legitimately worried

about the future, very much so. And I happen to live in the Bay.

P.S. Glad to hear you're trying to make a difference.

[Wilms]

10. More Repuklican values from the DLC.

Don't you have calls to make for Hillary or something impressive like that?

[jtuck004]

12. Maybe that's a desgin fault? What a terrible waste of human resources that become a drag

on the economic benefits of future technologies. Not to mention make it dangerous (and maybe it should be more so) for those who profit from the changes which allow them to exploit others.

[LeftyMom]

15. What, were your ears burning?

[Starry Messenger]

21. lol

[mulsh]

7. The East Bay Express is one of the few papers out here to actually commit acts of journaism.

thanks for posting this.

[flamingdem]

14. I think the point is the threat to the values of the Bay Area

that really are unique and could be destroyed by Silicon Valley values steamrolling the political landscape with their dough.

[YoungDemCA]

16. Yep. The tech industry, of course, is the major culprit here...

....but I guess the ruthless libertarianism (disguised as progressivism) that its leaders promote is beyond reproach here in the Silicon Valley.

[white_wolf]

17. Sliicon Valley may be a rust bucket in a few decades...

At least that's what physicist Michio Kaku said tonight. I heard him speak at school and one of the topics he addressed was the future of computers and he said computers are currently getting more and more powerful, but we are going to eventually reach the point where silicon can't be used for computers anymore. Granted, this would probably be decades off, but it is interesting to think about.

[bobduca]

22. "Largest Homeless Camp in the Mainland US" is a great example of the Bay Area's value's problem...

http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/WELCOME-TO-THE-JUNGLE-The-Largest-Homeless-4775643.php



The SF bay area has been the focal point for CA law enforcement's organized response to the homeless problem for over 30 years. Many who violated vagrancy laws have been given one-way bus tickets here.

[CreekDog]

24. I think that's wrong. The building I work in downtown looks shiny, that's not my building

I don't own it, I don't lease, it, I just work in it. If I was told to work in the Bayview, I'd have to pick up and go there. I have really no say and most who work downtown are the same way.

Meanwhile, most of us go home at night and vote for tolerant and liberal causes, even labor friendly causes most of the time.

And despite this editorial's singling out of San Francisco as the heart of something very anti-labor, this city has supported its workers many, many times over the years. Higher minimum wages, it's preserved the union contracted garbage collection arrangement with the City of San Francisco, support for universal health care. Building hospitals, building museums, building and supporting colleges in the city too...

The editorial/depiction of San Francisco is at odds with the reality of most people in San Francisco.

[Le Taz Hot]

25. Wait.

San Franciscans are saying Silicon Valley has an arrogance problem?



Oh, that's rich!

Try this: Go to "The City" and tell them you're from the San Joaquin Valley. Just try it.

[blkmusclmachine]

27. ,

,

[BootinUp]

29. Nothing new really. Techies are often young dumb and full of

shit when it comes to societal issues.

[liberal_at_heart]

30. Our entire society, liberals included, is self-righteous and arrogant.

[Eleanors38]

32. The illusion of morality, intelligence gained by attacking others.