28 ms·

The complaints about tech raising costs aren't totally unfounded. Most people will point to the rather absurd salaries that employees of these companies get. T

The complaints about tech raising costs aren't totally unfounded. Most people will point to the rather absurd salaries that employees of these companies get. These large salaries are affecting inflation in the areas the employees live, driving up the demand for large homes that the typical non-techie could never hope to afford. It's indirect, and it's not fair to lay everything at the feet of the companies, but there are consequences to them growing so quickly. That said, this is a systemic issue that needs to be solved at a higher level, not at the level of individual companies or people.

xxpor 7y ago
>Most people will point to the rather absurd salaries that employees of these companies get. Labor is finally being compensated (somewhat) fairly is what you mean, I think.
- ryanobjc 7y ago
  Yeah I am going to go ahead and agree with the 'compensated (somewhat) fairly'. Tech employees offer unprecedented leveraged effort -> work put in affects so many people, and has huge effects. In terms of return to capital, right now employees, especially for startups, are getting shafted beyond belief. Thanks for attending my TED talk on "why I will never work for another startup again".
  - andrewxdiamond 7y ago
    With the birth of the modern IT centric world, the individual has the ability to create unprecedented amounts of value for a company. A good team of 5 developers can easily out value an entire department of 50 or 60 people. Developers might be compensated fairly, or at least somewhat fairly, but that value isn't pulled from nowhere. Too often people who critique the economy are focused on the individual view. Economies are large systems, and any good developer knows that a system with weak spots quickly turns into a sinking ship.
- megablast 7y ago
  A few people are. Most people are not. I guess you could describe that as fair.
jonas21 7y ago
So we finally have an industry that pays its workers well and often gives them ownership stakes so that the wealth generated doesn't just go to a handful of executives and owners but is distributed across hundreds of thousands of workers, and somehow it's that industry that's doing things wrong?
- andrewxdiamond 7y ago
  I never said anyone was doing anything wrong. I'm saying this is new. The average Joe in these cities is expecting to earn 125k+ with just a few years of experience. I know, because I am in that exact situation. And while that might be very nice (and fair) to the specific person earning that salary, it puts individuals without that skill at a significant disadvantage. Without modifying the system, we're going to see this gap between the skilled-in-IT and the not-skilled-in-IT get wider and wider until anyone not doing IT might as well sign their lives away to unending dept and poverty.
solidsnack9000 7y ago
It is unfounded because maintaining affordable housing is a responsibility of policymakers, not of corporations, and policymakers are as familiar with the facts about inflation and demand as you are.

xxpor 7y ago

>Most people will point to the rather absurd salaries that employees of these companies get. Labor is finally being compensated (somewhat) fairly is what you mean, I think.

ryanobjc 7y ago
Yeah I am going to go ahead and agree with the 'compensated (somewhat) fairly'. Tech employees offer unprecedented leveraged effort -> work put in affects so many people, and has huge effects. In terms of return to capital, right now employees, especially for startups, are getting shafted beyond belief. Thanks for attending my TED talk on "why I will never work for another startup again".
- andrewxdiamond 7y ago
  With the birth of the modern IT centric world, the individual has the ability to create unprecedented amounts of value for a company. A good team of 5 developers can easily out value an entire department of 50 or 60 people. Developers might be compensated fairly, or at least somewhat fairly, but that value isn't pulled from nowhere. Too often people who critique the economy are focused on the individual view. Economies are large systems, and any good developer knows that a system with weak spots quickly turns into a sinking ship.
megablast 7y ago
A few people are. Most people are not. I guess you could describe that as fair.

jonas21 7y ago

So we finally have an industry that pays its workers well and often gives them ownership stakes so that the wealth generated doesn't just go to a handful of executives and owners but is distributed across hundreds of thousands of workers, and somehow it's that industry that's doing things wrong?

andrewxdiamond 7y ago
I never said anyone was doing anything wrong. I'm saying this is new. The average Joe in these cities is expecting to earn 125k+ with just a few years of experience. I know, because I am in that exact situation. And while that might be very nice (and fair) to the specific person earning that salary, it puts individuals without that skill at a significant disadvantage. Without modifying the system, we're going to see this gap between the skilled-in-IT and the not-skilled-in-IT get wider and wider until anyone not doing IT might as well sign their lives away to unending dept and poverty.

solidsnack9000 7y ago

It is unfounded because maintaining affordable housing is a responsibility of policymakers, not of corporations, and policymakers are as familiar with the facts about inflation and demand as you are.