The San Francisco Bay Area is currently the jewel in the crown of
capitalism--the tech capital of the world and a gusher of wealth from
the Silicon Gold Rush. It has been generating jobs, spawning new
innovation, and spreading ideas that are changing lives everywhere. It
boasts of being the Left Coast, the Greenest City, and the best place
for workers in the USA. So what could be wrong? It may seem that the Bay
Area has the best of it in Trump's America, but there is a dark side of
success: overheated bubbles and spectacular crashes; exploding
inequality and millions of underpaid workers; a boiling housing crisis,
mass displacement, and severe environmental damage; a delusional tech
elite and complicity with the worst in American politics.
This sweeping account of the Bay Area in the age of the tech boom covers
many bases. It begins with the phenomenal concentration of IT in Greater
Silicon Valley, the fabulous economic growth of the bay region and the
unbelievable wealth piling up for the 1% and high incomes of Upper
Classes--in contrast to the fate of the working class and people of
color earning poverty wages and struggling to keep their heads above
water. The middle chapters survey the urban scene, including the
greatest housing bubble in the United States, a metropolis exploding in
every direction, and a geography turned inside out. Lastly, it hits the
environmental impact of the boom, the fantastical ideology of TechWorld,
and the political implications of the tech-led transformation of the bay
region.
