5 ms·

I'm not sure, but it's been a little surprising to me as well. For the past month any time I've had a conversation with someone who had an opinion about politic

by icey 8y ago

I'm not sure, but it's been a little surprising to me as well. For the past month any time I've had a conversation with someone who had an opinion about politics and policies in SF, I've asked them if they have voted yet, or if they're going to vote; and while nearly everyone has had an opinion, only two people in tech out of probably two dozen have said yes. Of the remaining lot, a bunch have said they never registered to vote for a variety of reasons ("I forgot to", "Oh, I need to do that sometime", "I don't want my information getting sold", "I still don't have a California driver's license", etc). On the other hand, friends not in tech (much more varied population by job; artists, food-service & bar industry, construction, medical) were much more motivated to tell me not only what their opinions were, but how they were voting (or had already voted) and why. It's possible that this will change nearer to the mid-term, but it doesn't seem like primary elections get people that excited. It's a great question though, and I'll start asking more deeply about it because I'm curious now as well!

dvtrn 8y ago
Anecdote time: Last night I stumbled by a group of older (than me, all clearly retired) folks talking about Unions at my local pub. Interested, I sat down and quietly listened in-they didn't seem to mind. At one point though I spoke up about how surprised I was that we haven't seen more tech workers unionizing in areas that aren't San Francisco, Cupertino or Austin. The "leader" of the pack so to speak,went on to talk about all of the amenities tech giants offer like day cares and dog parks on campus, laundry facilities etc and then he capped it off with "but none of that stuff pays your rent in San Fran". Bringing it all back around, I do genuinely think about this sort of stuff a lot and I wonder if there's something to be said of a tech culture that gives it's employees so much that they passively lose something that binds us all to the connective tissue of citizen engagement. I only bring it up because I've noticed the exact same phenomenon you have: lots of very smart, well paid tech friends who confessed to not even bothering to vote despite very huge opinions about everything political and an even larger eagerness to display their "wokeness" on social media. It's my poorer blue collar and service industry friends I see online asking for rides to the polls, and are the ones who ask ME "did you vote today?"
Karrot_Kream 8y ago
> I'm not sure, but it's been a little surprising to me as well. When you have the income to: 1. Rent a comfortable apartment pretty much anywhere in the Bay Area, without fear of rising rent displacing you. (Keep rent within a third of your income) 2. Pay for a private solution (Rideshare, Private commuter buses, tech company shuttle) to the broken transportation infrastructure, dirty streets, and the homeless problem of the Bay. 3. Have a fiscal safety net in case something happens to your income. 4. Have the insurance needed to withstand the occasional curve-balls of life. then you've mostly averted the endemic problems of the Bay Area. SF's gov't is incompetent, and private solutions have alleviated most of its systemic issues for its moneyed classes. Of course people in tech won't be as motivated to vote, they're insulated from all of the problems. There's a growing sentiment (growing being an understatement, Google/Apple buses have been smashed/blocked for years now) that tech's private market solutions are priced to only help their own out. Until this perception changes, they're going to want to vote with their rage.
- closeparen 8y ago
  They’re priced to clear markets so that functioning goods and services are actually available at their stated prices. Whereas for some reason populists prefer public transit that’s uniformly abysmal and “affordable housing” that no individual applicant has a reasonable chance of winning.
  - Karrot_Kream 8y ago
    My comment wasn't meant to be political. I'm just talking about the perspective. I'm not sure about you, but if my housing, transportation, and livelihood were threatened, I'm not going to sit back and say "oh oops looks like I'm on the other side of systemic issues, public failure, and market clearing, that's just the way the world works".
  - vkou 8y ago
    Public transit in cities that aren't SF is not 'uniformally abysmal.' One of the reasons for it, is that in cities with working transit, both the rich, and the poor, newcomers and decades-established people take the bus/train. When people with influence are using public transit, it stops being shit. Pointing at Muni, and saying: "Look, you fools! Public transit doesn't work!" is a bit like pointing at Somalia, circa 2009, and saying: "Look, you fools! Rule of law doesn't work!"

by icey 8y ago

dvtrn 8y ago

Anecdote time: Last night I stumbled by a group of older (than me, all clearly retired) folks talking about Unions at my local pub. Interested, I sat down and quietly listened in-they didn't seem to mind. At one point though I spoke up about how surprised I was that we haven't seen more tech workers unionizing in areas that aren't San Francisco, Cupertino or Austin. The "leader" of the pack so to speak,went on to talk about all of the amenities tech giants offer like day cares and dog parks on campus, laundry facilities etc and then he capped it off with "but none of that stuff pays your rent in San Fran". Bringing it all back around, I do genuinely think about this sort of stuff a lot and I wonder if there's something to be said of a tech culture that gives it's employees so much that they passively lose something that binds us all to the connective tissue of citizen engagement. I only bring it up because I've noticed the exact same phenomenon you have: lots of very smart, well paid tech friends who confessed to not even bothering to vote despite very huge opinions about everything political and an even larger eagerness to display their "wokeness" on social media. It's my poorer blue collar and service industry friends I see online asking for rides to the polls, and are the ones who ask ME "did you vote today?"

Karrot_Kream 8y ago

> I'm not sure, but it's been a little surprising to me as well. When you have the income to: 1. Rent a comfortable apartment pretty much anywhere in the Bay Area, without fear of rising rent displacing you. (Keep rent within a third of your income) 2. Pay for a private solution (Rideshare, Private commuter buses, tech company shuttle) to the broken transportation infrastructure, dirty streets, and the homeless problem of the Bay. 3. Have a fiscal safety net in case something happens to your income. 4. Have the insurance needed to withstand the occasional curve-balls of life. then you've mostly averted the endemic problems of the Bay Area. SF's gov't is incompetent, and private solutions have alleviated most of its systemic issues for its moneyed classes. Of course people in tech won't be as motivated to vote, they're insulated from all of the problems. There's a growing sentiment (growing being an understatement, Google/Apple buses have been smashed/blocked for years now) that tech's private market solutions are priced to only help their own out. Until this perception changes, they're going to want to vote with their rage.

closeparen 8y ago
They’re priced to clear markets so that functioning goods and services are actually available at their stated prices. Whereas for some reason populists prefer public transit that’s uniformly abysmal and “affordable housing” that no individual applicant has a reasonable chance of winning.
- Karrot_Kream 8y ago
  My comment wasn't meant to be political. I'm just talking about the perspective. I'm not sure about you, but if my housing, transportation, and livelihood were threatened, I'm not going to sit back and say "oh oops looks like I'm on the other side of systemic issues, public failure, and market clearing, that's just the way the world works".
- vkou 8y ago
  Public transit in cities that aren't SF is not 'uniformally abysmal.' One of the reasons for it, is that in cities with working transit, both the rich, and the poor, newcomers and decades-established people take the bus/train. When people with influence are using public transit, it stops being shit. Pointing at Muni, and saying: "Look, you fools! Public transit doesn't work!" is a bit like pointing at Somalia, circa 2009, and saying: "Look, you fools! Rule of law doesn't work!"