Mar 17, 2014
In a unique gathering of civic leaders, civil rights advocates and cultural artists — Silicon Valley De-Bug held a forum on the growing economic disparities facing Silicon Valley. The event, packed shoulder to shoulder, took on an innovative approach by premiering a music video at Camera 12 Movie Theater to engage the community around an urgent economic, social, and political…
Mar 12, 2014
In the last seventy years, every decade or so, a new social movement emerged in the progressive community before heading to center stage in American politics. Those movements were often driven by young progressives. Now, we must gear up for the next progressive battle, the one that will define young progressives such as me and potentially our nation for decades.…
Mar 7, 2014
While the Silicon Valley economy is sizzling hot with corporate profits in the billions, middle-class families are hurting from stagnant wages and a rising cost of living. Between 2000 and 2012, Apple profits grew by a whopping 5,209 percent to more than $41 billion. Meanwhile, median worker income in Silicon Valley actually shrank by 12 percent. In Silicon Valley there…
Mar 6, 2014
Acknowledging the extremes of poverty and wealth in Silicon Valley may have been radical 15 years ago, but today even the business community issues reports highlighting the social and economic problems generated by the growing hourglass economy. The question is no longer “Is the hourglass economy real?” We know that a third of households in the Valley do not earn…
Feb 28, 2014
On February 20th, the San Jose Mercury News published a column by David Crane offering advice to California’s elected officials on fiscal issues. This is the same David Crane who provided fiscal counsel to former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Those who remember the fiscal brilliance of the Schwarzenegger administration might expect the whoppers to be coming fast and furious. Relax; you…
Feb 21, 2014
On February 13th, columnist Charles Krauthammer offered the readers of many newspapers, including the San Jose Mercury News, an essay entitled, “Obama’s War on Jobs.” Reviewing this article reveals, first, that the war on jobs was allegedly most glaringly demonstrated by passage of the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare), and, second, that Mr. Krauthammer’s comments on this subject include an…
Feb 19, 2014
Santa Clara County and, for that matter California, is missing out on millions of dollars that are right under its nose. The average hard-working resident in Silicon Valley pays his or her taxes and doesn’t think twice about it. But that’s certainly not the case for many Santa Clara County-based corporations. Those companies like Apple and Google, just to name…
Feb 18, 2014
You don’t know about the Trans-Pacific Partnership—or as it has been referred to, “NAFTA on steroids”— because corporate America doesn’t want you to. But you better bone up on it real fast because if think NAFTA was a bad deal, wait until you get a hold of this one: the TPP will essentially expand NAFTA to 11 more countries. Tweet
Feb 12, 2014
Last weekend’s opinion piece by Chamber of Commerce CEO Matt Mahood explaining that the Chamber might not oppose a badly needed tax increase in San Jose is a good sign. Anyone who pays attention to what’s going on in the City can see that it desperately needs more money just to pay for essential services like police, firefighters, libraries and…
Feb 10, 2014
A recent Oxfam report said that the richest 85 people in the world now have as much wealth as the bottom half of the world’s population, or some 3.5 billion people. This statistic tells us that our economy is not working for those of us who are not already on the top. Pope Francis, spiritual leader of 1.2 billion people,…