Pointing out that Hacker News tends to be white (and more importantly wealthy or have strong aspirations of wealth), or that the demographics present here affect the discussions on this site, doesn't tend to go over well. :P Here at the orange site, we like to think we're all rational machines of pure logic, and all of our opinions on how humanity should live are simply the obvious and objective truth. Bonus points if it matches the status quo.

Homelessness is simple to fix. Build homes, let people live in them. But the framework we've created, our beliefs about capitalism, fairness, and that survival should be "earned," prevent a lot of people from even considering the obvious options.

When some people look at homeless people, sometimes they think "This is gross, I wish I did not have to look at homeless person," and they stop their analysis there. The empathy of "wow damn, imagine being that guy and how much it would suck" doesn't really happen, for whatever reason. Maybe it's just a self-assurance "that could never happen to me, because I make good choices. Conversely, that guy must have made bad choices, and that is why he deserves to be swept away from my sight. His crime of looking weird on public transit is yet more evidence of his unworthiness." Y'know, the Just World fallacy, and all that.

The "empathy gap" talked about in Big Tech is a bit of a misnomer, I think. I don't think that the kinds of people running FAANG are any less empathetic than the oil tycoons were, or Ma Bell, or the leaders of any other profitable industries.

But we didn't expect Big Oil to help out the little guy, to give a damn if their procurement pipelines were ethical. We all know the guys running BP Gas only rebranded "green" in a cynical attempt to clean up their image after the Deepwater Horizon spill.

Big Tech, though, is different in what it promises. It promises not to sell you cheaper oil, but a better life. Voice assistants are the Star Trek future, Facebook is a way to stay in touch with Grandma, OKCupid is a site to help people find their soulmates. Robots will free us from toil and drudgery, Uber empowers drivers, Nextdoor brings communities together, and a hundred other obvious lies get told to us.

The "empathy gap," when it comes to tech, is the gap between what they promise, and what they deliver. Twitter doesn't ban Nazis and encourages "engagement". Facebook spreads political misinformation. AirBNB and Uber are just barely-regulated clones of hotels & taxis. Github sells services to ICE. Amazon works their employees to the bone. Google promotes slot-machine apps on the Android store because they get a cut of their users' gambling addictions. Youtube directs people to white nationalist videos.

And, when a company is clearly unethical, but it's making you rich, how could that select for employees with high empathy? How could the workplace culture not tend toward siding with the rich over the poor, when everyone there is making 6 figures and dreaming of the day they'll cash out on 8 figures?

SF's tech boom not only attracts people who aren't empathetic, it selects for it and encourages it. As rents rise ever higher and gentrification continues to squeeze out those on the margins, how could the result not be a growing anti-poor-people sentiment? When all your coworkers are wealthy, when all your neighbors are wealthy, that guy who hasn't bathed in a week (because he has no way to) stands out like a sore, gross thumb. They don't see anything of themselves in him, or of anyone they know.

People who are poor, or who have been poor, consistently rate higher on empathy. A pool of rich people (or people who strongly value wealth) congregating in an area and driving everyone else out, is going to reduce the empathy in that space. Whether that space is San Francisco or Hacker News, the culture changes, and people stop caring so much about those who aren't as fortunate.