Google was the only large company to participate. For all others, paying taxes is their only participation in the community.

That meeting was the first step. This post is how Google can take the next step.

Being missed

A recent post from Seth Godin asked about being missed:

Expanding the circle of ‘missed’
Would they miss you if you didn’t show up? Would they miss your brand or your writing or your leadership?

If you work at the local fast food joint or the local library and you don’t show up for work, do they consider shutting the place down?

If you’re on the team at the ER and you have a bad day, would someone die?

Everyone is capable of being missed. Most of us would be missed by our family if we secretly moved to Perth in the middle of the night. The question, then, is not whether or not you’re capable of being missed. The question is whether you will choose to be missed by a wider circle of people.

It’s a risk, of course. You have to extend yourself. You must make promises (and then keep them.) More pressure than it might be worth.

Except when it is.

Would Google be missed if it was to leave Mountain View?

Google’s buildings are former SGI buildings. Did anyone miss SGI when it went out of business? The property taxes would be paid on the empty buildings, the traffic would be lighter, existing businesses would find office space cheaper and more abundant.

Challenges for Google

Google has a hard challenge if it truly wants to be part of the whole community. Because it is large, well-funded, and powerful, it can do enormous harm without meaning to.

Challenge #1: Bringing back to zero, creating a positive impact or cure worse than the disease?

Google employees a number of charter buses with which Google brings their employees in from all over the Bay Area. This saves the air pollution and traffic congestion that would otherwise be caused by each employee driving to Google’s location.
Clearly the negative aspect of all of the Google employees driving has been reduced with the buses. However, the buses are still there and the Google parking lot is still full. If Google was to move out – the traffic situation would be even better.
Is the private shuttle bus service similar to that offered by Apple as good as Google can do?
Does this private shuttle service actually worsen things for the Mountain View residents?

Challenge #2: How can Google make a lasting impact on the quality of life that will outlast Google?

Google is doing wonderful things with energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainability. For example, Google invested in residential solar with a $280 million dollar fund run by SolarCity.
Google has driven improvements in data center energy efficiency.

• Can Google continue this investment in a way that Mountain View and surrounding cities gains direct visible benefits ?
• How come 2 miles from Google’s campus I can’t get quality internet?

Challenge #3: How can Google do charitable works in a sustainable way with greater impact?

Recently, Google contributed money, computers and helped clean up Stevenson School. ( ). GoogleServe is a good way to build team spirit within Google. Many companies have such community work days because they recognize the team building aspect of these days.

In 2009,

Over the past couple of weeks about 5,000 Googlers from 60 of our offices took a break from their regular jobs to participate in volunteer opportunities. We’ve found that community service helps to revitalize and deepen our connections with the communities where we live and work, as well as bring us closer together as a team.

And in 2011,

Over the last month, more than 7,700 Googlers helped serve their communities across 400 different projects as part of GoogleServe, an employee-driven initiative organized almost entirely by volunteers.

GoogleServe results in a lot of Google employees feeling good. However, these massive push days have a dark side for the non-profits involved.

• The organization being “helped” is given a temporary burst of labor. Its like drinking a bunch of caffeine – there is a burst of energy and followed by a crash.
• The volunteers are not self-directed. For example, the volunteers do not know where the paint is or the brushes.
• Only projects that can be completed in a day are possible.
• The labor is “dumb” – it can’t figure out what needs to be done, it needs to be told.
• The organization must supply the leaders.
• Only “big” projects are possible ( paint an entire school )
• The organization assumes the burden of planning.
• The organization must “entertain” the labor – heaven help the organization that can find enough brass-polishing projects to keep everyone busy.
• The organization is not better off in a sustainable manner.

• Can Google move beyond massive single day events to focused sustainable efforts?
• Are these massive team efforts the best help to the community?
• Do these massive work days have a meaningful and sustainable impact?
• Are these work days the best use of time and resources?
• Do these work days have the best impact?

Challenge #4: Is Google aware of the true needs of the community?

Google employees are well-educated, financially secure, and technologically literate. They have access to quality health care, sick days, and quality child care. Google employees are not personally experiencing the needs of community members that are not like them. These invisible people cut hair, serve food, wash cars, clean toilets.

These invisible poor survive on $35K/year (or less) for 4 people. They work just as hard as Google employees. They have no access to healthcare. Many are transit-dependent, they use bikes and buses. The services they depend on are the first to be cut. “Small” changes have devastating impacts on them. Walk along California Ave between Showers Dr. and Shoreline. Look at the community between California Ave and El Camino Real. Did you know that Mountain View has had gang killings? I remember the flowers.

Consider this article and read how the poor pay extra for everything.

• Can Google do good in a way that makes good business sense?
• How is Google finding out the true needs of the community members who are not like Google employees?

Challenge #5: Is Google casually harming the community?

In 2006, another Mountain View company, Intuit, made life worse for the needy :

November 2nd, 2006: A few years ago, the Franchise Tax Board, California’s tax collector, pioneered a free on-line tax program called “Ready Return.” State Controller Steve Westly championed this program. The program enabled taxpayers with the simplest forms (single, no itemized deductions, and no tax schedules to fill out) to go to a secure website, obtain their tax information from the state, fill out a tax form and, if the taxpayer desired, calculate the amount of tax owed or refund due. Taxpayers had the option of doing the calculation themselves.
The program eliminated tax filing headaches for thousands of Californians, allowed low income taxpayers to more easily collect earned income tax credits, and increased compliance with state tax filing requirements.

Intuit lobbied hard to kill the free state program. It introduced “do no math” legislation to stop the free state software from performing calculations, thus rendering the program useless for taxpayers. It lobbied successfully this year to strip the funding needed to keep the free tax filing program alive.

Part of the fallout of Intuit’s actions was the closing of several battered spousal shelters.

Businesses have this maniacal focus on making money that leads to this indifferent damage. It shows up in many ways. Intuit will claim otherwise but how many people’s lives were negatively affected. Did someone not get a refund that would have helped pay for another semester at college because of Intuit’s actions? Did a woman die because the shelter was closed? The invisible poor are not organized. They exist in the shadows. But you walk by them every day they are part of your life even if you do not recognize it.

Does Google casually harm the poor the way Intuit does? The recent expansion, Google’s real-estate developer’s “our way or the highway” attitude, as relayed by another member of the breakout session, is believable because it is the norm.

How can Google listen, get Google’s needs met, and make life better for all?

Possible responses to the challenges

My suggestion and thoughts on the challenges posed.

Response #1: Bringing back to zero, creating a positive impact or cure worse than the disease?

A private shuttle bus that serves only Google employees is harmful to the community. This VTA map shows how limited the public transit options are to reach the Google campus. The options are a single bus (line 40) that does not connect with downtown Mountain View. There is no public transit between downtown Mountain View, Shoreline Park, the Amphitheatre, the Computer History Museum or Google.

The Dumbarton Rail project is a project that would enable Caltrain to connect with the East Bay and BART. This project would also enable Altamont Commuter Express to run trains up the Peninsula from Redwood City to San Francisco and down the peninsula to Palo Alto and Mountain View. This single project would connect the East Bay with the Peninsula would change the face of rail transit in the Bay Area in a way that no other project would.

Currently this project is languishing because it is the favorite of no one — except the people that need it the most. Google’s shuttle buses enable Google to also be indifferent to this project.

Because Google employees can successfully avoid public transit, they are less familiar with it, they are less invested in helping it improve. Google is denying VTA and other public transit systems ridership, participation, and awareness that they desperately need. Google employees are “above the fray” that the rest of the community faces. In the Bay Area often times transit is built by well-meaning people who don’t actually use the transit.

Verdict: Private bus system: Better than cars but still a net negative.

What could Google do:

Work with public transit agencies with grants to enable public transit routes to replace selected Google’s shuttles.

• For example, VTA’s line 40 and line 51’s frequency could be increased in part with a subsidy by Google.
• Reach to other businesses, Intuit, Microsoft in the Shoreline Business Area to create a sustainable, funded plan that is built in to the tax structure for the Shoreline Business Park that is dedicate to providing a quality public transit option for the all employees.
• If Google has to go it alone,
  • attach a covenent to the Google property that obligates the next owner to subsidize the transit.
  • negotiate the VTA buses subsidized in this manner are ad-wrapped with a Google ad: “Google cares – it is time you joined a company that gets you where you want to go http://google.com/jobs”

Work to make Dumbarton Rail project get built.
No two ways about it – do the outreach and the marketing to help persuade businesses that private shuttle buses are a hack. Do the persuasion in the business community that a better solution is a world-class transit system.

Create tools with Google Maps to help with trip planning with unbuilt projects
The public is promised wonderful benefits from transit projects. Yet in many cases the projects are poorly built in ways that are only obvious after the project has been completed.

For example, the BART to SFO extension replace a bus shuttle service between Caltrain and SFO. The bus was faster and better than BART. The BART to SFO proponents dreamed that everyone would transfer from Caltrain to BART. The reality is that doing the transfer is costly and slower.

Similarly BART is being built toward downtown San Jose. Once again, this project will not deliver quality, fast, world class transit.

The Google Maps team could extend their code to help with building quality transit:

1. enable users to draw proposed transit lines on maps
2. define the simplistic characteristics of the transit vehicles ( acceleration, station dwell times, speed )
3. For surface running, use existing information available for calculating car travel.
4. Enable existing transit options to be incorporated so that a total hypothetical trip time and cost could be calculated.

Response #2: How can Google make a lasting impact on the quality of life that will outlast Google?

As outlined in Response#1, helping get the transit situation permanently and sustainably helps enormously.

Google’s investment in renewable energy should also be leveraged.

How come Mountain View does not have solar panels on more residential buildings and downtown? Unemployment for non-software developers is very high. There are also a large number of people who are not computer people, who are not interested in working with computers. Some of these people are the least “desirable” members of society: parolees, ex-convicts.

Google should built an ecosystem of solar installers and insulator contractors by investing in area to create a high density of solar installations. Scattered installations do not create an ecosystem. Obviously, I would like Mountain View to be one such place but how about out in Stockton and Tracy? Google could help reduce the operating costs for cash-strapped cities in the Central Valley.

I challenge Google to make it a goal that every public building in the state would have a solar installation. Every library, city hall, police station and fire hall would have a SolarCity installation.

Internet access

How come 2 miles from Google’s campus I cannot get an internet connection better than DSL or Comcast? A developer that works for me in Siberia ( Irkutsk ), has fiber to his house. Why is it that Google, Intuit, Microsoft are not bringing that same benefit to Mountain View residents?

I challenge Google to make it a goal that every library in California has fiber access to the internet.

Response #3: How can Google do charitable works in a sustainable way with greater impact?

I have seen lots of “technology days” where the technology companies drop a bunch of computers, wire up a non-profit and then leave.

In about a month something goes wrong and the non-profit “beneficiary” does not know how to fix the problem. A windows upgrade goes bad, the linksys box gets misconfigured, a system file gets accidentally deleted, the computer get stolen, or a piece of software needs a non-trivial upgrade.

Google can do better with GoogleServe.

First, spend the time to learn the non-profit.
Some times technology is the poorest solution to a problem. For example, is an Android phone the best way to gather data or is a scanable piece of paper that can be scanned better? The paper won’t get damaged by water, not likely to get stolen, and getting lost is not that big a deal.

Second, be there for the long run. Rather than massive labor for a day how about being there with 1/24th as many people every 2 weeks? When the computers have problems GoogleServe can be there to fix the problems and make sure the donation is truly useful. Or to discover a better solution for the community’s need. GoogleServe in this sustained manner would allow relationships to the community to be established. A one day work day doesn’t build relationships.

Response #4: Is Google aware of the true needs of the community?

Google needs to embed themselves in the community. Open an office at Food Street Restaurant (Dana and Castro) and get to know the community. Talk to the business owners.

Talk to the Hispanic community.

Learn from the gang members.

They will not know how Google could help because they do not know what Google can do. But together the community and Google could help figure that out.

Response #5: Is Google casually harming the community?

Unfortunately yes. The rents are going up Mountain View is being gentrified. But Google can help in a way that does not turn Google into a charity.

First, the Community Health Center is ideally located to help low income people. It is on transit and is centrally located.

Second, The North County Social Services is also being impacted.

The Pacific Euro Hotel home to many low-income people between permanent residences is also impacted.

Google could provide a 99-year lease in one of their new buildings that is close to transit for both the Mayview center and the Social Services Center. A single floor would mean a lot. Contract with the mayview center to also provide health services for Google employees as well, so the low-income of mountain view gets some of the benefits of Google employees.

If Google is really daring they will make it so that the low-income people that they aid mix with Google employees. Make the invisible poor less invisible.

When Google considers building employee housing, make room for teachers to have an apartment as well. Give room for the janitors and haircutters to live. Practice economic desegregation.

The Future Challenges

Many of these thoughts and suggestions are relatively inexpensive. But they require that Google actually care to do them.

Can Google move from “Don’t no evil” to “Achieve greatness in good”?

Can Google create an impact that is self-sustaining and permanent. What will Google’s legacy be in 100 years? Paint will have long since peeled off. Google should do more than coat a surface.

Google took the first step. Can it take the second?

For Men

If you are a sell-side analyst, you will be wearing a suit everyday. That means you need to invest in good-quality suits in a variety of colors. When building your suit wardrobe, start with a solid gray and a solid navy and then add a gray or navy muted pinstripe, said Jessica Cadmus, a former Goldman Sachs employee who founded Wardrobe Whisperer, a personal shopping/stylist consultancy.

She recommends a two-button suit with double vent, notched lapel and straight but tailored leg. Don’t worry about buying an Armani suit — you’ll be fine with something from JCrew or Banana Republic if that’s what you can afford in the beginning.

“Worry about buying an Armani”? Why should I ever waste my money?

Plain-front pants are ideal. “For God’s sake, don’t be the guy who shows up with pleated pants,” said an associate at a hedge fund.

OMG! the world will end with pleated pants!

When choosing a shirt, make sure to pick out dress shirts, that is, shirts without buttons on the collars. Shirts with buttons on the collar are called sport shirts and are considerably less formal.

The solution? Buy cheap sport shirts and remove the buttons. I bet this saves $$.

You should steer clear of French cuff shirts, cuff links and monograms, which are best left to vice presidents and above, said the hedge fund associate.

After you’ve chosen a shirt, make sure your tie and collar are proportional. Big tie knots like the Windsor should be worn with spread collars, and smaller knots like the Half-Windsor or Four-in-Hand should be worn with point collars. Bigger knots are preferred, said a first-year hedge fund analyst in New York City.

Seriously, people look at the size of tie knot?

When you’re low on the food chain, your goal is to blend in. That means choosing a basic blue, red or gold tie. Avoid the novelty ties until you advance, said Ron Ferguson, a concierge at Brooks Brothers. Once you do, you can wear ties with a golf-club or yacht-pattern, depending on your interests.

See the nice people at ComputerGear.com

Apparently brown goes with everything. As an added bonus, shit looks nicer with brown.

A pair of lace-up oxfords in brown and black, as well as pair of loafers in brown and black, will work. Make sure to match the belt to the shoes.

Its nice to know that uncomfortable shoes are the key.

Pireneo Exotic Moccasin ($2300)

At a firm like Goldman, Ferragamo shoes are a sign of “arriving,” so don’t pick up a pair until you’re at least a managing director, a source told Business Insider.

An anonymous source for dress code in Goldman Sachs?

Peon place if you will

You may be tempted to dress casually on Fridays when you see some of the senior executives stroll in wearing polo shirts and khakis. Don’t do it, said an associate at a hedge fund: “They are making a magnitude more than you are, and are headed to their summer home after work Friday where such attire is appropriate. You are going back to Murray Hill“.

Now this is important. Be sure to get your little hovel in Murray Hill, not Curry Hill. While Curry Hill is a little closer to work, Curry Hill residents have that odor of curry to their clothes which as we know, is a definite no-no.

The so-called “gunners,” or competitive, overly-ambitious coworkers, may try to pull it off, but it makes them look foolish, the associate said.

Because we all know that relaxed and comfortable is foolish.

Finally, choose your accessories wisely. A good watch is a status symbol, so

Associates

Vice Presidents

MDs

TAG Heuer 'Carrera' Automatic Tachymeter Watch ($4100). (Wait for the sale!)

EXTRA-FLAT Baloon bleu de Cartier WATCH, EXTRA-LARGE MODEL ($32,550)

Patek Star Caliber 2000G ($More than you can afford)

As a sidenote, what is with the high-watch websites with crappy last millennium web design fashion sense. Flash-sites yech!

“Wear a good-looking and professional watch, but nothing too nice or you risk having a nicer watch than your boss or client,” said a first-year hedge fund analyst. “You’d think this wouldn’t be an issue, but you would be amazed how many guys show up on the first day of their internship wearing a $5,0000 [sic] Cartier or Montblanc watch.”

For Women

Women will require the same basic suiting options: a skirt, jacket, pants and if you’re a lucky, a matching dress.

Burka with optional accessories ($2000)

Hmmm…. what are the vegas odds here? Or does this mean that most women will look like shit and only the lucky ones will be able to find something that actual matches and looks good?

When choosing a skirt, make sure it’s not too short — even brands that claim to be for professionals can offer skirts that just don’t provide enough coverage.

too much leg!

I suggest the always fashionable burka?

It may not be the most flattering look, but keep the skirt slightly above your knees to avoid any Hilton/Lohan/insert-starlet-here wardrobe malfunctions. Don’t think about rocking a red suit or dress until you’re at the MD level.

An important thing to keep in mind is caring for the suit. It sounds counterintuitive, but you should avoid dry cleaning, Ferguson said. He recommends dry cleaning only once or twice a year because too many chemicals will damage the material and wear the suit out faster. Instead, hang up the suit carefully so as to allow it to air out, which is really all it needs, Ferguson said.

When you do dry clean, make sure to send both pieces together so as to maintain the consistency of the color.

Just be sure to get your proper dose of PERC (Tetrachloroethylene) dry cleaning agent and stay away from the new “wet cleaning” methods coming from those hippies on the West Coast.

If you’re not sure whether to wear pantyhose, look at the women around you. Some ultra-conservative firms will implicitly require hose, so even if it’s a hot, sweaty summer day, you should stock up if the women who work there are wearing them.

Now this is important as well. Do not “sock” the other women. “stock up”. Some suggestions from 3wishes:

Heels sold separately!

Fishnet works best to bring some warmth to the holidays!

Shoes can lead to your downfall if you don’t pick them well. You’ll naturally want to avoid stilettos, but you should also invest in very comfortable heels.

Ok must be slightly less than 5 inches.

“You’re going to be literally running around the firm and through the streets,” said one analyst at a bulge-bracket bank. “You’re going to need to keep up with the men, and they don’t want you to complain. Get yourself a pair of heels you can stand in all day.”

To do that, you might consider some brands that partner with sneaker technology to result in shoes that are more comfortable than the average heel. Those could be a worthy investment, the analyst said (she purchased Cole Haan’s Nike air heel in six different colors).

David Yurman Cable-wrapped ($4300)

When choosing jewelry, you can’t go wrong with a pearl necklace. Diamonds are generally considered more fashionable, Cadmus said. Just as Ferragamo marks the arrival for men, so too does David Yurman jewelry for women, so don’t wear that ubiquitous ring until you can afford it.

List $1795 - yours for only $702!

You should also think carefully before choosing a handbag. Do not walk in with a Louis Vuitton or Birkin bag. Instead, stick to a nondescript, minimalist yet good-quality leather purse like a Furla.

Now listen up, that high-powered brain needs to spend significant time contemplating… handbags. World hunger, make room for world handbags!

For Everyone

Must be at least a MD before they come out of the closet!

The top yearly earners only should wear this, otherwise it looks "gunner"

The bottom line is to blend in with your surroundings and realize you’ll have a chance to purchase flashier items as you move up the ranks.

Bling, bling, bling.

“You have to know your place,” said a second-year associate at an investment bank. “You do not want to be ostentatious or call attention to yourself. Do not upstage your boss.”

Be sure that the prenup was never signed!

Because goodness knows, high school ain’t over until they say it is over!

Here are five facts that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner offered in a speech in New York Tuesday (May 17 2011) as “context for the [fiscal] choices we must make now to preserve room for important investments in our future.”

• In the U.S. today , 40% of children born each year are covered by Medicaid. If you are born today in hard-pressed communities in many American cities, like St. Louis or Baltimore, you are more likely to die before your first birthday than if you were born in Sri Lanka or Belarus.
• In education, we’re losing ground…. In Los Angeles, only about half the kids graduate from high school.
• Over the next 25 years, the number of Americans eligible for Medicare and Social Security will nearly double, while the number of working age Americans will only increase by about 10%, putting substantial new burdens on working Americans.
• We spend $700 billion a year on national security… about two-thirds of what we spent as a share of our economy during the Cold War.
• The effective income tax rate for the wealthiest Americans—those earning more than $250,000 a year—is at its lowest level in 50 years. And the effective rate for the very rich—those earning over $10 million per year— has declined much further and is now around 21%.

Of course the only proper solution is to increase the taxes on the poor and lower the taxes on the comfortable.

A year ago, everything was going right for a woman we’ll call Sandy. But then the world came crashing down around the 39-year-old. She lost her job. She lost her house. And she and her son moved into her truck. Police found her and DCFS threatened to take away her son if she didn’t find a safe place to stay.

She moved into a hotel with the help of a social worker who paid for a few nights stay with her own money. That’s when Sandy’s knight in shining armor showed up. And he’s kept showing up, every day, paying her hotel bill, so she and her son can stay off the streets.

But Sandy’s Good Samaritan isn’t a Chicago big shot. He isn’t living in a Loop highrise. He doesn’t even have a job.

Sandy’s Good Samaritan is Curtis Jackson, who’s been homeless since 2004. He pays for Sandy’s hotel room because she used to treat him with dignity and kindness when she did have a house — and he pays for it by panhandling and giving the money to her.

Where are the comfortable who live in those Loop highrises? Only the homeless and the social worker will aid those in need. The comfortable are content in their Calvinist beliefs.

On the other side of the world, Money Troubles Take Personal Toll in Greece:

Anargyros D. recounted how he had lost everything in the aftermath of the Greek economic collapse — the food-processing factory founded by his father 30 years ago, his house, his car, his Rolex, his pride and now, he said, his will to live.

Economists are predicting a 4 percent contraction in gross domestic product this year, and the data support the pessimism. Cement production is down 60 percent since 2006. Steel production has fallen, in some cases more than 80 percent in the last two years. Analysts say that close to 250,000 private sector jobs will have been lost by the end of the year, pushing the unemployment rate above 15 percent.

But Greece is to be punished, in the best Calvinist tradition:

On the table will be whether Greece, which is now projected to miss its deficit target by as much as two percentage points of G.D.P. this year, will be granted another round of loans totaling as much as 60 billion euros, and what further budget cuts would be required in return.

But there is serious debate about whether this kind of prescription — subjecting Greece to more cuts and sacrifice in order to justify a second installment of funds from a reluctant Europe — is the right one.

“Serious” debate? Only the comfortable find a serious debate in asking the destitute to sacrifice for the comfortable.

This form of remedy violates two basic economic principles, according to Yanis Varoufakis, an economics professor and blogger at the University of Athens. “You do not lend money at high interest rates to the insolvent and you do not introduce austerity into a recession,” he said. “It’s pretty simple: the debt is going up and G.D.P. is going down. Have we not learned the lesson of 1929?”

No. Apparently not. Hopefully another round of dictatorships does not arise.

Social workers and municipal officials in Athens report that there has been a 25 percent increase in homelessness. At the main food kitchen in Athens, 3,500 people a day come seeking food and clothing, up from about 100 people a day when it first opened 10 years ago.

And we discover the limits of private charity,

While aid workers refer to these people as a new generation of homeless, the Greek government does not officially recognize the homeless as a social category in need of assistance,… as a result there are no government-supported homeless shelters.

Apparently, private industry sees little profit in helping their fellow human beings.

“Everything was coming up roses,” Anargyros D said, mashing a cigarette into the ashtray before him. “And then the banks took it all away from us.”

Yves Smith adds to the points:

One week ago, I put up a post on the plight of a family that was at the end of its rope financially due to a lack of savings prior to the firing of the main income provider at the start of 2009.

Two surprising things happened. First, one reader offered to send the family $1000 if other readers would contribute. I said I would and encouraged others who were interested to ping me.

Second, that act of generosity seemed to particularly incense those inclined to take a dim view of those in debt, and some responded with vitriol, their comments having no grounding in anything more than prejudice, on why this family was having trouble making ends meet.

Quite a few of the comments also reflected a considerable lack of understanding as to how the bottom half, income-wise, lives (for instance, saying that the couple “should” have several hundred thousand in savings plus that much in their home equity). A different theme was the couple should be on food stamps and the adult children and their kids should be on Medicare. One reader who rebutted that in comments, pointing out that the thresholds for assets and income were very low, was ignored.

Thanks for all you help and the offer, but there are folks who have already defaulted on their cards and loans and have lost their homes and jobs. At least my husband did finally get a job last week after 10 1/2 months of looking from Baltimore to Berkeley, but the damage has already been done. Someone, somewhere must listen to the people because we are all going down, friends, neighbors, relatives, you name ‘em, we know ‘em….

Yves Smith concludes in way better than I could:

I think quite a few readers owe her an apology. But I am also sure those readers are so locked into their Calvinist mindset that they will find some basis for criticizing this family. Some people seem constitutionally unable to admit that success and prosperity are not the result of hard work alone. I know plenty of people who are hardworking and talented. Some are making a fraction (and I mean less than 1/10) than people I know who strike me as less talented, often less natively intelligent, and certainly worked less hard. I know others who took considerable reversals through no fault of their own (including one in particular, a former high flier who has had to move back to his parent’s home, with the reasons including that he gave a lot of money to struggling relatives). Luck also plays a big role, what family you were born into, what breaks you got along the way, what landmines you avoided. It is part of the human condition that we lack foresight. Things that look like a logical choice can turn out badly for reasons beyond one’s control, and many people lack the luxury of choices to begin with.

So very true. How much of our success was dependent on those before us?

• Someone else paid for the hospital you were born in.
• Someone had to build the school and educate your teachers.
• Someone else had to decide to sacrifice to be the teacher of another’s child,
• Someone else decided to fight for rights, in wars, in court rooms, in hardship,
• Someone else fought for the 40-hour work week,
• Clean water for you to drink as a child

No one is self-made man ( or woman ). No man is an island. We all owe a debt to the dead, we can only repay to the unborn.

Yves concludes with a quote from a reader:

I am astonished at how many readers you have who have no idea whatever how the financial bottom fourth or fifth of America lives. When I was a kid in western Kentucky I had a few classmates who lived in unpainted old clapboard houses out in the country, in some cases former slave quarters and so a century old. I remember one such house that even had a dirt floor. When I was little my mom’s parents lived in a tiny mountainside house in Appalachia that had no indoor plumbing. They hand pumped water from a well and heated it on a coal stove, and for a toilet across the dirt road there was an outhouse that hung out over and dumped onto the weeds on the descending slope. Stunk to high heaven, of course, and there were lots of bugs. At eight years of age, having to go in the middle of the night armed only with a flashlight was a character-building experience.

Things are a little better in the rural south now, but they sure aren’t good, now that the small farms are gone. In my adult life I’ve seen one relative living in a broken-down trailer with a caved-in roof and a goat tied up in the yard. And I’ve seen my cousin, with a small-college degree in math no less, getting by for a good while in the middle of nowhere, south Carolina on $9,000 a year from intermittent and part-time jobs. We can be all snooty about the poor not working hard enough, but I’ve also seen a sister quit a job pulling visibly diseased tissue off of Tyson chickens on a production line rather than get campylobacter one more time. We demand they live and act all middle class, but as a society we honestly don’t give them half a chance.

These guys who talk about saving hundreds of $thousands in small-town rural America are particularly irritating. How do you do that on $9K/year or $12K/year exactly? The US Census Bureau says in 2007 the bottom 20% of US households earned less than $19,178, so these are not trivial numbers of people. We never won our war on poverty really. We just forgot about it when the conservatives become obsessed with the hordes of welfare queens (and drag queens) that they imagined were filling our cities.

One of my big shocks when I started traveling more was to discover that compared to a lot of places a large part of the central and southern US (including parts of the upper Midwest) was actually what used to be called a third-world country, with way more poverty, illness, and and borderline illiteracy than Europe et al. Re literacy I remember in Turkey seeing Chekov plays for sale at a truck stop in the middle of nowhere. My Turkish friends thought it odd that I’d find that odd. To them it was perfectly reasonable that a truck driver might want something interesting to read.

One of the big lies about the poor or the struggling lower middle class is “surely they could have made something of themselves.” If you local school is lousy, how are you going to do that? I hate to say it, but from the time I have spent in Alabama, the level of education among average people (and I don’t mean poor, I mean average) is not hot at all. Multiply that across quite a few lower-income states.

The Calvinists have forgotten, as they always do, what Jesus taught in Matthew 25:34-45 :

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,

I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?

When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?

When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,

I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did NOT do for one of the least of these, you did NOT do for me.’

Jesus also taught, Luke 12:48:

But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

For those who have been given much, much more will be asked. Yet people and corporations refuse to provide for society.

Does Jesus allow selective Christianity?

Jesus taught how we treat the least of our brothers defines our humanity. Now in the time of humanity’s greatest need when it matters the most is when we discover who sits at the right hand … and who sits on the left hand.

I work every day on improving myself as a human being wishing to be humane. But I know that I will be found wanting. I don’t think I am better than others but I grieve for humanity because people who can change society for the better do nothing. And those who would do evil are successful.

Dan Leone is the perfect example; he was a stadium operations manager for the Philadelphia Eagles, and in 2009 when he found out that his favorite Eagles’ player, Brian Dawkins, signed with the Denver Broncos he posted this on his Facebook page:
“Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver … Dam Eagles R Retarted!!”
(By the way, the spelling errors are Leone’s not mine.)

The next day management found out about Dan’s comments and told him they were letting him go to “Denver or Oakland or maybe Pittsburgh.” But, they really didn’t care how he would get there because Dan was to be terminated immediately for his offensive remarks about the Eagles and people with mental disabilities.
Dan’s termination illustrates this decade’s newest form of corporate dismissals – Facebook firings.
There are people in my generation who think “What happens on Facebook stays on Facebook.” Someone actually told me this and I responded with, “It’s all fun and games – until someone gets fired.”

Art Eric Rodriguez is repeating “and the sky is blue” reminders and unfortunately people do need to be reminded that the “sky is blue”. And that things “are not fair”.

<snark>Zuckerberg would be very upset with Art Eric Rodriguez. After all, you should want to share, and share, and share!</snark>

My solution is very simple. I am very minimalist online. I don’t create content online. This is especially true on something like Facebook.

I am not about to put my career in the hands of the never-ending privacy policy changes coming from Facebook or any other website owner.

Look at the questions asked by Facebook:

• “I am interested in Males or Females” – sexual orientation are now freely available for employers to discriminate based on.
• “Political beliefs” – another area that Facebook encourages users to answer. Another question that employers are allowed to ask about but is now freely available to discriminate on.
• “Relationship status” – normally the single or married status of a job candidate is off-limits, but if it is publicly shared then it is impossible to prove employment discrimination based on marital status. Not married and living with your girlfriend/boyfriend? This is a problem with a large number of religious managers.

Most of the content that I create is on my blog, hosted on my server. When I say something online, if it is longer than a paragraph, then I just write a overview and a link to my blog. If I ever decide to delete the content, it is deleted.

Sure someone could go through the effort to copy my blog, but at least its a *manual* effort on their part.

In an age where google searches are easy, there are only a few defenses. The best one is to not post content on external sites. Quite simply anything written down can be held against you.

I find it incredibly revealing that the people who loudly proclaim that privacy is dead are well-off and able to financially deal with the impacts of private information being public.

Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, is a good example. But even he reacted strongly when his privacy was invaded. In 2005, Cnet reporters were banned access to Google.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Google Inc. has blacklisted all CNET reporters for a year, after the popular technology news website published personal information of one of Google’s founders in a story about growing privacy concerns for the Internet search engine, according to a CNET statement.

CNET on Friday reported “Google representatives have instituted a policy of not talking with CNET News reporters until July 2006 in response to privacy issues raised by a previous story.” That story, by reporter Elinor Mills ran under the headline “Google balances privacy, reach.”

Google spokesman David Krane told CNN the company declined comment.

The CNET story, dated July 14, focused on privacy concerns since Google is amassing such enormous amounts of data about people. It reported that some analysts fear it is becoming a great risk to privacy, because it would be a tempting target for hackers, “zealous government investigators, or even a Google insider who falls short of the company’s ethics,” the article said.

To underscore its point about how much personal information is available, the CNET report published some personal information about Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt — his salary; his neighborhood, some of his hobbies and political donations — all obtained through Google searches.

Schmidt is officially Google’s chief champion and defender, and has publicly said that there has to be a trade-off between privacy concerns and functionality. He has brought up Google’s corporate motto, “Don’t Be Evil” in those defenses.

Five years later, Eric Schmidt seems little changed:

For those concerned with privacy, Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave them a few more things to start worrying about.

At a conference here Wednesday, Schmidt noted that using artificial intelligence, computers can take 14 pictures of anyone on the Internet and stand a good chance of identifying that person. Similarly, the data collected by location-based services can be used not only to show where someone is at, but to also predict with a lot of accuracy where they might be headed next.

“Pretty interesting,” Schmidt said. “Good idea, Bad idea?…The technology of course is neutral but society is not fundamentally ready.”

His comments came at the start of Techonomy, a new conference devoted to looking at how technology is changing and can change society.

Schmidt said that society really isn’t prepared for all of the changes being thrust upon it. “I think it’s time for people to get ready for it.”

Schmidt said these records are a challenge for everyone, himself included, as he noted he was a child of the 1960s.

On balance, Schmidt said that technology is good, but he said that the only way to manage the challenges is “much greater transparency and no anonymity.”

Schmidt said that in an era of asymmetric threats, “true anonymity is too dangerous.”

If this is so true, then why is Eric still sensitive about all his private information?

For me, I am help with a very common name including very famous people with an identical name. Google searching me turns up bad information. And that is just fine by me.

Update ( 18 March 2011): Brad Feld, a VC, seems to have rediscovered the value of privacy:

We were enjoying our sushi and talking about random things, like what our family restaurant was when we were growing up (Godfathers, Pizza Hut, Burger King were three of them) and where the smokers hung out at high school. Someone was mid-sentence when the manager of Japango walked up and asked if I was Brad Feld. I said yes; he handed me the landline phone and said “someone is on the phone with an urgent call for you.”

Everyone paused while he handed me the phone.

Me: “Hello?”

Them: In a voice that was clearly masked “Is this Brad Feld”

Me: “Yes, who is this?”

Them: “I wrrrr whrrr your rrrr.”

Me: “I’m sorry – I can’t understand you. What are you saying.”

Them “Brad Feld – I know whrrr you rrr.”

This went on for a few more exchanges. I figured out what the person was trying to say but I wasn’t really processing it so I kept asking what they wanted. Eventually I hung up. I explained to my friends what had just happened and we had a short conversation about checking in on Foursquare and I speculated that was what had prompted the call.

A few minutes later the manager came by, picked up the phone, and asked if everything was alright. I quickly told him the story – he was pretty perplexed and apologized for bothering us. A few minutes later he came back and said the person was on the phone again asking for me. I once again picked up the phone, this time with a little anxiety, but by the time I got on the line the person was gone.

Brad describes a repeated call and then concludes:

But yesterday’s call spooked me. I didn’t check in for the balance of the day. When I walked out of Japango, I was a little nervous about where I physically was for the first time I can remember while in Boulder. And I had a heightened awareness of my surroundings last night as I walked home.

I haven’t sorted this out yet, but as an early adopter – and a promiscuous one – of location-based checkin – I’m rethinking how I use this stuff and broadcast where I am. I expect this will be a much bigger issue in the future as humans become transmitters of their location (don’t believe me – just go read Daemon and Freedom.)

I guess it’s a good thing that this just happened and caused me to think harder about the implications. One of the reasons I immerse myself in this stuff is to understand the products and services, but also to understand the impact on humans and our society. While it’s easy to think intellectually about privacy, it’s a whole different deal when you have to process the ideas in the context of real issues that you encounter.

As as been pointed out in a series of comments on techcrunch ( I would post the link to the techcrunch post except with facebook comments I can’t use google to find the comment thread any more),

1. No business pays sales tax for the goods they sell, businesses just collect sales on behalf of the taxing agencies.
2. Services such as taxcloud make compliance trivial with a in-the-cloud API service
3. States are working to stream line the definitions of what is subject to sales tax, so compliance is further simplified.
4. Internet companies are not being asked to pay taxes to states and local governments that they don’t use.
5. Internet companies are being asked to collect sales tax from the consumer who does use the state and local government services.

Therefore sales taxes ARE being paid by the beneficiary of the person/company being taxed – the person recieving the goods is the person paying the tax. Amazon’s refusal to collect a tax that Amazon is not actually paying is now even more galling. Amazon suffers no financial impact except to connect with a service such as taxcloud, adding the sales tax to the purchase and then sending the tax collected quarterly to each of the 50 states. So a company the size of Amazon is whining about 200 extra checks a year having to be sent? Get over it, Amazon and collect the tax already! Or is Amazon’s business model so fragile that it can’t take the hit?

Original post in which I fall into the trap of thinking that Internet businesses are paying sales tax:

Once again Internet VC’s just don’t get the real world. Brad Feld is of that “illustrious crowd” with his latest post

(Update: Sometime I need to take a breath before I post antagonistic sentences like the above, especially since I do not know Brad. In my defense, I have dealt with a long list of technophiles that think the solution to every problem involves more technology. These same technophiles don’t spend time to understand the needs of people who are tech-indifferent. But since I don’t know Brad personally, I can’t say that for certain about Brad. However, Brad’s statements that I quote below lead me to believe he is a technophile who does not understand technophobes or techno-indifferents.)

it’s just evidence that organizations like Downtown Boulder, Inc. don’t really understand the actual business economics of having a vibrant entrepreneurial community in their downtown.

This is an interesting statement about an organization that existed for businesses before the internet. Suddenly, Downtown Boulder, Inc. “doesn’t understand business and entrepreneurial communities”? How incredibly egotistical! Has Brad ever tried to understand a business in Boulder? Has he even run (or worked in) a brick and mortar store? Rather than try to understand the businesses in his own community – Brad feels like he is privileged to lecture them?

I would be willing to bet that Brad enjoys the Boulder community and downtown created by Downtown Boulder, Inc. Brad is in Boulder because of their work, not the other way around.

Lets look at some of the events listed on the DBI website:

• Winter Sidewalk Sale
• Fashion Under The Flatirons
• Tulip Fairy & Elf Parade
• Taste of Pearl
• Bands on the Bricks
• Noon Tunes
• Open Arts Fest
• Fall Festival
• Munchkin Masquerade
• Switch on the Holidays
• St. Nick on the Bricks
• Lights of December Parade

Under, First Fridays, this organization is clearly giving back to the community:

Boulder Creative Media-Plex – 1906 13th Street Suite 101 (downstairs)
1/2 block off the Pearl Street Mall

First Friday January 7th, 6 – 9pm: Art for the People – The art of ZMA, The Art of Sexy

Boulder Community Media (BCM) is a Colorado based 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to democratizing media and making it accessible to all. BCM provides artists of all ilks opportunities for the community to see their work.
BCM provides the Boulder Creative Media-Plex as a 5,000 sq ft venue in downtown Boulder for digital and visual artists to convene and collaborate.

Where is Foundry mentioned? So Brad bitches about the Downtown Boulder, Inc. but yet, DBI is creating a community and Brad Feld is contributing ….nothing…..

Why should DBI listen to him? Brad contributes nothing and offers little.
Pop quiz: Did the great Boulder downtown attract Brad or did Brad create the great downtown?

Continuing Brad Feld’s self-imposed victimhood,
Brad doesn’t bother to understand taxes

There is no basis for amazon paying state sales tax as they don’t use
any state or local resources! Presumably thats what the sales tax is
for, not to protect local merchants.

Excuse me?????

Brad, here is a partial list of local resources that Amazon directly BENEFITS from:

Amazon (and all other internet based stores) do use and depend on local resources to be able to sell:

1. The highways and airports used to deliver the goods ( contrary to popular myth, gas taxes only pay 51% of the road system cost). Poor roads increase deliver cost and decrease both reliability and timeliness.
2. Police protection: (paid for in part by sales tax!)
   1. Amazon is getting the benefit of police protection of the shipment. Quite simply, Amazon can ship something and have reasonable certainty that the package will in fact arrive.
   2. If the package is stolen enroute, Amazon gets the benefit the Colorado legal authorities will investigate the robbery.
   3. If Amazon shipment is robbed, the Colorado prosecutors will actually pursue an arrest and conviction.
   4. Fraud protection and prosecution
3. Fire protection
   1. The distribution warehouse used by Amazon shippers meets fire code regulations. ( local Colorado tax dollars at work. )
   2. If there is any sort of fire, the local fire department will be available to put the fire out. ( no tax dollars, no firemen )
4. a reliable electrical infrastructure
   1. its hard to for customers to connect to the Amazon website if the power keeps dropping out.
   2. electricity is produced in power plants which require their own fire/police protection
   3. power plants produce pollution. Or maybe Brad would like some dirty brown clouds (Colorado gets most of its power from coal-fired plants)
5. garbage /recycling systems used to process the packaging waste products
6. the e-waste problem from the batteries and printed circuit boards.
7. the brake dust and smog generated by the UPS delivery trucks

Take any of these benefits away and Amazon’s business falls apart.

Some basic rebuttals to some counter-arguments:

• The shipping company (UPS/DHL) pays taxes “on behalf of the shippers” and therefore Amazon shouldn’t have to:
  1. This argument moves the goal posts. The question is does Amazon derive any benefit from the local services and resources. Any taxes UPS pays is irrelevant to the question of Amazon’s benefiting from the local Colorado taxes.
  2. The shipper does not care too much about fraud. Amazon shipping something to a Colorado business or resident and then not getting paid is not UPS’s problem. The package was delivered, UPS expects to be paid.
• Amazon only uses services that would be already supplied. This relies on the “single drop of beer” argument. ( A guy goes into a bar and asks the price a drop of beer. Bartender: ‘free’. Man: please fill my mug with drops of beer.) The reality is the individual effect may be small but everyone needs to contribute to the commons otherwise we have the Tragedy of the Commons
• Amazon should only pay for an (itemized list) of local services that it directly uses. Really? Quick.. list every government service that you and your family use…. Did you remember:
  • Police
  • Fire
  • County Weights and Measures – the people who make sure that a gallon of gas is not 7/8 of a gallon
  • Water and Sewer – or do you prefer outhouses
  • Planning departments – or maybe it is o.k. if the house next door is replaced with a 30-story office building?
  • Parks and Recreation
  • Public Schools – yes I am sure your kids go to the best private school. If it helps to think of public schools as a place to store other peoples kids so they are not robbing your house, feel free to.
  • Courts
  • Prisons
  • Highway department
  • Search and Rescue

How about if the internet companies stop feeling so entitled and started contributing?

This is mine:

I am an entrepreneur starting my own company in Silicon Valley. I am reliant on expensive COBRA coverage for my own health care needs. COBRA runs out in a few months.

Without health insurance I will be forced to shutdown my company and my dream, and find another job building someone else’s dream.

I can’t afford to pay any health care for employees. So ironically I have to hire contractors from countries that do have universal health care. (or at least cheaper health care). Hiring anyone in the U.S. is too costly. Even if someone can work for minimum wage and equity, most software engineers will not do without health care insurance.

The best economic stimulus that Washington could enact is to take the economic burden of health care costs off the backs of small business and their employees. Enable people to realize their dreams without taking a chance on their health!

Not having to pay $13,000 – $15,000 / employee / year is a huge, huge, huge economic aid! For my own company this would have saved $40,000. This $40,000 could have been spent hiring people.

Jerry’s original email message:

Dear Patrick,

We’re in the midst of an historic debate on health care and closer than ever to enacting major reform.

Many of you participated in the health care survey I began circulating in April or in the telephone town hall on health care I held recently with almost 5,000 participants. Your thoughts and comments are appreciated and offer great insight.

Unfortunately, as you’ve probably heard, there are those in our country who want to block an open debate on health care. We shouldn’t lose the opportunity to have a productive and respectful conversation about the future of health care in this country.

I am not deterred by the current challenges or by those who seek to scare people into believing myths about the great changes we can make to the health care system.

I need your help to continue. We must stand together to create great change – our voices must rise above the din of misinformation.

Will you please sign my petition to show your support for health care reform?

I will continue to reach out to hear from you. Over the past month, I’ve traveled throughout the district to meet with small business owners, seniors, doctors and nurses. I’ve toured healthClick to watch video care facilities, including hospitals, clinics and local practices so that I can see our health care resources firsthand.

During my health care listening tour, I’ve heard again and again from people who are ready for change to our health care system. During these tough times no one should have the additional burden of worrying if they’ll have health care when their family needs it most.

I’m working hard to find a uniquely American solution to the problems of our current health care system. Every family should have access to high quality and affordable health care. We should crack down on insurance abuses such as preventing people with pre-existing conditions from accessing coverage. Every citizen should be able to choose the doctor they want to see and be free to make their own decisions on care for themselves and their families.

The fight isn’t an easy one. I am being attacked for my support of health care reform. I need your support during this crucial time.

Please take a moment to sign my petition, and if you’re able, consider a donation to the campaign so I have the resources to continue the fight.

The other side will use any means possible to continue their fear campaign against reform, including distortions, lies, and intimidation to stop us. We cannot allow this to happen.

We’re in this together.

Thank you for all that you do,
Congressman Jerry McNerney

I have been working for 2 years on my own business. During this time frame my wife and I have had to pay for our own health care through COBRA. This expense is the second most expensive item in our budget ( our mortgage is our first ). These costs have significantly increased the chance that my business will fail and I will have to return join the ranks of the unemployed.

In my profession (internet software development) and the location (San Francisco Bay Area) being able to offer health care is mandatory. Because we do not have the budget to pay for health care, it is close to impossible to find anyone to help in the Bay Area. As a result, we have turned to overseas developers.

A quality national health care system will free up more people to explore starting their own business and building the U.S. economy. A national health care system is simply good business.

Spend the least money and the most time.

For most gifts the ratio: money-spent /time-spent > 20. That is for every dollar spent only 1 hour was spent. Try reversing that ratio.

If you are thinking about spending $100 on a gift on your mom; try spending only $20 and spend 20 hours making the gift personally you.

Guaranteed you will learn something and your mom will appreciated it vastly more than that $100 gift.

British resident Cat Le-Huy was arrested in Dubai for carrying Melatonin jet-lag tablets, which are sold over the counter in the US and Dubai.

Now apparently the expat residents are realizing that Dubai is also too dangerous a place to live:

Sofia, a 34-year-old Frenchwoman, moved here a year ago to take a job in advertising, so confident about Dubai’s fast-growing economy that she bought an apartment for almost $300,000 with a 15-year mortgage.

Now, like many of the foreign workers who make up 90 percent of the population here, she has been laid off and faces the prospect of being forced to leave this Persian Gulf city — or worse.

“I’m really scared of what could happen, because I bought property here,” said Sofia, who asked that her last name be withheld because she is still hunting for a new job. “If I can’t pay it off, I was told I could end up in debtors’ prison.”

Wow. Debtors prison. What a “cool” concept from the 18th century.

With Dubai’s economy in free fall, newspapers have reported that more than 3,000 cars sit abandoned in the parking lot at the Dubai Airport, left by fleeing, debt-ridden foreigners (who could in fact be imprisoned if they failed to pay their bills). Some are said to have maxed-out credit cards inside and notes of apology taped to the windshield.

Why apologize? The person is escaping and running for their very lives.

Dubai, unlike Abu Dhabi or nearby Qatar and Saudi Arabia, does not have its own oil, and had built its reputation on real estate, finance and tourism. Now, many expatriates here talk about Dubai as though it were a con game all along. Lurid rumors spread quickly: the Palm Jumeira, an artificial island that is one of this city’s trademark developments, is said to be sinking, and when you turn the faucets in the hotels built atop it, only cockroaches come out.

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