Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

San Francisco voters approve taxes on highly paid CEOs, big businesses

latimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

511–520 of 754 posts

Re: San Francisco voters approve taxes on highly paid CEOs, big businesses

#511

Post by jelliclesfarm »

jonsno56 wrote: post #492
jelliclesfarm wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never seen a high density city have low rents. Mumbai, Hong Kong, London, NYC. Is there any factual and proven example of a city that has increased density and housing became affordable and cheaper as a result of more units?

Singapore https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3dBaEo4QplQ

Singapore has public housing. You don’t own the unit. You lease it from the govt. I think it’s 99 year lease transferable.

Most residential units are not used or traded as a speculative asset.

[..] The majority of the residential housing developments in Singapore are publicly governed and developed, and home to approximately 78.7% of the resident population.[..]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing_in_Singapore

Re: San Francisco voters approve taxes on highly paid CEOs, big businesses

#512

Post by jelliclesfarm »

cam0 wrote: post #402
jelliclesfarm wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never seen a high density city have low rents. Mumbai, Hong Kong, London, NYC. Is there any factual and proven example of a city that has increased density and housing became affordable and cheaper as a result of more units?

I'm glad you pointed this out. I've had this thought floating around in my head for a long while. The only affordable high-density cities I can think of are in Thailand, Africa, and maybe Eastern Europe? I think NYC is our best comparison though... it's actually much more expensive per square foot to buy in Manhattan than it is in SF, and the rental prices are approximately the same.

Auckland, NZ is another example of a high density real estate hub gone bad. Mortgages are lower than rents but lack of housing stock.

Re: San Francisco voters approve taxes on highly paid CEOs, big businesses

#513

Post by xibalba »

runarberg wrote: post #446
ransom1538 wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's insane to me that the city with so many rich people and incredibly valuable companies is such a mess, your telling me that a small city with an incredibly wealthy population can't figure out how to keep the tenderloin from being full of tents and open drug use? Or get some form of functioning public transit? Pretty pathetic." SF resident for 15 years until I left. I walked around and talked to homeless. From th…

Speaking as someone that lived in van in SF for 6 month before I left for immigration reasons: 1. I’m not from SF, I came there to live with my partner who was in school there but we couldn’t afford a place to rent. 2. I’ve never been homeless anywhere else and I wouldn’t have been homeless in SF if rent was fair. 3. I’ve never pan handled, but I didn’t need to. Dumpster diving is easy, there is plenty of free food o…

In summation, you chose to be homeless by choosing to move to SF. This is exactly the problem.

Re: San Francisco voters approve taxes on highly paid CEOs, big businesses

#514

Post by runarberg »

sushid wrote: post #504
runarberg wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I downvoted this because as someone that has been what many consider homeless in San Francisco, I am a little insulted by this attitude. It comes across as someone that has never lived this life claiming that it is a good life and generalizing over the homeless population as freebies and criminals. If there exists a complicated social problem that involves thousands of human beings and someone on the internet claims…

Yes, people from all walks of life may end up homeless but I'm tired of hearing stories of my friends being robbed at gunpoint/knifepoint or straight up assaulted for a phone and a wallet. People walk into stores and steal without impunity, shoot up drugs, shit in the middle of a street, etc. It's truly appalling. As far as being homeless goes, the homeless here are free to fuck things up for the rest of us.

Honest question why are you blaming the homeless for fucking up things for the rest of us? In my experience the rich are far more guilty (as a generalized group) of fucking things up for me.

The rich have polluted the planet, raised the global temperature up a whole degree. The damage is that now I can’t go outside in late summer, if it doesn’t rain the week before, because the air is poisoned by soot from forest fires. The rich are the reason I couldn’t afford a place to rent in San Francisco, their speculative housing investment and gentrification raised the marked rate so much that a working class person from one of the richest country in the world couldn’t afford to live there. The rich are the reason—unless you are one of them—that you are not making significantly more money from your current job, they consistently take away from your contribution to the wealth you generate in your current job without contributing anything of value.

Re: San Francisco voters approve taxes on highly paid CEOs, big businesses

#515

Post by diebeforei485 »

xg15 wrote: post #439
diebeforei485 wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would recognize that taxing pay ratio is a ridiculous concept because temp agencies can be used (and already are used) for lowest-wage jobs like janitors. These are not independent contractors, these are W2 employees of a temp firm. What I would do instead is tax highly paid executives. This does not have the side-effect of making companies only use temp firms (as described above) if they need a barista or receptio…

> What I would do instead is tax highly paid executives How do you define who is a highly paid executive?

You could use any definition including their own (but tax the person, not the whole company), or any alternative definition like income > $1M.

Re: San Francisco voters approve taxes on highly paid CEOs, big businesses

#516

Post by opportune »

mrits wrote: post #463
norswap wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely that number is not right - probably lacking two digits?

I always hear bay area friends tell me how it's not that bad there if you have room mates. Mean while the engineers here in their 30s are collecting income from their 3rd rental property already.

I know lots of people under 30 in the Bay Area who could have much more than 3 rental properties if they wanted to. Especially outside of the bay area.

It's just that living with roommates is pretty frugal, and before the pandemic, it was a good way to save an extra $10k a year living in a more central location. Every single person I know who is a bay area SWE makes enough to afford renting a 1bed apartment in a good area, they just don't think it's worth it.

Yes if your main goal in life is to live in a large house on a large lot in a nice area without spending much, you will not find it there, but your characterization makes it seem like bay area engineers are poor which is... not true

Re: San Francisco voters approve taxes on highly paid CEOs, big businesses

#517

Post by tartoran »

subsubzero wrote: post #409
primitivesuave wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to live in the Tenderloin in 2013 and it has actually improved a lot since marijuana was legalized and public restrooms added in - back then, there was a guy on every street corner trying to sell you something, and certain alleyways/corners where there was daily cleaning for piles of human waste. It's become much less dangerous but still quite depressing to walk through. I started talking to people living on t…

> "get tough on homelessness" attitude would be vilified by our political climate, so it won't ever be up to me. You and me both, the solution is really straightforward. I feel like homeless in general falls into 4 camps: camp 1 - drug addiction, this one would be to get people off the streets, Open rehab clinics, get them clean, and back into a functioning society. camp 2 - mental illness, This one would be opening…

You forgot to include the ones who have 2 jobs and live in their car and bathe at an YMCA. They’re also homeless, maybe not as visible as the other categories and need help too!

Re: San Francisco voters approve taxes on highly paid CEOs, big businesses

#518

Post by ip26 »

norswap wrote: post #428
mrits wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can purchase a 5K sqft lot outside of Austin for $2,200 and we still have a growing homeless problem. I'd look more into providing mental health, relocation, and incentives to stay off heavy drugs.

Surely that number is not right - probably lacking two digits?

No... In most parts of the country, a tenth of an acre of dirt past the edge of town does not run $200k.

Re: San Francisco voters approve taxes on highly paid CEOs, big businesses

#519

Post by opportune »

ransom1538 wrote: post #422
GhostVII wrote: post #309

San Francisco's solution to everything seems to be to just keep raising taxes, and throwing money at things which don't work. At some point you have to realize that more money isn't always the solution, you actually have to fix your beurocracy. It's insane to me that the city with so many rich people and incredibly valuable companies is such a mess, your telling me that a small city with an incredibly wealthy populat…

"It's insane to me that the city with so many rich people and incredibly valuable companies is such a mess, your telling me that a small city with an incredibly wealthy population can't figure out how to keep the tenderloin from being full of tents and open drug use? Or get some form of functioning public transit? Pretty pathetic." SF resident for 15 years until I left. I walked around and talked to homeless. From th…

Just as an aside, I don't know the stats for SF, but in Seattle the "invisible" homeless outnumbered the street-homeless 2:1. Street-homeless people tend to cause the most problems and put the most strain on the system, but there are a lot more people sleeping in cars, shelters, temporary housing, and couchsurfing, who are still homeless and need help.

I honestly think SF and Seattle need to be tougher on the street-homeless but IMO it's important to remember that there are a lot more homeless people than the obnoxious ones. Those are just the ones you notice, because they are obnoxious.

Re: San Francisco voters approve taxes on highly paid CEOs, big businesses

#520

Post by diogenescynic »

primitivesuave wrote: post #369
GhostVII wrote: post #309

San Francisco's solution to everything seems to be to just keep raising taxes, and throwing money at things which don't work. At some point you have to realize that more money isn't always the solution, you actually have to fix your beurocracy. It's insane to me that the city with so many rich people and incredibly valuable companies is such a mess, your telling me that a small city with an incredibly wealthy populat…

I used to live in the Tenderloin in 2013 and it has actually improved a lot since marijuana was legalized and public restrooms added in - back then, there was a guy on every street corner trying to sell you something, and certain alleyways/corners where there was daily cleaning for piles of human waste. It's become much less dangerous but still quite depressing to walk through. I started talking to people living on t…

>I used to live in the Tenderloin in 2013 and it has actually improved a lot since marijuana was legalized and public restrooms added in

The TL is a lot worse than in 2013. There are more needles, more open drug use, more break ins, and on and on.

>back then, there was a guy on every street corner trying to sell you something, and certain alleyways/corners where there was daily cleaning for piles of human waste.

Literally nothing has changed. This is still the reality.

Post reply on HN