The silicon valley dream and its cultural impact

Silicon Valley Dream

Silicon Valley and the American Dream

At first glance, Silicon Valley seems to be the American Dream come true. It is one of the most fabulously affluent regions in the United States, and offers opportunities to get rich fast in the computer industry. The Valley's beginnings were humble: it was known for its citrus fruit production during the 1950's, and named "Valley of the Heart's Delight" at this time. When the information revolution catapulted the Valley to fabled wealth during the 1960s and '70s, the region became known as Silicon Valley. The question is however if achieving the American Dream was truly a dream come true, or if the wealth generated in this way eroded spiritual and moral values to a dangerous extent.

In materialistic terms, Silicon Valley has provided a dream come true for many Americans. Indeed, together with Hollywood, Wall Street and Detroit, it qualifies as one of the few spots in the world associated with almost mythical wealth and success. It has used the information revolution to build up computer and semiconductor industries of huge proportions.

In terms of opportunity, Silicon Valley offers higher salaries than elsewhere, and attracts the country's most knowledgeable workforce to its top positions. Furthermore huge opportunities are offered semiconductor- and software-related jobs.

Silicon Valley and its inhabitants are located at precisely the right place and time to perpetuate its success. Its current strengths include a willingness to change and reinvent itself. Coupled with this is the technological innovation that stands at the heart of the industry. These attributes put the Valley in a key position for future success driven by innovation, diversity and reinvention. Many have thus arrived in Silicon Valley with little more than a dream, after which they were catapulted to success by the success of the industry. Children are taught in school how to become and stay rich. Lavish and regular parties are held by rich people with little else to occupy their time.

There is however a dark side to the success story of a dream come true. Sociologically and morally one could say that the dream come true in a materialistic sense has led to spiritual and moral corruption. This for example can be seen in social values and human relations in Silicon Valley. Everything appears to take a second position to materialism. This begins, as seen above, in schools. Children are cultivated to become millionaires. They are taught to work as hard and fast as they can at school so that they might become rich and successful by the age of twenty-four. While this goal in itself is not bad, it is so far out of balance that Silicon Valley inhabitants seem to have forgotten the importance of cultivating healthy relationships among each other, or for that matter spiritual values.

Everything, including education, is based upon wealth. Social values are determined by the amount of money, the kind of house, or the kind of car that a person possesses, or the size of the parties that are given. Popularity, material goods and job status, rather than income limits, is the measure of character in Silicon Valley. These things are also used as value substitutes for raising children. Children and their consuming habits are limited only by popularity considerations. All criteria for success are therefore based upon materialism.

As a result of this, social values have also suffered, and are based on the same shallow, materialistic considerations as mentioned above. Some of these values have escalated to the point of absurdity, where the height of a man's fence, or the range of an outside light is for example based upon a social sense of aesthetic, even if these requirements are not practically viable. These are examples of the social elitism and general snobbishness to be found in the Valley.

There is also another dimension to this dark side, which connects directly with the materialistic values cultivated in Silicon Valley. The employment situation in the Valley's computer industry is far from equal. During the 1950's and 1960's, mostly white men were employed, and received the best the industry could offer in terms of financial opportunity. While the late 1970s offered women and ethnic groups job opportunities, these were lower paying, with fewer advancements than those of the men. This stratification is still true today. White males receive the top opportunities, while women and other minorities are committed to poorer work situations.

Poor working conditions are not however limited to financial compensation. The lower paying jobs in the industry also offer very little in terms of job security, benefits and health needs. Chemicals produced by component manufacturing for example are unhealthy for employees, while little is done to remedy the situation. Furthermore housing in Silicon Valley has become so absurdly expensive, that those in lower paying jobs are unable to afford their own housing. This leads to a deterioration of the quality of life for those involved. The industry in Silicon Valley is not unionized, so workers have no recourse to organizations that can help them.

A lack of job security is another problem attached to lower wage jobs in the industry. During the market slump in the 1980s many of the production jobs were moved to cheaper labor markets, causing many workers to lose their jobs. This further declined their quality of life, and a sharp rise in unemployment. This in turn led to desperate practices such as drug dealing in order to make ends meet. Family values have also suffered as a result of such extreme poverty.

Indeed, family values for both the rich and the poor seem to suffer as a result of pursuing the Silicon Valley version of the American Dream. The poor, driven by desperation have lost their sense of value because of the desperate struggle for survival. This impacts badly on the family situation, where conflict may arise due to drug use or drug dealing, and other socially questionable things that are done for the sake of surviving. For the rich, family values are impacted badly by materialistic views of money and popularity. So starting with the family then, social values also decline. Nobody is willing to help others deal with their situation. Everybody aims to do no more than prove how fabulously wealthy they are. And children are brought up to follow these rules.