SilliCON Valley is CONning the Middle Class! ha



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Many of us will be going to college soon enough, and then after that enter the working world!! That’s
crazy stuff right there. Well where are we going to go? Come back home… to THE Silicon Valley and
work? I don’t know about that… have you seen the cost of living here! That probably means you’ve also
heard about the crazy pay for most jobs here in the Technology industry too. We grew up in a place that
is fortunate to be able to support and encourage the economic growth of a huge, growing industry.
HOWEVER, economic disparity within Silicon Valley has only gotten worse. The classic “the rich are
getting richer and the poor are getting poorer” mantra is a reality. Wages are down for everyone except
those within the top ten percent. While tech workers have seen income gains of 35 and 38 percent, the
middle class workers of Silicon Valley have taken a slap to the face with “earnings going down as much
as 14 percent.”


To combat the growth of income inequality in Silicon Valley, some are proposing that local and state
governments support worker’s rights to organize, for the adoption of better labor standards (especially
for subcontracted workers), for an increase in taxes on larger corporate headquarters, and for providing
affordable housing. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens. What do you think? Come back
home to work after school?



Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 16, 2019 at 10:10 PM

    This was a really interesting post. I think particularly in Silicon Valley, you can really see an issue when it comes to income in teaching positions. We all know that teachers aren't paid enough especially for all their hard work and the housing is ridiculously overpriced and many teachers have to commute an hour if not more every morning just to get to work. Recently, I've actually heard of the city possibly building special housing for teachers. It's also important to note that high school teachers do get paid more than middle and elementary school teachers who arguably have more work and perhaps even have to commit more of their time and out of pocket money to their students.

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