

Joseph Malchow: Those Nonsensical 'Google Bus' Attacks - petethomas
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304026804579411432350179154.html

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dylandrop
Let me first start by noting that I am not of the opinion that attacking
Google Buses is the right way to go to fight rising housing prices, nor do I
believe there should be some class warfare raged.

This being said, why does paying collectively $14.5B in taxes mean that you
are exempt from attack if you commit a societal wrong? I think this is
extremely backward logic, that perhaps Mr. Malchow by which feels threatened
-- the belief of "why would there be a world where you can't pay your way out
of being a good member of society?" This being said, I do not believe that
Googlers and the like are necessarily perpetrating some great societal
misdeed, but Malchow's argument is highly problematic.

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Justsignedup
The engineer revolution is showing that people are using tech to build wealth.
This is not a multi-billionare banker who scemed millions out of their homes
to make a few more bucks, this is someone providing real value to people
making a few bucks. Is this so wrong wrong?

These people buy homes, shop in the local economy, they are doing what our
country was meant to be like. But they are apparently an easy target, because
real targets are too hard to get to.

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cratermoon
What real value?

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ceph_
Is your life not noticeably improved by the existence of the internet?

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lawtguy
"With 32 engineers over four years, WhatsApp built something that's as speedy
and reliable as telecom text networks without any of the regulatory, pricing
or spectrum advantages enjoyed by those companies"

While this is technically true, I think it's worth pointing out that WhatsApp
doesn't work without those telcoms and all their regulatory, pricing and
spectrum advantage. Frankly, WhatsApp did the easiest part of sending a
message. That's not to say what they did was easy or trivial, but it's not as
hard or expensive or labor intensive as installing and maintaining a wireless
network.

WhatsApp did do something pretty useful though: they've shown everyone how
overpriced SMSes are.

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alukima
One of the most frustrating things about moving out of poverty to the upper-
middle/upper class is being an example of "what a little hard work can do".

They always forget to mention how so many people like myself have had to
totally cut off contact with their family, watch friends and family die(gang
and drug related murders, overdosing, suicide), how often we struggle with
depression because we can't figure out what made us anymore deserving than the
people we left behind, and have issues dealing with money in general- luckily
I'm on the "save every dime" side of that spectrum.

If hard work is all you need then I know a couple hundred people who should be
living in mansions.

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mempko
sooo still inequality rising? or did wsj guy just skip over that one?

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nikdaheratik
Exactly, some clever, hardworking people also managed to win the Facebook
lottery. Therefore the system works and there's no need to change anything…

The worst thing about the wsj article was that it didn't even examine _why_
the piñata people were annoyed.

It's perfectly rational to be ticked off at the people who are making your
rent go up 200%. Even though breaking bus windows and having whack a piñata
parties doesn't seem like a very helpful solution to your problem.

But since it's the WSJ, we got mindless liberal bashing instead.

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azundo
It's interesting that so much blame is aimed at tech workers who are willing
to pay more but none at landlords who are happy to increase rent based on
demand. Certainly landlords are profiting quite nicely from the boom, being
paid more rent for equivalent properties.

If they wished, they are free to continue renting at the same rates as always,
and in fact are the ones "making the rent go up", so I'm not sure how they're
managing to escape similar criticism here.

