San Francisco's New Socialist Mayor
London Breed was recently sworn in as the new Mayor of San Francisco, now tasked with solving what is I believe a humanitarian crisis in the city.
San Francisco has one of the worst homeless problems in the United States.
Housing prices are out of control all over the country but magnified in areas like San Francisco and Silicon Valley (where I live).
Many reasons exist for the housing bubble, and it is clear that this new mayor has no clue why we are in a bubble because her solution is to simply use tax funds and the government to 'help' the homeless.
CA already has one of the highest state income tax rates, yet our roads are in terrible condition, we have homeless all over the already filthy streets, people are living in RVs on the side of the road, people are shooting up heroine on the sidewalks, and the Bart smells like shit.
Still, again, we have one of the highest state tax rates. Where the hell is all that money going?
https://www.tax-brackets.org/californiataxtable
Well $250 million at Breed's admission is already going to support the homeless......
https://medium.com/@LondonBreed/a-bold-approach-to-homelessness-a42121dc586c
http://hsh.sfgov.org/overview/budget/
Since that is not enough money we need to to steal money from the property owners so they can pay for the homeless to live somewhere:
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/5-SF-supervisors-seek-commercial-property-tax-12502920.php
Don't forget at the same time we need to tax people more so we can have yet another unnecessary sports stadium!
Did I mention that we were in a housing bubble? Any increase in property taxes is going to be substantial.
If we are already spending millions to solve the homeless issue, it should be clear that we need to change the approach!
Socialism is limiting! Taking from others and giving to those who did not earn does not enable those people to want to do better!
It only encourages them to continue to live in the same shitty situation so that they can kick the can down the road.
I will write in another post on what I believe to be the real reasons this country is in yet another housing bubble.
How do you think we should solve our homeless issue? I have a few ideas but want to hear others.
A couple of mine are:
Tech companies need to be hiring locals, not subcontracting for services they are too cheap to pay for like security for example. This issue is highlighted here:
Make an attempt to employ the homeless. Instead of using tax money to give them housing, food and money give them an incentive to want to make something. I mentioned how the city is dirty, they could be contracted to help clean it up.
Breed discusses creating new homes for the homeless. How about employing the homeless to actually build the home themselves?
This will encourage pride in making something with your own hands and having respect for the land you live on rather than trashing it with food, alcohol and drugs.
I realize that some of these ideas are radical and need more thought but anything is better than stealing (taxation) and government financing.
I believe that humans are very capable individuals and that we need to earn what we have, not simply be given it. To me, this is the only way we progress.
There have been a few times on Steemit I wish I could upvote something more than once. Here is one.
Thank you for the compliment. This topic is something I have very strong opinions on, and feel I am able to be objective on as I am not from the Bay area.
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Lol. That was pretty much my impression the first time I visited SF. It seemed just overrun by homeless people. Gross piss smell was way too common.
And I was kind of hobo'ing around myself, lol. And still found it ugly.
Something I wonder is if something as simple as if it weren't illegal to settle unused land (I.e, the government not magically claiming ownership of unimproved land that no one is currently using), and making you buy it from them before you use it..
If homelessness would just dissipate kind of immediately.
There'd still be the stragglers who are drunk and smell bad, but then it would be clear that what we're talking about is a mental health issue.
If you're free to claim unused land (to grow food there, begin a community with your friends etc), then the worst case scenario isn't bad at all and lack of resoraces has a much softer cushion.
I've been homeless before. I just find a comfortable place to camp, and people at the coffee shop in the morning probably don't know the difference. It's a solid life lol. Often when people talk about "the homeless" they're actually talking about a mental issue. Which by effect causes them to be homeless (wagon/horse). And ya, throwing more stolen resources at them isn't going to change it.
The unused land point is interesting. I agree that if people could just occupy and build something up then the issue may not be so bad.
Our government oversteps it's bounds yet again here, causing more issues by "protecting" its citizens.
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