I enjoyed this. I probably read it in 2017 but it carries new meaning given the new vectors of disparity. Of these caricatures of late 20-somethings, two are likely now out of work and dealing with a whole new set of problems. The third mostly complains about having to work from home and how food delivery is less reliable than it used to be.
There are two reasons I'm guessing the author doesn't see himself as part of the working class.
1. He doesn't make fun of the working class like he does to the other two. Either because he doesn't know them well enough to do so, or because he doesn't want to insult them.
2. The UAW locals in the Bay Area represent graduate students, postdocs, and nonprofit workers. No one in "service jobs or government jobs" or "nurses, teachers or craftsmen."
I don’t know about these stereotypes. In my own case, I grew up and went to college in the southeast, moved here for the tech, food, nature, and sunshine, and totally ignore everything political because I’m slightly conservative which makes me feel like an alien around here. Will probably move back at some point to be closer to family but I’m not thrilled about losing the sunshine and nature.
<p><pre><code> You order your groceries via app. You make restaurant
reservations via app. You have your laundry picked up via
app. You manage your investments via app. You have casual
sex via app. You refill your Xanax prescription via app.
</code></pre>
modern (American) Psycho
This feels kind of like the article equivalent of a political cartoon: sure, it's accurate and worth a chuckle if you squint at it from a distance, but it's been done to death and I'm unsure if it's a productive portrait outside of the instinct to say "lol sooooo true!"
I have definitely met tons of individuals in SF/Oakland who fit these stereotypes. Also, the individuals I met who resemble the second stereotype are the most inconsistent in terms of ideals. They want to be rich, but they’d rather accrue “moral capital”. It’s quite the oxymoron.
As someone who grew up in the Bay I find it curious to make the distinction that there are three.<p>There's South Bay, East Bay, North Bay and the Peninsula.<p>They're all very different, but lumping in the Peninsula with the South Bay feels hamhanded given that most of the South Bay IS NOT like the Peninsula.<p>It's kind of an in-joke that nobody actually knows where Silicon Valley is.
> charmed by the feral chickens that roamed the streets freely.[0]<p>Holy shit I never thought I’d see my hometown mentioned in this context. Yes, the chickens roam old town (maybe a square mile) freely but you don’t really see them elsewhere. They are really loud though.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/2-California-towns-where-chickens-have-free-range-5675133.php" rel="nofollow">https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/2-California-towns-wh...</a>
This is way too simplistic to segment the Bay Area into 3 social-economic classes. I've seen people from what the author describes but way more other types/classes of people.
This reads like a satirical version of Robert Putnam's book <i>Our Kids</i>. I highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in the topic and likes their data interwoven with personal stories to bring it to life.
Do people really only know people who do what they do? Of course you expect a coder to know more coders than the normal population, and the same for doctors or any other profession.<p>But do you not have friends and relatives from all three of these categories? I don't even live in the Bay Area, but I have Bay Area friends and relatives in all three.
With all the turmoil and despair of 2020, this article made me happier than I've felt in weeks, because it reminds me of what I don't have to deal with these days.
> You are utterly certain that you are not racist, even though your friend circle is exclusively white, Asian or hapa.<p>I love how asians are the new whites. For all its worship of success, Americans hate success like no other.
Being from the south, I couldn't relate to anything in this article but I really enjoyed reading it. The author has a good writing style.<p>Is this really the trichotomy of the Bay area? I thought it was interesting that none of these groups are turned out to be Trump supporters. I think it would be fun to contrast this mode of thought with the thought of people in flyover territory, as was done with these groups.
Even if this article is a satire peace, it’s extremely ignorant.<p>What about the people that earned their keep as category one? For example I have friends who are refugees who now fit into bracket one.<p>This article makes it seem like category 1 are self entitled yuppie brats.
The author seems to be unhappy about parents being able to pass some of their success on to their children.<p>If you couldn't do it, would there much motivation to succeed in the first place?<p>From another angle, does the movement to equalize children have any chances against those above the median (and those from below hoping to get ahead)?