Why the Occupy Movement Skipped Silicon Valley

An anonymous reader writes "Eric Schmidt says what we all suspected: Silicon Valley has largely been immune to the Great Recession. He said, 'Occupy Wall Street isn’t really something that comes up in daily discussion, because their issues are not our daily reality. We live in a bubble, and I don’t mean a tech bubble or a valuation bubble. I mean a bubble as in our own little world.... Companies can’t hire people fast enough. Young people can work hard and make a fortune. Homes hold their value.'"

Comments

And then there was truth

[alphatel]

Homes over a million hold their value
Companies can't offshore fast enough
Young people can work hard and be fooled into thinking that they will make a fortune.

Re:And then there was truth

[Anonymous Coward]

Homes in the bay area are holding their value for one simple reason at this point...a coordinated effort on the part of the Chinese government to purchase real estate in San Francisco. Anyone who's tried buying a house in SF in the past 2-3 years is likely familiar with the situation of having a bid rejected because an all-cash offer for over asking was made by an overseas buyer. The real estate agent I spoke with indicated that every one of these bids that she's seen has come from a single, state-owned, Chinese bank. This alone has propped up housing demand and forced other buyers to look elsewhere in the area.

The conspiracy nut in me would be very wary of hiring Chinese nationals who've just purchased homes in the area. We're all painfully aware of the wages that developers make over there (thus the outsourcing problem), so when they start outbidding locals for expensive homes and the money is coming from the Chinese government, you have to wonder whether they're part of their already-well-covered industrial espionage efforts.

Re:And then there was truth

[sydneyfong]

I don't reckon there is a state sponsored conspiracy to buy up real estate in San Fran. (occam's razor and all)

I'm living in Hong Kong, where "luxury" residents have been gobbled up by mainland Chinese buyers, in pretty much the same way (all-cash, at inflated prices). It has messed up the property market enough for there to be anti-capitalist sentiments here among the local population because they can't afford (in their lifetimes!!) to buy a home. The gossip is that it's become sort of "fashionable" among the rich Chinese to "invest" in overseas properties, perhaps particularly in places with relatively high Chinese populations...

Sometimes it's for emigration purposes. And China is having its own housing bubble right now, so real estate speculators there are looking abroad for new markets to play with.

(Of course it isn't fun to be trumped by the army of mysterious Chinese buyers even if it isn't necessarily a Chinese government conspiracy, but just in case you're interested to know.)

oh, not true!

[TheGratefulNet]

I'm one of the unemployed (older and seasoned, yet not able to find interviews or jobs in my field). to folks like me, we are *very* much in tune with the occupy movement. we're not at work being flooded with 'work harder, harder; longer, longer!' messages. we're not caught up IN the bubble, we're outside the bubble. we see what its like on both sides.

you don't.

that's what makes all the difference. I've been employed for about 3 decades (in the software field) and I've paid more dues than eric, in my time. he's attained a more powerful position but he knows far less about life than me - of that, I'm very sure. I can tell. anyone my age and with just my simple travels, can.

I'm currently 'over there' in the not-working group (or should I say, not-employed; I'm actually working quite a lot, in fact). I don't think it will stay that way for a long time, but I've been here longer than I thought. its a bit scary and I can see the corporate greed that is caustic to employees. everyone is there 'at the pleasure of the king', pretty much. I see that. the occupy guys see that.

maybe he really does get it but he also realizes that people at his level have to sing the same song. its possible. hard to tell if he believes his own bullshit or not. some do, some don't.

at any rate, many of the folks I know (techies who are also out of work and mostly of middle age or higher) are *strongly* aware and in support of the occupy movement. I'm right smack in the middle of silicon valley, not even very far from the google campus. I remember when it was the SGI campus, too (and I worked at SGI back in those days; before there was a google). I feel I have a good handle on the bay area and silicon valley. and I can say, he's full of shit.

"occupy" *should* really hit home with bay area workers. especially the knowledge-based workers; ones that can so easily be replaced and outsourced. the fact that we are not unionized and that we are a 'commodity' puts us at extreme risk of being fired for any reason and at any time. you've seen the downsizing in front of your own eyes. you can't deny that, can you? are *all* those guys really poor performers? do you believe that?

yes

[unity100]

and furthermore, 'getting rich' by 'hard work' is the biggest piece of fraud that is perpetrated by current system. can you think that someone who is owning majority or even noticeable share on a megacorporation, got rich through 'hard work' ?

now, if you redefine hard work to be 'making others work and taking the fruits of labor to 90% percentage', then it becomes possible. but then again, in the last 50 years that has also been circumvented - those who are owning the means are making a tiny minority (mostly from middle class) work for them to make others work for them, and reaping the profits. in short, we send our sons, daughters to business colleges to get high degrees and be high level managers, even executives to make all the people work for the sake of a minority owner percentage. no different than the peasants sending their sons to be lord's soldiers, or tax collectors.

Re:yes

[Ethanol-fueled]

Here is a suggestion, don't give those "evil" people the power of "happiness" in your life. I would explain more, but I wanna go have a nice snow ball fight with my kids....see how that works.

A good support system(friends, siblings, parents, spouses) is definitely key to surviving corporate bullshit. The problem is that, when you have kids, your corporate overlords actually gain more leverage to squeeze more work and longer hours out of you. At this point in time, I recommend that non-wealthy Americans who are considering having kids wait until the pendulum swings back toward the common worker's favor or move into a country with those conditions.

Furthermore, every parent is publicly obligated to say, "parenthood changed my life and was the best thing to happen to me, etc," their faces a twisted rigor of faux-cheer. Privately, every parent I know has told me that, "they fucked up," or that having kids "ruined their lives." The fact is that kids strain relationships/marriages and drain monetary resources.

I initiated and am leading a successful coup to overthrow my dickhead boss, who is an utterly incompetent unqualified bully railroaded into his position because he was personal buddy-buddies with his immediate supervisor. Thanks to my actions(including 2 full-page psychoanalytic letters to HR explaining his bad behavior), others were encourage to complain and consultants were brought in to see what's really going on. He's now on his way out, and the cronyist VP who hired him has egg all over his face(the extremely poor performance of my boss is actually costing the company sales!). Now I'm the folk hero of my department. I would not have been able to initiate that turn of events had I been afraid of being laid off(and, by extension, supporting my kids).
But what if they just ignore the consultant's findings and lay me off for being a malcontent? No problemo, I have enough savings and unemployment reserves to live comfortably and bullshit-free for a little while. They wouldn't dare fire me because I pre-emptively lodged complaints, and they wouldn't dare give the appearance of retaliation.

Re:oh, not true!||| Me Too

[DeadlyBattleRobot]

I'm over 60 and still working in software. My trick is to never leave home, never let them meet me face to face - the opposite of what you did. I work as a contractor by telecommute, etc. Never bring up the issue of your age. Find an excellent sales person with an existing customer base to come up with ideas and projects, that's been a very good way to go. This is a very interesting time to be in software.

Re:Define the problem

[jamesl]

Don't just wave your arms, give me a definition.

Re:Valued by Results

[scamper_22]

While mainly true, let's not pretend there's much in silicon that can be replicated.

It is your typical isolated exported oriented bubble. Not everyone can be an exporter. Just like not everyone can be like Germany and export high-end manufactured goods. Not everyone can be like Norway or Saudi exporting oil.

It's also not a large employment model. There's only going to be so many innovative Search companies, OS, smart phones, chip set makers...

And that only works as long as the population is small. Heck, the amazing wealth in silicon valley can't even bring prosperity to a single US state. Much less a large nation.

In the grand scheme of things, Silicon Valley might be great for the advancement of technology and small groups of people, but it does virtually nothing for the economic condition of a large nation.

The more I grow up, the more I see Silicon Valley as a really good coping mechanism for a heroin addict. A nation addicted to needing more and more growth to cover a lifestyle it can't afford. And it has reached a point it can't obtain the next high.

They don't have those problems AT THE MOMENT

[originalhack]

they will

Young people (most of Google's employees) think they are indestructible.

I daresay that I am in better financial shape than 80% of Mr Schmidt's employees including those my age and I fully expect to keep innovating and being paid well for it until I am in my 60s and due to retire.

I cannot be certain that I will be OK financially at that point.

* Medicare may be a shadow if what it was
* The social security I paid into on the majority of my income for the last several decades (while the "investor class" paid on little of their income) may be gone
* The major corporations that committed to a pension may have shoveled the liability onto a disposable successor
* Medical insurance may become unattainable
* I could get disabled by the negligent act of a corporation with little or no compensation (Tort "reform") and get wiped out financially

It is time to realize that us 99%-ers are really in this together even if most of us are too busy working to join the protests.

Re:Valued by Results

[MtViewGuy]

Funny you mention these three because the Tea Party movement warned about this earlier, and one Sarah Palin specifically cited this problem in her criticism of "crony capitalism" on a speech she made back in September 2011. The fact that Solyndra collapsed right at the time of her speech made her assertions even MORE potent.

In short, I'd like to see these changes to our financial system:

1. Require real liquidity backing for all investments--that includes hedge funds, derivatives, and so on.
2. Increase the minimum margin requirement rate for futures trading to 20%, with a 35 to 40% rate for strategic important items like petroleum products, certain foodstuffs, certain industrial metals and precious metals.
3. Reimpose the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act and give investment banks 18 months to separate out banking and investment operations.
4. Require that anyone who enters government service to put into a "blind and deaf" trust any holdings (stocks and bonds) of any private company held at the time they enter government service or require that the stock and/or bond holdings be sold off.

Implement these four changes and I think we'll bring stability back to the equities market in about 18-24 months.

Re:It IS a bubble

[DrEldarion]

These people don't understand that their cushy lives and jobs depend on a strong US economy.

Why?

Many big companies have strong presences outside of the US, and receive a majority of their revenue from international sources. If they have their headquarters and most of their workers in the US, though, their expenses are primarily in USD. If the global economy gets stronger as the US economy gets weaker, it can actually be beneficial for these international companies. The exchange rates will be more favorable, and their expenses will be a lower proportion of their overall revenue.

What we're seeing now, though, is actually the US economy remaining relatively strong in relation to most other world economies. Yes, a ton of people are out of work (which is extremely bad, don't get me wrong...), but that's slowly recovering, and we're still far, far, far, far, far better than the EU situation.

Re:Valued by Results

[Yobgod Ababua]

I'm sure he was wrong about something, but he was right about so much more.

The "free" in "free market", incidently, primarily refers to "freedom from monopolistic rents and tariffs", NOT "freedom for companies to do as they wish".

Brilliant.