Zine and heard Dip into the discussion with our panel of DIY publishers. In California, birthplace of the high-tech boom, the wage gap is growing, setting yet another national trend. Silicon Valley is home to some 65,000 millionaires, plus a bumper crop of billionaires. It's one of the richest regions in the country, and a driving force behind the nation's record economic boom. The gap between rich and poor is growing, and nowhere faster than in California, birthplace of the new economy.
Technology drives the area's economy, but the industry leaves many people behind.
They manage to survive on an income that officially puts them well above poverty level by living with their two children in one bedroom, then renting out the other bedroom to four other hardworking immigrant men. He graduated from high school, then worked in a variety of jobs, including several computer-chip manufacturing companies, but he was laid off in one of the frequent and sudden twists of corporate fortunes characteristic of the Silicon Valley economy. In the evening he waits tables. He figures that with the two jobs he might make enough to rent a room in an apartment with someone else. For now he's crashing for free with a friend and sharing his car.