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I find it pretty ironic that you are unintentionally echoing the subject of the OP.
SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
11–20 of 515 posts
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#12>> "Move over Martin Shkreli. You now have competition for the title of America’s most reviled millennial."
That seems unfair. Shkreli made the news for doing things that would have a tangible effect on peoples lives, and doing those things with a smile. Let's compare Shkreli raising the prices on life-saving drugs to the first paragraph of Keller's blog post:
>> "I am writing today, to voice my concern and outrage over the increasing homeless and drug problem that the city is faced with. I’ve been living in SF for over three years, and without a doubt it is the worst it has ever been. Every day, on my way to, and from work, I see people sprawled across the sidewalk, tent cities, human feces, and the faces of addiction. The city is becoming a shanty town… Worst of all, it is unsafe."
It's ridiculous and frankly narcissistic the way that he makes it about him and how it effects his life, to be sure. But, his three personal examples (from just this past weekend!) did a good job of driving home for me how interactions with the homeless are different in SF than they are in my area (northeast).
The guy could use a talking to about punching down but I haven't really heard too many people defending SF's handling of these types of issues either so I can't rip him for trying to bring more attention to the topic.
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#13Homeless activists are the most annoying do-gooders of them all.
Let's fight for the right of people, who are mostly struggling with mental illness and addiction to live in the street.
That sure feels noble I guess.
How about making appropriate institutional care available so these folks wouldn't have to sleep in the streets?
In my town, there's an article in the paper today decrying the fact that a local institution is no longer venting waste heat that kept vent grates warm, so people cannot sleep outside.
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#14Getting flashbacks here.
http://valleywag.gawker.com/startup-stud-hates-homeless-peop...
http://valleywag.gawker.com/happy-holidays-startup-ceo-compl...
Semi-surprised to see this crop up again when the outrage over these incidents was pretty severe and infamous.
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#15How can he live in SF for years and think it's a free market? I live across the country and even I know that the housing market there is artificially constrained. He really seems to think that homeless people grow on trees or something instead of realizing that they lived in the city before he did.
I liked that he believed SF is a free market but also "Is that not the role of government to protect?"
The two ideas can work together when you're not being antagonistically extreme. Remember that without a government there isn't such a thing as property rights.
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#16To play devil's advocate, he's right. He shouldn't have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless - the city government should be providing affordable housing and shelters for the homeless. That it hasn't is a failure of the local government, and should be addressed. Much of the reason that affordable housing is out of reach of many in San Francisco is due to government regulation, not market capitalism. Ext…
I completely believe in being the charity principle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity) when interpreting what someone said, but in this case, I think you are being too generous.
He was not complaining about the suffering of those people and the lack of government intervention on their behalf - he was unhappy because poor people made his own personal life marginally worse by subjecting him to unpleasant views/smells.
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#17I don't want to see homeless people, drug deals, vomiting drunks, or pantless vagrants on my commute to work either. Does that make me heartless? I would hope not because otherwise these problems are not going to be solved. You need people who do NOT want to see that kind of crap on a daily basis to do something about it.
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#18To play devil's advocate, he's right. He shouldn't have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless - the city government should be providing affordable housing and shelters for the homeless. That it hasn't is a failure of the local government, and should be addressed. Much of the reason that affordable housing is out of reach of many in San Francisco is due to government regulation, not market capitalism. Ext…
And let's see his opinion on the evils of regulations when the city taxes him and/or turns his favourite ping pong parlour into a shelter.
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#19I wonder if this was s stunt to get attention on his company? This seems so cartoonish, I mean you could picture wealthy people thinking this way but to me it almost seems too insensitive. Maybe a publicity stunt that backfired a little. On the other hand maybe he is so sheltered as to think this is an actual problem he's helping solve...
No, people really do think this way. Most of them have just learned not to voice their opinions in places where they will be criticized for it.
It can be difficult to change an opinion that someone refuses to voice.
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#20I wonder if this was s stunt to get attention on his company? This seems so cartoonish, I mean you could picture wealthy people thinking this way but to me it almost seems too insensitive. Maybe a publicity stunt that backfired a little. On the other hand maybe he is so sheltered as to think this is an actual problem he's helping solve...
I considered whether it might be satire, but then he apologized for using the term "riff-raff" which implies that the rest of the article is fine by him. Also he's been defending it on Twitter.