to believe the Google Bus protestors in San Francisco are idiotic?

[longfingernails]

Google (and several other tech companies) provide an employee bus for workers. It's a nice perk, and environmentally friendly too.

Left-wing hooligans are now threatening the Google buses because apparently, Google employees, being well paid due to their skills and hard work, are pushing up property prices and rents in San Francisco, especially along the employee bus routes.

I hope the idiotic left-wing protests succeed, and Google, Facebook and Linkedin are less wedded to Silicon Valley for their future plans. After all, London is in a prime position to be the beneficiary.

point taken, but can't see google coming here because they would have to pay tax.

Erm.... Google already have an office in London??
Quite a fab one too!

www.google.co.uk/search?q=Google+offices,+London&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=IU7lUvr9KoOThQfjpICAAg&ved=0CEcQsAQ&biw=1301&bih=612

Oh good lord, if they are all photos of google's offices I would puke on a daily basis. It looks like a bloody nursery! Far too much colour!

I'd have thought the kind of people who want to work for Google in SF are not likely to want to move to London where they'll get even more over-priced housing for an even lower standard of living. And constant rain.

Google already has a large London presence. They can expand it.

The evil vandals are even threatening the engineer who designed the Google self-driving car, distributing flyers spreading nonsense about him (a typical example of the source of their angst: he will never work in a mine in Africa).

arstechnica.com/business/2014/01/protestors-show-up-at-the-doorstep-of-google-self-driving-car-engineer/

I'm not sure how great a perk that is, actually, as the public transport around Silicon Valley is actually pretty decent. Friends and I who have been non-drivers at the time have been able to go over there and get around Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Cupertino with relatively few issues. The bus probably runs earlier and later than regular public transport, I suppose.

Anything that gets traffic off the congested 101 is a good thing, in my book. I remember sitting on the mostly-empty Caltrain and wondering why everyone was sat in their cars!

San Francisco and Bay Area property prices are high, end of story.

And no, they won't relocate their HQ to London.

campaigning in part for affordable housing

I didn't say they would relocate their HQ. I said it is a factor that they would weigh up when deciding upon future business plans.

I'm sure their employees don't particularly like being targeted for taking the bus to work. Even more so, having left-wing crazies turn up to their homes to protest against god knows what.

Personally I'd rather be targeted for taking a bus to work in SF than ever take a Tube in rush hour again...

Will you stop with the left wing crazies and left wing hooligans. If you want a discussion, all well and good, if you want a rant, that's a different thing, which is it to be?
Oh, and what is so very wrong about wanting affordable housing?

Dawndonnaagain Why should anybody have a right to live where they please? I can't afford to live in Mayfair, so I don't.

And there is nothing wrong with wanting affordable housing. After all, Maggie's right to buy was the defining policy of its era.

What is wrong is whining about your lot in life, and seeking to remedy it by punishing those who have developed their skills, and consequently have higher-paid jobs.

Dublin will the beneficiary of any expansion, not London. Tax in the UK is too expensive for them to run much of their operations here. Although Google has over the last couple of years "de-fragged" and insisted that its engineers relocate to either London, Warsaw or Silicon Valley, so they no longer have substantial engineering operations in Dublin.

All 3 companies have expanded in London, LinkedIn has recently taken new premises, Facebook is moving out of their current premises into bigger ones after only 2 years, everyone knows about Google's new headquarters.

The protests are a bit like Occupy Wallstreet to a certain extent. I can see where the protestors are coming from but ultimately Silicon Valley has provided a ton of opportunity for Northern California and those big salaries does mean that there's a trickle-down effect into other industries.

But that's not actually the case, is it, longfingernails. They are complaining about the rise in evictions and the lack of affordable housing. That has an impact on other things, poorer people having to travel further to jobs, therefore higher costs on those who can least afford it. Perhaps if you looked at it in a light less imbued with the thought of those 'left wing crazies' and more poor sods are being ghettoised, you may find that you are not quite so angry.

oh, and the 1989 housing act was solely designed to prevent affordable housing. Maggie got the housing situation, right to buy in particular, very, very wrong. Capital Reciepts still one of the biggest cock ups ever.
Again, those who have developed skills, or those who have had the opportunity to develop skills. longfingernails?

Yawn. The same old claptrap we always hear.

There is a wonderful culture of working during college to minimise student loans in the United States. It's something we should emulate here. It really puts paid the "it's the accident of birth which provides opportunity, and you don't forge your own destiny" lie.

Once again comedy gold from longfingernails.

LOL every time.

Claptrap, indeed longfingernails I rather gather you are known for it.

Can't see what's left wing about wanting people to be able to afford a roof over their heads.

funniest thread every

YANBU about the bus protesters. Not sure about the rest of it though...