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The title could almost be: "Large tech companies lobby local officials to allow them to offer exclusive employment benefits."
by jotux 8y ago
The title could almost be: "Large tech companies lobby local officials to allow them to offer exclusive employment benefits."
- favorited 8y agoIs that what happened? Did large tech companies advocate for this? Or is that a conspiracy theory?
- jotux 8y agoI admit this is pure speculation. There are mentions in another article[1] that some restaurant associations supported it: >The measure has the support of Gwyneth Borden, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association and other local merchants. It seems suspicious that before the legislation is even introduced exceptions have been carved out for the existing big companies. [1] http://www.sfexaminer.com/supervisors-move-ban-workplace-cafeterias/ http://www.sfexaminer.com/supervisors-move-ban-workplace-caf...
- munificent 8y agoIf they tried to take the cafes away from existing tech employees, they would have a riot on their hands. Googlers and Facebookers would burn the city to the ground. It is an intensely beloved part of the job.
- kabdb 8y ago> Googlers and Facebookers would burn the city to the ground. At most, they would make a website with a little game featuring an animation of the city burning down, then giggle and and share it with each other, all the while deaf to the irony that, in reality, they already are burning it down; they just can’t see it. The disconcern behind your whining threat exerts, on the broader population, a blunt misery of slow-burning economic torture the likes of which the tech worker’s comforts will not afford them to perceive. A real fire would at least offer closure and hope amidst a new beginning. This one just keeps blistering.
- shub 8y agoSpicy. The fundamental problem is that a lot of people have jobs that pay a lot of money, I take it. You seem very upset about this.
- ironjunkie 8y agoThere is a disconnect here. When you make 10 times more money at Google than the average American and then start threatening to "Burn google down" if the free lunches go away, it looks like a scene from a different world to a low-skilled worker. A bit of decency from some of the best paid employees in America would go a long way. This is not what I see in the arrogant, know-it-all attitude of most Googlers though.
- JetSpiegel 8y agoIf those employees can act in concert like you suggest, they could form an union.
- hueving 8y agoWhy do you think that's something any of those employees desire? They make significantly more money, have more benefits, and likely work fewer hours than any union employees in the US. Additionally, unions in the US tend to base pay on seniority rather than any kind of merit, which is a huge turn-off for ambitious people.
- infinite8s 8y agoYou realize actors work in a union?
- hueving 8y agoYou realize actors do not do well on average right?
- milesvp 8y agoI can tell you what I learned from my undergrad econ professors. Every time you see regulations that look like they hurt an industry, you will inevitably find the biggest player in said industry pushing for it. For large companies, the cost of compliance is a smaller percentage of their total costs than for smaller companies, and so it acts as a moat for smaller players trying to break into the industry, effectively reducing competition, and keeping prices high. So, conspiracy theory or not, it's very plausible that the large established players had a hand in drafting this law.
- SolarNet 8y agoProbably not a conspiracy theory. Just an inevitable "if you can't beat em, join em" sort of mentality. For big companies regulation is generally easier to build loopholes into than fight.
- hinkley 8y agoTechnically grandfather clauses are about spreading out the confrontation to sneak policy through. But sometimes it looks a lot like collusion.