So recently, Silicon Valley resident Anand Giridharadas wrote a book. It’s about the IT service in Silicon Valley. However, it’s hardly flattering. Let’s look at this tell all book about Silicon Valley.
So he titles the book Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World. The title alone sounds honest, but harsh. However, he’s just warming up. His biggest beef with Silicon is the inequality. He praises the innovation that comes out of this area. He argues that it’s great for the few that created it, but what about everybody else? This includes people that work for and under them.
Then Anand backs his arguments with scary statistics. It might seem that Americans, no matter what income level, are doing better than ever before. But that’s just not true. For 3 years straight, our life expectancy rate declined. That’s the first time in 100 years that happened. Literacy and education are stagnant. It was easier for you to start your own business in the 1980s than it is today. Also, Anand confronts the ‘win-win’ mentality. That’s the mentality that if you help the very top, like the Jeff Bezos’ and the Mark Zuckerberg’s, then the bottom will get help. In fact, Anand calls that a religion. And he remind us that rarely works.
I would highly recommend you get this book. It confirms what many of us in computer repair have known for years. Silicon Valley is a broken place. How can any worker survive at a place where coffee is $8 and breakfast is over $20? People who make $100,000 a year live in their car because rents are that out of control. Now, people and business are leaving Silicon Valley because of such reasons. Look at all the sobering statistics. In an era of so much innovation, you’d think these statistics would go up. In fact, here’s an article saying that over 450 retail stores closed down within two days! Is that progress? I applaud this tell all book about Silicon Valley. Again, is this progress?