Just Come Home

 My son, who has been all over the world in the last 16 years, has been living in San Jose for the past few years.  His his husband got laid off from his tech job in Silicon Valley.  This is a harbinger for things to come for California.  This is the canary in the coal mine for a major part of California's economy.  There was an article in the paper the other day about cracks showing in Silicon Valley's once glowing promise of tech innovations that fueled the local economy and beyond.  

I had that news four years ago from people actually living the nightmare way before the news reported it.  Let's go even deeper.  Many of my friends are getting laid off (or family members getting laid off) after 25+ years of dedicated service to SlaveDriver, Inc.  

How about that!  What THANKS!!!!  Thank you for dedicating your life to SlaveDriver, Inc., while you missed your daughter's first steps and first ballet performance.  Thank you for missing birthdays and other milestone family events because of some dumb-ass conference we forced you to go to to give a presentation to people who do not care, or take up your entire weekend (without extra pay nor recognition) to fix a computer programming bug that was jamming up financial transactions between institutions where you worked for 24 hours straight.  Here is what we will give you after a lifetime of dedication and performance:  YOU GET LAID OFF.  

Where am I going with this?  My son just wants to come home back to Sonoma County where he grew up.  My son has a job that affords flexibility for location, and his husband will find his way as he is very smart.  They just need to get re-established back here where they have a network of family and friends.  There is no place like home.  Sometimes kids needs to move away to appreciate it.  

Caution to those who slave away for SlaveDriver, Inc.  They do not care one *bleep* about you.  They only care about profits.  Keep that in mind.   

 

 

 

Google: Don't be Evil

Back when Google was a caring entity they had the phrase "don't be evil" written in their company by-laws.  What was once cool and hip has now turned into what they set out never to be -- evil.

Google isn't owned by Google anymore, did y'all know that?  Their parent company is Alphabet.  When the ownership changed the phrase in the original bylaws that said "don't be evil" was removed.

That little subtlety should send chills through your spine.  ... and here I am blogging on a google site.  They have us by the you-know-what.  These tech giants are NOT your friends.

It's the ATT anti-trust all over again.  Who's going to bust up the tech giants' over reaching power?  I've told you all along it's not the government you should be fearing if you think they are snooping on you.  It was a ploy by the tech giants to deflect attention off of them when people started figuring out that everything you submit online leaves a trail with eyes watching while selling your information and reading your emails.  Now that technology is entrenched in our lives they have us dependent on them.  Like it or not, the government is your only hope in protecting whatever privacy you think you have left.

...and then there's the Facebook campus....

Creepy Main Street Disneyland looking place where everybody wears a fake, frozen smile.   All cell phones are issued by the company and privacy is non-existent.  Facebook employees are owned by Facebook and everything and anything is "monitored" by them.  They are slaves with no rights.

....and then there's Amazon....

I learned in economics about predatory pricing.  Amazon is doing just that.  They are undercutting all the local competition, even if Amazon is initially taking a loss, and driving local retail out of business.  Say good-bye to retail as we know it.  Their purchase of Whole Foods is just the beginning.  Amazon's goal is to have your order delivered within two hours once you place it with drone delivery.  They are teeming up with Google to have a driver-less vehicle deliver your stuff much like a rolling vending machine that will spit out your stuff.

In a way I don't blame companies for wanting to replace their workers with machines.  They don't complain, file harassment complaints, bicker about working overtime, show up to work drunk, or worse yet not show up at all.  They don't sue for discrimination claims or file bogus workers' compensation injuries.

We did all this to ourselves.  Who are we going to blame?