Joseph Malchow: Those Nonsensical 'Google Bus' Attacks

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304026804579411432350179154.html

by petethomas • 12 years ago

14 12 12 years ago

online.wsj.com

mempko• 12 years ago

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

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.

azundo• 12 years ago

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.

cratermoon2• 12 years ago

The author did, but the gist of the story is "government regulations bad, free enterprise good", and whatever amount of wealth Silicon Valley generates must be a Good Thing because it's Free Market wealth made by Makers, instead of government teat-sucking Takers.

dylandrop2• 12 years ago

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.

Justsignedup• 12 years ago

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.

cratermoon2• 12 years ago

What real value?

dylandrop2• 12 years ago

Way to completely ignore what I said. I explicitly said that I don't believe Googlers/ techies are at fault or are perpetrating some great wrong, but rather that this guy's argument of "rich taxpayers shouldn't have to be good caring members of their communities because they pay taxes" is a shitty one.

alukima2• 12 years ago

As someone who used to ride one of those buses I was understandably annoyed and confused as to why people thought attacking the buses would help housing prices.

Then I spent six weeks abroad with people from all over North and South America. They knew about the protests and thought that the point was raising awareness about growing income inequality. They were totally right. Upon returning home and making an effort to meet some of the organizations that are involved with the protests they explained that while some media outlets and groups who have co-opted their movements are hateful towards new comers, the initial point was to raise awareness about issues.

alukima2• 12 years ago

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.

lawtguy• 12 years ago

"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.

Joseph Malchow: Those Nonsensical 'Google Bus' Attacks

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