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Inside San Francisco's housing crisis

vox.com

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Re: Inside San Francisco's housing crisis

#2
Loading extremely slowly for me. Google cache: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:6m1opf...

After reading the article, this quote really jumped out at me:

"I was going along, being a good citizen," Todd, now 52 years old, says. "I was a volunteer firefighter, I coached football and baseball, I was saving my money, doing everything you're supposed to do, being a single father, raising my daughter by myself. Then the economy just went to hell and the company threw me to the wolves."

This is interesting because it sounds like what I've come to think of as the "salaryman" mentality: the idea that there is a contract between employee and company help each other, forever.

I don't want to say it implies entitlement, exactly, but more like a weird view of reality. Why do people think being a "good citizen" who "does everything you're supposed to do" means nothing will ever screw them? Or is this just rhetoric that people use to make themselves sound victimized?

I think this is a generational gap (in America, anyway). I don't think you would ever hear those words coming from a millennial. Maybe we've just learned from the mistakes of people like this guy.

Re: Inside San Francisco's housing crisis

#5

Why don't these people just move to more affordable places?

How does a homeless person afford the travel to a "more affordable" place? (What does more affordable mean when they have no money?)

Where do the nurses, teachers, security guards, waiters, shop assistants etc etc live?

Re: Inside San Francisco's housing crisis

#6

Why don't these people just move to more affordable places?

Because they have roots and history in SF and the valley. They've got friends, family, and memories there. It's hard to give up your home.

It's those tech upstarts that're causing all the trouble; Moving there en-masse, with their strange ways and disrespect for the local culture. Always trying to "disrupt"; they're obviously troublemakers!

Really, it's no different from casual racism, but you've got to understand the roots: Fear of the unknown is a powerful motivating factor for most people.

Re: Inside San Francisco's housing crisis

#7

Why don't these people just move to more affordable places?

Because people believe that once they've lived somewhere long enough, they have a right to live there forever.

There are a lot of issues with this article. It talks about the Ellis act as if it isn't standard in every other part of the country.

(in fact, the only thing non-standard is the state of the world pre-ellis act, where landlords in california could never evict people and decide to stop being landlords)

Re: Inside San Francisco's housing crisis

#9
post #8

Why don't these people just move to more affordable places?

[deleted]

While the desire may be rational, believing society can make this desire can come true is probably not rational.

At some point, you run out of places to put all the people who want to live in a given place. You have to have some way of deciding who gets to live there, and to be honest, "blood right" doesn't do it for me.

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