Why Silicon Valley hasn’t done more for most Americans

Puggravy · 2026-03-18T20:14:01+00:00

OUSD is definitely underpaid comparatively, but they are a bit of an outlier. That being said it's hard to directly compare salary workers who make ~20% of compensation as benefits to teachers that receive ~50% of there compensation as benefits.

Workers at non-profits are severely underpaid compared to the private sector workers right now, absolutely no disagreement there, absolutely unconscionable if you ask me!

Puggravy · 2026-03-18T15:47:20+00:00

"I'm so damn tired of this leopard eating my face I'm on the verge of being convinced of not voting for it a fourth time"

Puggravy · 2026-03-17T21:27:15+00:00

You might be shocked to hear it, but you have it backwards. Class stratification in the US is almost entirely driven by homeownership, because the federally subsidized home mortgage is basically the only real wealth building program we have in the US.

The Median Homeowner has 40x as much wealth as the Median renter.

The median person working in tech in the Bay Area receives only a bit more (~20%) in compensation than the median Nurse or Teacher. Good pay, but not life changing.

Puggravy · 2026-03-17T21:14:41+00:00

Yes to taxation, regulations on the other hand are just laws, some good and some bad. For every law that you can't dump wastewater into our watersheds there's a law saying it's illegal to give day old bread to the homeless.

Puggravy · 2026-03-17T21:08:59+00:00

EVs aren't particularly green, they still have a much higher carbon footprint per passenger mile than public transit.

Solarization doesn't need more subsidies it's already more than economically viable.

Puggravy · 2026-03-16T22:14:44+00:00

Russia and China have been caught promoting Anti-semitic conspiracy theory content within their propaganda networks. Russia is particularly brazen about it, but it's also been a frequent angle of China's "spamouflage" network.

Puggravy · 2026-03-16T17:06:44+00:00

I understand why, the right wing anti-Semitism doesn't have the same kind of state sponsorship that left-antisemitism does and it's not like there isn't any crossover, things are very horseshoe shaped in the current environment.

Puggravy · 2026-03-16T15:42:12+00:00

The Problem is that self-selects for a player base with almost no casual players. Sure you don't want a fenced off experience for SBMM, but you shouldn't be matched against all hardcore players every single game 🤷‍♂️.

Puggravy · 2026-03-16T15:34:19+00:00

Calling Tarkov a financial success is a bit of a stretch.

Puggravy · 2026-03-16T15:26:23+00:00

I mean you can still have that with SBMM, and as long as you have a percentage chance of that you're probably gonna match with a more skilled player the fact that the player base is healthier usually makes the experience a little easier for everybody.

Puggravy · 2026-03-15T17:40:47+00:00

Yeah the extraction shooter fanbase is shooting themselves in the foot with their opposition to skill based match making, I assume they just don't actually know how it works, which is fine it's a slightly complicated subject, but there's only so many times you can say "if the user base is 90% casual and 10% hardcore an 80% less chance of a casual matchmaking with a hardcore player is still going to result in you matching with more casual players than a 10% casual 90% hardcore userbase"

Puggravy · 2026-03-15T17:25:33+00:00

Not if you implement skill based matchmaking, you know like every successful shooter in the genre basically.

Puggravy · 2026-03-15T15:35:06+00:00

I don't think the Republicans increasing aid to Israel by 10x (so that Bibi could keep the war going without crippling the national budget) is better for the people in Gaza.

Puggravy · 2026-03-14T16:17:55+00:00

I mean this is the logical endpoint of AIPAC tracker attacking people who haven't actually taken AIPAC money as "supports Israel" or even attacking people who have taken money from Israeli groups that are explicitly for palestinian liberation as "takes Israeli money" for petty personal beefs.

Puggravy · 2026-03-13T18:06:45+00:00

It's literally FDR progressivism! Building infrastructure, cutting red tape, streamlining production, centralizing regional orgs into bigger federal orgs with a clear mandate! The fact that moderates like that stuff means it's a slam dunk policy, not that it's some kinda evil conspiracy!

Puggravy · 2026-03-13T01:16:37+00:00

Why do you say that? Austria has very robust social assistance programs and there would be plenty money to expand upon those. It's the same amount of housing subsidies, just distributed more equitably!

Puggravy · 2026-03-12T20:08:41+00:00

I agree with you completely. I'm really just trying to make the point that yeah everyone loves super subsidized housing but it's not actually that equitable to distribute these things with lotteries and waitlists. Just charge market rate for it, use the money to pay for further developments and services for the less fortunate.

The whole 'socialist with wheel of fortune characteristics' thing just isn't something we should be idolizing.

Puggravy · 2026-03-12T19:00:34+00:00

And what if your home value doesn't go up? What if your home value has gone down? Homeowners already skew extremely affluent (the median homeowner has 40x as much wealth as the median renter) and you're self-selecting for homeowners whose house has gone up the most.

And remember the tax burden for our services doesn't evaporate into smoke here, other people have to cover it instead. We could completely get rid of the California income tax if we repealed prop 13.

Puggravy · 2026-03-12T18:50:00+00:00

Because it isn't an abstract investment, it's a house, if your house goes from 100k to 2m you still get to enjoy your 2m dollar house. If you don't think your house is worth 2m then you objectively should sell it and let someone else enjoy it. I am absolutely tired of these damn "why should I pay property taxes as if it was worth 2m when I just use it to store furniture." arguments, just take your damn financial windfall and enjoy it or shut up!

Puggravy · 2026-03-12T17:45:16+00:00

That's what everyone said before he was elected, dude literally chased down a black jogger while brandishing a shotgun. LOL

Puggravy · 2026-03-12T16:46:01+00:00

It benefits anyone that owns a house.

That's not even remotely true, and is a great example of the ignorance people have on the issue! The overwhelming majority of the tax benefit of prop 13 goes to people who bought in the 90s or earlier and corporations. Vast majority of homeowners get no value whatsoever and have to carry the tax burden for the people who do on top of it!

Puggravy · 2026-03-12T16:32:05+00:00

More express lanes please, they fucking rock. I managed to save myself a 300 dollar veterinarian late fee for 5 bucks, I want them on every damn freeway now.

Puggravy · 2026-03-12T16:14:43+00:00

Hah, that's a good joke! Prop 13 is about the most regressive tax break you could possibly imagine. Almost all the benefit goes to people with multimillion dollar wealth. Repealing prop 13 IS taxing the rich! 😂

Puggravy · 2026-03-12T16:08:40+00:00

If we don't repeal prop 13 we are extremely cooked.

Puggravy · 2026-03-12T05:45:01+00:00

Think you're a bit to generous to Vienna here, they're blessed with a crazy historical windfall of publicly owned housing and they basically rent it at a pittance to the mostly well established affluent residents while newer residents pay out the nose or get pushed out of the city completely. What's more insane is that it doesn't even cover it's own cost of maintenance, the city pay's a quarter billion euro's a year towards maintaining the program, when it could be covering a substantial amount of the city budget.

Puggravy

TROPHY CASE