Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin
The Bay Area's 1 Percenters (victorhanson.com)
26 points by lamby on Oct 23, 2013 | hide | past | favorite | 3 comments


Ah, someone points out the disconnect between belief and action. So many friends and acquaintances I knew in California supported this or that policy because the theory was good, or it synced with their moral compass, but if it came down to anything more than a vote, or climbing the moral high horse before espousing an opinion over a glass of wine, it would ring hollow. Similar to this article, there was a mentality of 'here' vs. 'there' which I think we all share. It's how we compartmentalize and make our lives easier. The problem is other schools, not this school, the problem is about other people, not my people, the war isn't here, it's there. Despite the great the exposure we all receive to the problems of far distant and removed neighbors, seldom do we seem to act on the problems in our immediate vicinity. If we throw money at a charity, or a government entitlement program, ego and sense of guilt from success is assuaged, but shit, but does anything really get done, does anything change for the better? I don't have any complete solutions and I am guilty of this mentality as well, but I am a firm believer of there being a different better way to resolving this socio-economic issue, though as I stated earlier, belief doesn't seem to be enough.


> Ostensibly, communities like Menlo Park and Palo Alto are elite enclaves, where power couples can easily make $300,000 to $700,000 a year as mid-level dot.com managers.

1. What is a "mid-level dot.com [manager]"?

2. $300,000 to $700,000 is a very wide range and excluding windfalls from liquidity events, I don't think you're going to find a a lot of couples consisting of a husband and wife who both work in technical or non-technical mid-level roles "easily" pulling in half a million plus per year in salary in Silicon Valley. Nice myth though.

3. Unless that $300,000 to $700,000 is coming from interest, you need to earn a lot more than this amount to make it into the "power couples" category in Menlo Park or Palo Alto.


Typical VDH nonsense, full of logical fallacies and anecdotes. Strawmen and Non-Sequiturs galore.

Example: (1) In the Bay Area, the majority votes for Democrats. (2) Many rich people live in the Bay Area. (3) There has been an influx of private school applications.

Therefore, rich liberals in the Bay Area are sending their kids to private schools because they don't like Hispanics. Right...




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: