But home prices rose 65 percent just in the last five years. The county encompasses most of Silicon Valley. Commonly, for every homeless person on the street, several are doubling up with friends, family or co-workers. Hunger stalks the Valley s working class. San Jose s soup kitchen alone served 83,000 people a month last year, up 27 percent from 1998.
Inequality is unparalleled.
About 33 percent of all U.S. workers fall in this category today. Business Week also reports widespread illegal labor practices, such as failures to pay workers for overtime and subminimum wage payments for home piecework. For Silicon Valley professionals, such as engineers, pay is much higher. Often, however, a significant portion of pay is in promises, stock options that can prove worthless. Extraordinarily long work hours, lengthy commutes and social atomization are the norm.