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Cruel yes. Better in the long run? Maybe. People need support. This support requires funding. This funding comes from taxes, which requires business operations

Cruel yes. Better in the long run? Maybe. People need support. This support requires funding. This funding comes from taxes, which requires business operations and such. Business operations are impacted by perceptions of safety and cleanliness, which also requires funding and scales with the number of people who need support.

techdmn 3y ago
Your second paragraph makes sense, but only to the extent that one views people needing support as a local issue. This is one of the ways we (as a U.S. resident) avoid taking responsibility: This problem is some other locality's responsibility.
michaelt 3y ago
I'm no expert on US politics/taxes, but isn't the bay area already home to some of the richest companies on the planet? Mostly companies whose income comes from all over the globe, and hence is almost entirely independent of the state of San Francisco's streets? And people on HN make it sound like the Bay Area is full of workers making several hundred of thousand of dollars a year, buying houses worth several million dollars, so income tax and property tax revenue should be off the charts too. Isn't the bay area be absolutely swimming in tax revenue already?
- fmajid 3y ago
  SF's problems do not stem from lack of money. The City's budget went from $6B in 2008 to $13B today. That's more than entire countries (SF would by #80 in the UN after Nigeria and before Sri Lanka). They could afford to buy every homeless man, woman and child (7,000 total) a $1M condo with just one year's worth of the tech windfall. By my calculations, the city bureaucracy captured at least 40% of that in salaries and benefits, and I'm sure the welfare-industrial complex took its cut as well, while failing the people it ostensibly serves. If SF raises additional taxes, the few companies left will simply decamp to other places in the Bay Area like San Jose. The crime and quality of life issues are already pushing them to do so. They only set up shop in SF after 2000 because that was the only way to attract talent from Berkeley or SF who were not willing to commute to the South Bay, but in the new job market environment that is no longer an issue.

techdmn 3y ago

Your second paragraph makes sense, but only to the extent that one views people needing support as a local issue. This is one of the ways we (as a U.S. resident) avoid taking responsibility: This problem is some other locality's responsibility.

michaelt 3y ago

I'm no expert on US politics/taxes, but isn't the bay area already home to some of the richest companies on the planet? Mostly companies whose income comes from all over the globe, and hence is almost entirely independent of the state of San Francisco's streets? And people on HN make it sound like the Bay Area is full of workers making several hundred of thousand of dollars a year, buying houses worth several million dollars, so income tax and property tax revenue should be off the charts too. Isn't the bay area be absolutely swimming in tax revenue already?

fmajid 3y ago
SF's problems do not stem from lack of money. The City's budget went from $6B in 2008 to $13B today. That's more than entire countries (SF would by #80 in the UN after Nigeria and before Sri Lanka). They could afford to buy every homeless man, woman and child (7,000 total) a $1M condo with just one year's worth of the tech windfall. By my calculations, the city bureaucracy captured at least 40% of that in salaries and benefits, and I'm sure the welfare-industrial complex took its cut as well, while failing the people it ostensibly serves. If SF raises additional taxes, the few companies left will simply decamp to other places in the Bay Area like San Jose. The crime and quality of life issues are already pushing them to do so. They only set up shop in SF after 2000 because that was the only way to attract talent from Berkeley or SF who were not willing to commute to the South Bay, but in the new job market environment that is no longer an issue.