5 ms·

$3,000 a month apartment surrounded by homeless people feels like a serious income distribution problem

gruez 5y ago
Letting law and order go down in flames is going to make it worse. The rich can easily afford private security, poor people can't. See also: south africa.
rexkwondo 5y ago
e4e78a06 5y ago
San Francisco spends over $50k/year per homeless person and has the worst homeless problem in the nation. More money is not going to help. We need state power and willingness to forcibly commit heroin/meth addicts and mentally deranged people to institutions.
- zokula 5y ago
  [flagged]
  - dang 5y ago
    We've banned this account for repeatedly breaking the site guidelines and ignoring our request to stop. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
akomtu 5y ago
pvarangot 5y ago
So I should pay more than 50% in taxes? If the California+federal tax rate was 35% for me or something I could have already retired. I think I distribute my income fairly and I can't even vote in this country even though I am a permanent resident and pay taxes like every other American. The problem is the government is an inefficient black hole of money, I also pay around 3k in rent but live in a nice neighborhood but the only way to do that in San Francisco that I'm aware of is by renting a 8k condo with roommates. I have an activist history in Argentina but after about a year of trying to find a group that's doing something I feel identified with in San Francisco to tackle what I believe are the cities problems, the only groups I found have basically been getting a decent salary from the government for them and their friends and whatever is they are doing is clearly not working. I don't want to start naming names and discussing policy because it just doesn't go anywhere. I just really really really don't think this is an income distribution problem, it looks like one, I believed it was that three years ago, I tried to understand it better and do something, and now I think it's not. It's that "the homeless" are the justification for a useless bureaucracy that's in the best case not really changing anything and in the worst is going to make it worse in the long term, all by living off half of every software engineers income that we are already forced to redistribute.
- inetknght 5y ago
  > So I should pay more than 50% in taxes? Well, yes. But more than that, you should stop electing shitacular government officials. Otherwise it's going to be so unprofitable for you to not be in government. Once you're in government then you might as well just fix the problem yourself.
  - teakettle42 5y ago
    > > So I should pay more than 50% in taxes? > Well, yes. Can you explain why you think he should spend more than four hours a day, every day, working entirely for someone else’s benefit?
    - ink404 5y ago
      Not for someone else's benefit, but for the benefit of their entire city/state/country.
      - ratsmack 5y ago
        [flagged]
    - lmm 5y ago
      I doubt it's "more than four hours a day, every day". Any software engineer working more than 40 hours/week in this job market is a chump. Beyond that, he lives in a society, is only able to make that money through the support of that society. Note he chose to move to California, so clearly he's gaining a lot from California.
      - teakettle42 5y ago
        > Any software engineer working more than 40 hours/week in this job market is a chump. Not sure what to make of that; I work more than 40 hours a week, but my total compensation is also above 500k/year. There somewhere I can work less, but maintain that level of compensation?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

Letting law and order go down in flames is going to make it worse. The rich can easily afford private security, poor people can't. See also: south africa.

rexkwondo 5y ago

e4e78a06 5y ago

San Francisco spends over $50k/year per homeless person and has the worst homeless problem in the nation. More money is not going to help. We need state power and willingness to forcibly commit heroin/meth addicts and mentally deranged people to institutions.

zokula 5y ago
[flagged]
- dang 5y ago
  We've banned this account for repeatedly breaking the site guidelines and ignoring our request to stop. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

akomtu 5y ago

pvarangot 5y ago

So I should pay more than 50% in taxes? If the California+federal tax rate was 35% for me or something I could have already retired. I think I distribute my income fairly and I can't even vote in this country even though I am a permanent resident and pay taxes like every other American. The problem is the government is an inefficient black hole of money, I also pay around 3k in rent but live in a nice neighborhood but the only way to do that in San Francisco that I'm aware of is by renting a 8k condo with roommates. I have an activist history in Argentina but after about a year of trying to find a group that's doing something I feel identified with in San Francisco to tackle what I believe are the cities problems, the only groups I found have basically been getting a decent salary from the government for them and their friends and whatever is they are doing is clearly not working. I don't want to start naming names and discussing policy because it just doesn't go anywhere. I just really really really don't think this is an income distribution problem, it looks like one, I believed it was that three years ago, I tried to understand it better and do something, and now I think it's not. It's that "the homeless" are the justification for a useless bureaucracy that's in the best case not really changing anything and in the worst is going to make it worse in the long term, all by living off half of every software engineers income that we are already forced to redistribute.

inetknght 5y ago
> So I should pay more than 50% in taxes? Well, yes. But more than that, you should stop electing shitacular government officials. Otherwise it's going to be so unprofitable for you to not be in government. Once you're in government then you might as well just fix the problem yourself.
- teakettle42 5y ago
  > > So I should pay more than 50% in taxes? > Well, yes. Can you explain why you think he should spend more than four hours a day, every day, working entirely for someone else’s benefit?
  - ink404 5y ago
    Not for someone else's benefit, but for the benefit of their entire city/state/country.
    - ratsmack 5y ago
      [flagged]
  - lmm 5y ago
    I doubt it's "more than four hours a day, every day". Any software engineer working more than 40 hours/week in this job market is a chump. Beyond that, he lives in a society, is only able to make that money through the support of that society. Note he chose to move to California, so clearly he's gaining a lot from California.
    - teakettle42 5y ago
      > Any software engineer working more than 40 hours/week in this job market is a chump. Not sure what to make of that; I work more than 40 hours a week, but my total compensation is also above 500k/year. There somewhere I can work less, but maintain that level of compensation?

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]