Libby Rainey, writing for the Daily Cal:
These disheveled, slightly nerdy types are the ones boarding the shuttles — the unlikely center of a growing controversy that paints techies as wealthy elitists, not as computer nerds with good intentions. Google, whose famous motto is “Don’t be evil,” currently operates about 100 buses at 80 shuttle stops throughout the Bay Area, making about 10,000 one-way trips daily, according to research published by UC Berkeley master’s students Danielle Dai and David Weinzimmer. Yahoo!, Genentech, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Netflix and LinkedIn all operate shuttle services today. These buses were created to save the environment from fossil fuels and get employees working on their commute — goals that do not propose evil in and of themselves. But the “two-tiered” community that they are painting in the eyes of San Franciscans poses a real and pressing question.
So maybe this is an image issue. The EECS majors navigating Sutardja Dai Hall or registering for “The Beauty and Joy of Computing” seem harmless, excited about technology and probably willing to fix your MacBook if you’re in a bind. But they also will face a question upon graduation: how and in what setting to navigate their newfound wealth and status.
Indeed.
I used to wonder why there wasn’t more of a backlash against tech. I think in part it was because wealth in tech was seen as earned rather than taken as in finance.
Many successful tech companies, for all their faults, are clearly producing a product that many consumers find valuable. I bet this makes them harder to hate. But perhaps people no longer see Facebook/Google/Apple as being really valuable?
I’m very curious to see how this backlash plays out.