silicon valley boom eludes many, drives income gap

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WEALTH_GAP_SILICON_VALLEY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-03-06-03-36-28

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Arwin Buditom guards some of the most successful high-tech firms in America. Joseph Farfan keeps their heat, air and electric systems humming. But these workers and tens of thousands like them who help fuel the Silicon Valley's tech boom can't even make ends meet anymore. Buditom rooms with his sister an hour's drive from work. Farfan gets his groceries at a food pantry.

"It's unbelievable until you're in the middle of it," Farfan said, standing in line at the Sacred Heart Community Center in San Jose for free pasta, rice and vegetables. "Then the reality hits you."

Silicon Valley is entering a fifth year of unfettered growth. The median household income is $90,000, according to the Census Bureau. The average single-family home sells for about $1 million. The airport is adding an $82 million private jet center.

But the river of money flowing through this 1,800-square-mile peninsula, stretching from south of San Francisco to San Jose, has also driven housing costs to double in the past five years while wages for low- and middle-skilled workers are stagnant. Nurses, preschool teachers, security guards and landscapers commute for hours from less-expensive inland suburbs.

[aristocles]

1. So get an IEEE degree.

[TBF]

2. I do encourage my kids to play outside -

but I don't limit their computer time like some parents do.

They are very adept little gamers and much more comfortable with computers/phones/tablets - any devices really - than I will ever be. It is intuitive for them and "virtual" is part of their lives. It is a different world they are growing up in and those are the skills they need.