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For those of ya'll not in the know, California is a huge state located on the West Coast of the U.S. We flaunt our liberalness, but we also have a shitton of rich people and are the origin of those really frustrating copyright laws. Thanks, RIAA! Other selling point for our state include our diverse climate (seriously, there's more to us than Los Angeles), the tech industry (we will soon be renaming San Francisco "Zuckerbergia"), and our really nice wine industry. Oh, and weed. We really like weed. Recently, we have once again come under the rule of our benevolent overlord, Jerry Brown. Taxes have gone up a smidgen, but our public education system is getting better, and our deficit is finally under control. LONG LIVE LORD BROWN. Post anything related to California politics, or life in general here if it's tangentially related to politics.
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# ? May 1, 2014 02:16 |
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# ? May 13, 2024 08:31 |
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Would love to hear more on the water politics of state, especially with the extreme drought that is ongoing. *cue Chinatown reference*
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# ? May 1, 2014 02:19 |
California politics? How about Leland Yee, a San Francisco senator famous for his anti-gun views, who was recently arrested by the FBI for corruption and trying to smuggle guns (and shoulder-fired missiles!) into the US with the help of a well known Chinatown gangster named "shrimp boy" and a shady political consultant/former SF school board president. The source of the weapons was a Muslim rebel group from the Philippines named MILF. Rah! fucked around with this message at 04:03 on May 1, 2014 |
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# ? May 1, 2014 04:01 |
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I know a couple people who work in SF regional politics, and evidently Yee has always had a reputation as something of a slimeball who does shady poo poo. Still, they're pretty shocked that instead of getting busted for getting campaign contributions from illegal sources or something similar, he was loving helping to sneak MANPADS into the country. Jesus. Know when to quit Leland. Motherfucker cost the Dems their supermajority too.
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# ? May 1, 2014 05:14 |
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themrguy posted:Motherfucker cost the Dems their supermajority too. Good. The CA GOP might be insane and unelectable, but the CA Dems are all as bent as the Soviet sickle. Lee was the third Democratic senator in three months to get indicted, arrested, or convicted on corruption charges. And that's on top of all of the various local corruption going on all over the place. Also Jerry Brown can go to hell for selling out to the CCPOA. And for as much as this state loves weed, we sure can't sort out laws out. It is exacerbating the water crisis, though!
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# ? May 1, 2014 05:37 |
$10 minimum wage. Eat it, corporations.
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# ? May 1, 2014 05:39 |
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Rah! posted:California politics? I had a good laugh seeing how he was still on the CA ballot guide. Also this is pretty much the best article on the Bay Area housing trainwreck: http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/14/sf-housing/
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# ? May 1, 2014 05:47 |
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While I approve the creation of the thread, OP should have named it "No Foodchat Zone" given how badly the last one got derailed (and was retired to live out the rest of its days in Tourism & Travel)
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# ? May 1, 2014 06:14 |
While we are complaining about Jerry Brown, he also vetoed collective bargaining rights for graduate student researchers at the UCs. Meaning it is still legally prohibited for them to form a union--even though they have to deal with stuff like their advisors overworking them, taking credit for their work, or asking them to grade papers (that's the TAs'/readers' job). So what does this thread think: would Gavin Newsom have been better? Who is a "good" state democrat?
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# ? May 1, 2014 06:18 |
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VikingofRock posted:While we are complaining about Jerry Brown, he also vetoed collective bargaining rights for graduate student researchers at the UCs. Meaning it is still legally prohibited for them to form a union--even though they have to deal with stuff like their advisors overworking them, taking credit for their work, or asking them to grade papers (that's the TAs'/readers' job). That is a very good question. EDIT: Us in CA District 17 will likely deal with the issue raised in the above link twice this year. ComradeCosmobot fucked around with this message at 06:25 on May 1, 2014 |
# ? May 1, 2014 06:21 |
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VikingofRock posted:While we are complaining about Jerry Brown, he also vetoed collective bargaining rights for graduate student researchers at the UCs. Meaning it is still legally prohibited for them to form a union--even though they have to deal with stuff like their advisors overworking them, taking credit for their work, or asking them to grade papers (that's the TAs'/readers' job). Equally interesting is the way that the grad students who are already in unions get treated when they go on strike. UC Santa Cruz's TA union shut down campus for two days this month and 22 strikers ended up arrested. Even in a liberal beach town and university, opinions are pretty much against the strike. If a town like Santa Cruz sucks for labor relations, what hope does the rest of the state (and country) have?
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# ? May 1, 2014 06:27 |
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My TAs went on strike for a day a few weeks ago. Their main gripes were the class sizes (my anthropology class has 500 people) and their crappy working conditions.
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# ? May 1, 2014 06:30 |
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VikingofRock posted:While we are complaining about Jerry Brown, he also vetoed collective bargaining rights for graduate student researchers at the UCs. Meaning it is still legally prohibited for them to form a union--even though they have to deal with stuff like their advisors overworking them, taking credit for their work, or asking them to grade papers (that's the TAs'/readers' job). I think it depends what you want out of a California Democrat. I don't think Newsom would have had the experience or tenacity to get much done. The issue with allowing graduate student researchers to unionize was disappointing, but I do remember Brown saying he was open to the possibility in the future, so I don't think he's ever been adamantly opposed to it. Regarding the UCs, I'm more pissed off about the ever-increasing fees and tuition. Overall I'm mostly pleased with Jerry Brown so far, but I tend to lean slightly fiscally conservative these days. I wish the high-speed rail would work out, though.
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# ? May 1, 2014 06:32 |
Mayor Dave posted:Equally interesting is the way that the grad students who are already in unions get treated when they go on strike. UC Santa Cruz's TA union shut down campus for two days this month and 22 strikers ended up arrested. Even in a liberal beach town and university, opinions are pretty much against the strike. If a town like Santa Cruz sucks for labor relations, what hope does the rest of the state (and country) have? I was actually on that picket line (so if you were too, I might know you!). My experiences with politics in Santa Cruz have been pretty frustrating--for example the people turning down the water desalinization plant for environmental reasons, despite the environmental studies professors from campus all saying that the desalinization plant was a net positive for the environment. The same goes for Santa Cruz's hard-line anti-nuclear stance. It's like a bizarro version of the trend people were talking about with Mark Levine--the few times that it makes sense to support (corporate) development, the people are virulently against it. Of course, I'm far from a political expert on this stuff so I could just be interpreting it all wrong.
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# ? May 1, 2014 09:04 |
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Berkeley TAs are affiliated with UAW and go on strike seemingly every five minutes. I'm not really connected to the campus at all so I don't know, nor care, what their grievances are, but from what I've seen their pickets are kind of sad. Their chants are terrible, (if I recall correctly, I've seen "We have the power! What kinda power? (crowd chants) UNION POWER!" and "Lets show Governor Jerry/This is union territory!) and so nonthreatening cops don't even bother to show up and monitor the strikes. I'm pro-organized labor and all, but I found these displays somewhat embarrassing. California politics!
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# ? May 1, 2014 09:28 |
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Mayor Dave posted:Equally interesting is the way that the grad students who are already in unions get treated when they go on strike. UC Santa Cruz's TA union shut down campus for two days this month and 22 strikers ended up arrested. Even in a liberal beach town and university, opinions are pretty much against the strike. If a town like Santa Cruz sucks for labor relations, what hope does the rest of the state (and country) have? I think a big factor in the opinions against the strike from the students was that these events happen all the time. I'm pro-union but shutting down access to campus is going to piss off people that would otherwise be sympathetic. People have classes to attend, teach, and lab experiments to run. For the last strike, I didn't even bother to try and get to lab that day, but I heard plenty of anecdotes from others who did. Also, the rhetoric (and lack of responsibility) displayed by the UCSC TA union is extremely frustrating. In one email they specifically said while they would be striking, it would not be their intention to block access to campus. However, they also noted that in these events there are always some undergrads or others not affiliated with the union that may block access while striking, and that grad students should plan accordingly. Piss off.
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# ? May 1, 2014 17:00 |
Bizarro Watt posted:I think a big factor in the opinions against the strike from the students was that these events happen all the time. I'm pro-union but shutting down access to campus is going to piss off people that would otherwise be sympathetic. People have classes to attend, teach, and lab experiments to run. For the last strike, I didn't even bother to try and get to lab that day, but I heard plenty of anecdotes from others who did. Yes, people that would otherwise be sympathetic until they have to suffer inconvenience. Ie people whose sympathies do not run very deep at all. You have problems on your campus which go way beyond intermittent closures. You either support the strikers or you don't. Not that each and every strike is worthy of support, but regardless of whether you're generally pro-union, it does not sound like you support these particular strikers. There's exactly one and only one way to negotiate with your employer in the same way he negotiates with you: by halting productivity. Since privatization of the university, it's absolutely no different from what happens at a factory picket. They chose that arrangement, not us. e: But trying to shut down the uni in absence of a general strike, with general backing from the student body is not going to work. I agree that it seems dumb and counterproductive. agarjogger fucked around with this message at 17:25 on May 1, 2014 |
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# ? May 1, 2014 17:08 |
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Jagchosis posted:Berkeley TAs are affiliated with UAW and go on strike seemingly every five minutes. I'm not really connected to the campus at all so I don't know, nor care, what their grievances are, but from what I've seen their pickets are kind of sad. Their chants are terrible, (if I recall correctly, I've seen "We have the power! What kinda power? (crowd chants) UNION POWER!" and "Lets show Governor Jerry/This is union territory!) and so nonthreatening cops don't even bother to show up and monitor the strikes. I'm pro-organized labor and all, but I found these displays somewhat embarrassing. California politics! You also have a reasonable health plan because the TAs unionized, FYI. Sorry you have to hear about chants.
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# ? May 1, 2014 18:25 |
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I definitely think that the union has a long way to go on its messaging and tactics, and a lot of the opposition to the strike stems from the shutdown, but I was more referring to the sense I got from a surprising number of students that the campus unions aren't worth supporting. It's more than the inconvenience of the campus closing; I heard on multiple occasions that unions are parasites that suck money from the university at the expense of tuition, etc. I'm not surrounded by STEM students either. Most of these kids would consider themselves to be liberal or progressive, but they have a huge blind spot on labor issues.
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# ? May 1, 2014 18:31 |
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Dude, STEM students need a union hardcore. Sure, they usually have more money than Liberal Arts but paying someone 20K/year for a 90 hour work week for pretty terrible job prospects is insane. The problem is that most of them embrace that lifestyle as proper and correct. I'm glad I'm out of academia but drat, that lifestyle is nuts.
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# ? May 1, 2014 20:28 |
I don't think things are that bad for them at all right now, most of them have a reasonable expectation of a house before thirty. It's when the inevitable surplus of STEM hits that we're going to see some seriously pissed-off MechE grads. This surplus being so completely inevitable because no one will shut the gently caress up about the certainty of these degrees, and will not shut up until its five years too late. e: Just look at what's happened to law school grads, and apply that to every single profession Obama has heartily recommended because it's conventional wisdom. Don't be surprised if we have two million loving plumbers come out of trade school, and you can get your whole system routed for $20. Apprenticeship worked. Whatever this poo poo is now, just completely doesn't and is going to burn a stark number of eager beavers. agarjogger fucked around with this message at 20:45 on May 1, 2014 |
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# ? May 1, 2014 20:31 |
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agarjogger posted:I don't think things are that bad for them at all right now, most of them have a reasonable expectation of a house before thirty. It's when the inevitable surplus of STEM hits that we're going to see some seriously pissed-off MechE grads. This surplus being so completely inevitable because no one will shut the gently caress up about the certainty of these degrees, and will not shut up until its five years too late. It's actually pretty funny because my university is planning to effectively double the number of engineers here in the next 10 years (to 25,000 students ). The impact of this program is effectively causing a mini housing bubble as everyone and their mother builds apartment complexes.
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# ? May 1, 2014 20:35 |
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Mayor Dave posted:I definitely think that the union has a long way to go on its messaging and tactics Let's head this off at the pass: Jesus christ, no, let's not get into the minutiae of UAW 2865 issues, because 1) they are too long, complex, and insular to matter to many people here, 2) those that would be interested might end up personally identified given how small the overall group is, and 3) I just had to deal with all of the drama surrounding it for the past week and I'm sick of it. The least you need to know is the union has 2 factions: the radical grassroots folks and the business-ish top-down unionists. The radicals won in the last union election 3 years ago, made a lot of progress in organizing, but got kind of insular and didn't make too much of an effort to include the STEM folks (even those inclined to support them!). This ties into your comments about the messaging/tactics. Example: the strike was listed for 2 days at some campuses, one day for others, which makes no loving sense. Not a whole lot of effort was put into making people aware that one or two days of action won't kill their academic career, and that they were legally protected! There was an election earlier this week where the top-down folks (who have a lot of STEM support) made a huge effort to push back, but they have their own weird awfulness. We'll see what happens when the dust clears. Let's leave it at that. Jagchosis posted:Berkeley TAs are affiliated with UAW and go on strike seemingly every five minutes. I'm not really connected to the campus at all so I don't know, nor care, what their grievances are, but from what I've seen their pickets are kind of sad. Their chants are terrible, (if I recall correctly, I've seen "We have the power! What kinda power? (crowd chants) UNION POWER!" and "Lets show Governor Jerry/This is union territory!) and so nonthreatening cops don't even bother to show up and monitor the strikes. I'm pro-organized labor and all, but I found these displays somewhat embarrassing. California politics! There's no real good way to approach a highly-tangled ball of anti-union rhetoric like this other than to say "go educate yourself or gently caress off". The strike action in April was over unfair labor practices like administrators illegally filming union activity (or having the cops do it for them), department people threatening to fire people if they discussed striking, and those same people threatening international students with deportation if they got involved in union activities (which is not true!). This happened on multiple campuses. Furthermore, we don't have a contract and haven't had one since November. I'm sorry a bunch of grad students chanting some slogans inconvenience you so much. Perhaps you should consider that the university administration has been actively trying to cheap out on their TAs, which is a slightly more pressing issue. Ok, union blathering aside: Can anyone tell me more about the propositions on the primary ballot? Both seem like decent ideas (Prop 41 redirects unused bond money for homeless veterans programs, Prop 42 forces the cost of abiding by sunshine/open record laws onto municipalities), but I want a better source than the voter information guide.
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# ? May 1, 2014 20:55 |
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SporkOfTruth posted:Ok, union blathering aside: Can anyone tell me more about the propositions on the primary ballot? Both seem like decent ideas (Prop 41 redirects unused bond money for homeless veterans programs, Prop 42 forces the cost of abiding by sunshine/open record laws onto municipalities), but I want a better source than the voter information guide.
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# ? May 1, 2014 21:03 |
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How did the UAW end up organizing TAs? I mean, and education is a lot like a car because you need to change professors' oil regularly but aside from that.
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# ? May 1, 2014 21:06 |
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SporkOfTruth posted:This ties into your comments about the messaging/tactics. Example: the strike was listed for 2 days at some campuses, one day for others, which makes no loving sense. Not a whole lot of effort was put into making people aware that one or two days of action won't kill their academic career, and that they were legally protected!
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# ? May 1, 2014 21:12 |
I feel like today's unions are pretty self-absorbed and terminally limited in scope and vision, and cannot even attempt coherency because they might accidentally make a capitalist critique, which is of course unthinkable. A new inclusive and trans-sector union would probably do America well, if joining the established international ones gives rubes the heebie-jeebies.
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# ? May 1, 2014 21:15 |
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Grand Prize Winner posted:How did the UAW end up organizing TAs? UAW wanted to expand into a "market" of previously unrepresented labor to augment their membership base (auto and aerospace workers), plus they brought lots of money and organizing power. More details are in the history of the UC system local here, and the Wikipedia page about grad student unionization is surprisingly well done.
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# ? May 1, 2014 21:18 |
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agarjogger posted:I don't think things are that bad for them at all right now, most of them have a reasonable expectation of a house before thirty. It's when the inevitable surplus of STEM hits that we're going to see some seriously pissed-off MechE grads. This surplus being so completely inevitable because no one will shut the gently caress up about the certainty of these degrees, and will not shut up until its five years too late. Maybe for engineers but the S, T and M portions of STEM are already lagging behind. You can find specialties in each that will pay well but that could be said of any major. A house before thirty? Not anyone who gets a Ph.D.
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# ? May 1, 2014 21:21 |
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Shbobdb posted:A house before thirty? Not anyone who gets a Ph.D. I don't know anyone under thirty who bought in California in general.
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# ? May 1, 2014 21:25 |
Dusseldorf posted:I don't know anyone under thirty who bought in California in general. Oh my god your loving state and it's loving real estate market. I've made it painfully obvious that I'm an outsider. Though damned if your state's moguls, developers, and speculators haven't thoroughly colonized Colorado.
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# ? May 1, 2014 21:28 |
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I fall into the T in STEM. I make almost 55K and will have no hope of owning a house before thirty. To be fair I will be thirty in a year, and only started making that kind of money in the last year. I have no savings and most of my income goes to my student loans, rent, and hospital bills. What is hosed up is that if I could get a mortgage it would cost me less per moth than renting. Right now a small two bedroom house (800 square feet) is running 2500 a month or more. The same house would cost me no more than 1800 a month if it was a mortgage payment. I know property taxes would be added to that, but it is still less. If I had 20k in savings I would buy something, but it will take me 5-10 years of savings and no disasters to get enough of a nest egg to purchase something. the prospect of moving isn't very promising either as I would take a huge pay cut moving to another state. So I'll just have to keep renting and hope for the best.
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# ? May 1, 2014 22:21 |
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Will this state become ungovernable again if the Democrats lose their supermajority? Also, for comedy value, a few weeks ago at UCI the YAL had a booth saying "For real change, you need Rolution!" and there was a booth selling shirts for the Donnelly for Governor campaign saying "got liberty?" Jerry Manderbilt fucked around with this message at 22:32 on May 1, 2014 |
# ? May 1, 2014 22:30 |
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:Will this state become ungovernable again if the Democrats lose their supermajority? Yes. They potentially already lost it as well. gently caress you Leeland Yee!
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# ? May 1, 2014 22:32 |
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I'm actually fine not owning, I prefer renting. It's much easier and fits better with my mobile lifestyle. Though my fiancee and I are entertaining the idea of buying a condo. I'm gonna be 32 soon and I'll take that. However, I'm incredibly lucky and through the superpower of being a white male I've managed to spectacularly fail upwards. It's pretty awesome to be me but looking at my friends and other people I know, my experience is very much the outlier.
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# ? May 1, 2014 22:33 |
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Sword of Chomsky posted:Yes. They potentially already lost it as well. gently caress you Leeland Yee! Sucks being in a district that's unlikely to flip from GOP to Dem in the first place (Irvine area).
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# ? May 1, 2014 22:37 |
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Shbobdb posted:I'm actually fine not owning, I prefer renting. It's much easier and fits better with my mobile lifestyle. Though my fiancee and I are entertaining the idea of buying a condo. I'm gonna be 32 soon and I'll take that. However, I'm incredibly lucky and through the superpower of being a white male I've managed to spectacularly fail upwards. It's pretty awesome to be me but looking at my friends and other people I know, my experience is very much the outlier. I feel the same way (except for failing upward). I do IT managed services for small businesses, and have had to work pretty hard to get where I am. I know being a white middle class born male doesn't hurt though. My wife gets pretty depressed that we won't be able to own a house for a newborn daughter to grow up in, but I see it more of a sign of the times than a personal failing. My peers, who all have degrees in STEM fields are generally much worse off than I am, and have no hope of starting a family or living the "american dream" anytime in the next 5-10 years. I don't like bitching about my situation when I am in so much better shape than others, but it just feels like I should be further than I am.
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# ? May 1, 2014 22:38 |
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I'm fascinated by the escalating microcosm of American inequality transforming San Francisco. In just a few years it's gone from one of the most progressive cities in the United States, to this kind of oil and vinegar mix of liberal bohemia and creepy entitled racist libertarian brogrammers who cannot believe the uppity poors protesting the rising eviction and rent rates. If you've ever used the app Secret, you'll see quite a few revolting anonymous posts from wealthy transplants relishing with glee their efforts to "gentrify" the city and drive out the "lazy" underclass not blessed with their charms. The city has already changed so much, and the most disturbing aspect of the change is that the massive tech wealth boom is leading towards a very dark Wall Street 2.0 culture emerging in the Bay Area. I would love to see it stopped before it's too late. The Guardian has a nice piece on the subject: "Is San Francisco Losing Its Soul?"
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# ? May 1, 2014 22:52 |
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Dusseldorf posted:I don't know anyone under fifty who bought in California in general. More accurate. Jerry Manderbilt posted:Will this state become ungovernable again if the Democrats lose their supermajority? Of course it will. Republican might as well be a code word for bomb throwing anarchist mob for all the use they are in actually governing. Why does the OP suggest that California has any liberalness to flaunt? We're just Florida with less humidity (e: and some very pretty mountains and forests) and our lovely conservatives have Ds because our Rs are complete lunatics.
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# ? May 1, 2014 22:53 |
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# ? May 13, 2024 08:31 |
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UberJew posted:More accurate. I know plenty of people who've bought in their 30's. The big difference are which people bought a small place near their work and which people bought something in the burbs and now spend two hours a day in a car.
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# ? May 1, 2014 22:57 |