[sudo-discuss] Oakland gentrification is very well planned & executed

[Ryan Bethencourt]

> Yar <mailto:yardenack at gmail.com>
> May 13, 2014 at 7:42 AM
> On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 12:49 PM, Ryan Bethencourt
> <ryan.bethencourt at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> Marc I know you have a belief in moving technology that helps people and
>> increases access for all and act on it, which I fully support and partner
>> with you on where I can. I believe in putting people first too but I'm not
>> against the profit motive, especially if it's driven by a mission to do
>> broader good.
>>
>> I don't however agree with your view on google or engineers that work for
>> google. I've met some really great people who work at google and are very
>> giving of their time and resources to help their local communities and I'm
>> sure there are some who are part of the Sudo community who do likewise. I
>> think it does us no good to speak in exclusionary terms of any group of
>> people, I think it's okay to criticize an individual for their actions if
>> they're not being excellent to people or animals but whenever we clump
>> people into groups we risk doing exactly what we're against, which is being
>> exclusionary.
>
> I don't think there is any danger of that. Our community already
> includes many people who work for large tech companies. Some of my
> favorite people. They generally have nuanced analyses of the ethics
> involved, recognize the compromises they are making, and will probably
> say they are "working within the system," or at least donate their
> disposable income towards good things. Very few would say "I'm
> profiting. Yay!"
>
> In fact, I'd say the average tech worker is very bad at profit motive.
> Otherwise we'd have a strong union, be earning a larger piece of the
> pie, and not letting our labor, talent and wealth be so transparently
> leeched off by big companies and landowners, which is exactly what's
> happening, to the detriment of everybody else.

Now this is interesting, if you haven't, I'd recommend Venkatash Rao's 
analysis of what he feels is the current shift which is occuring in the 
post industrial economy (which I actually think is part of a new 
economic era, we're only at the start):

"For the last few months, I've been cautiously testing a 
radical-sounding hypothesis on smart people: /entrepreneurs are the new 
labor/. Or to put it in a more useful way, the balance of power between 
investors and entrepreneurs that marks the early, frontier days of a 
major technology wave (Moore's Law and the Internet in this case) has 
fallen apart. Investors have won, and their dealings with the 
entrepreneur class now look far more like the dealings between 
management and labor (with overtones of parent/child and 
teacher/student).  Those who are attracted to true entrepreneurship are 
figuring out new ways to work around the traditional investor class. The 
investor class in turn is struggling to deal with the unpleasant 
consequences of an outright victory. "

http://www.forbes.com/sites/venkateshrao/2012/09/03/entrepreneurs-are-the-new-labor-part-i/
>
>> I know you're not exclusionary, I just wanted to make sure there's a clear
>> voice in the discussion that welcomes all people, Google engineer or not, to
>> Sudo room to come and help us make the community and world better through
>> technology.
>
> Standing up for the subjugated voice of Google engineers is great and
> all, but I wouldn't quite call it "welcoming all people". May any of
> us someday earn the right to use that phrase.
I think we can all earn the right to use that phrase daily with our 
actions and our thoughts, no one is perfect and I hope one day there 
will be no need to earn that right, all people will know they're welcome 
at any institution without any discrimination. Until then, I hope to 
earn the right every day by my words and actions.
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-- 
--
Ryan Bethencourt

Tel:(415) 825 2705
ryan.bethencourt at gmail.com <mailto:ryan.bethencourt at gmail.com>
@ryanbethencourt
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