
Facebook executive and VC in brawl over social inequality in San Francisco - timr
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10888340/Facebook-executive-and-venture-capitalist-in-brawl-over-social-inequality-in-San-Francisco.html
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api
"Many city residents blame a growing wealth gap on large technology industry
salaries."

This is why the economic left loses while the social left (e.g. gay rights)
tends to win. The economic left blames the successful for the unsuccessful and
has a zero-sum view of the world. How far would the social left get if racial
equality protestors had argued that whites should have less rights? How far
would gay rights activists get with "we need to take the benefits of marriage
away from heterosexuals?" Yet this is precisely how the economic left
approaches issues.

The only time success is to blame for others' hardship is when that success is
actually criminal or parasitic -- e.g. financial fraud, corrupt government
contractors profiteering off tax revenue, imperial theft of others' wealth
through outright warfare, etc. The tech industry isn't doing that to any
significant degree.

The inequality problem in SF is due primarily to real estate hyperinflation,
which is the fault of NIMBYism and poor city planning. Those high techie
salaries are _helping_ , not hurting, by pumping more money into the economy.
Unfortunately real estate is the dry sponge soaking up almost all that upside.

