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San Francisco’s Financial Crisis

californiapolicycenter.org

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Re: San Francisco’s Financial Crisis

#41

Post by ed25519FUUU »

monero-xmr wrote: post #26
WirelessGigabit wrote: post #21

I think they surely can get rid of a lot of city personal. I've moved to a different state and just being in contact with government officials to get things done is just... easier. Something not right? Let's fix it. Let's do this first and then that. General California feeling: you're missing form 5858b. Can't help you. Come back later. Next available appointment: 3 months. Half of their jobs could be filled by using…

You don’t understand. The incentives are all wrong. There is absolutely zero benefit for a bureaucracy to make itself more efficient and require less money each year. No one is incentivized to ensure money is being spent well. The biggest incentive for a lifelong bureaucrat is to increase budget and headcount - the more money and headcount you have, the more important you are. There is never a time when you aren’t re…

Couple that with the fact that it’s nearly impossible to fire people from these jobs, regardless of their competency.

Some of the absolute laziest and rude people I’ve ever interacted with are CA government employees who deal with the public.

Re: San Francisco’s Financial Crisis

#42

Post by inferiorhuman »

onos wrote: post #39
RC_ITR wrote: post #11

The problem of these articles is that they lean too far into kicking SF while it’s down, since it felt so invincible before. Same kind of journalism happened in the early 2000s. The problem is that they don’t recognize cyclicality. Arguably the most important startup in decades is headquartered there, the CEO is stating remote work is a mistake, and the CTO is regularly calling SF the best place to start an AI startu…

Might be cyclical, or maybe it’s Detroit v2. We will see, hoping the former. https://twitter.com/sfstandard/status/1662145831351336977?s=...

[flagged]

Re: San Francisco’s Financial Crisis

#43

Post by 8f2ab37a-ed6c »

photochemsyn wrote: post #37

[flagged]

Actually the other way around, the festering slum is the city center (Tenderloin, Skid Row, downtown Seattle, downtown Portland etc), but once you get out of the city, it's quite lovely, but with minimal public transportation and ideally far enough that the underclass wouldn't be able to get there without lots of hassle. See Marin, Los Gatos, Atherton etc.

Re: San Francisco’s Financial Crisis

#44

Post by kaycebasques »

RC_ITR wrote: post #11

The problem of these articles is that they lean too far into kicking SF while it’s down, since it felt so invincible before. Same kind of journalism happened in the early 2000s. The problem is that they don’t recognize cyclicality. Arguably the most important startup in decades is headquartered there, the CEO is stating remote work is a mistake, and the CTO is regularly calling SF the best place to start an AI startu…

Back when I used to go to Stable Cafe a lot I often looked at the Pioneer Building and pondered that it was a strange, interesting building. Only learned in the last few weeks that it's OpenAI's HQ!

Re: San Francisco’s Financial Crisis

#47

Post by Convolutional »

mellosouls wrote: post #20
CalChris wrote: post #3

SourceWatch on California Policy Center https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/California_Policy_Cent...

A left wing pressure group identifies the article publisher as a right wing pressure group. Ok, cool, but whatever the quality of the arguments in the article that's probably not the devastating hammer blow to defeat them.

> A left wing pressure group identifies the article publisher as a right wing pressure group.

If we look at the author section of the website, it lists former members of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, members of the American Enterprise Institute etc.

Also the "left wing pressure group" says IRS filings show the Koch brothers fund the CPC.

The reader can look at the facts, some on their own web site, and decide if they are a right wing pressure group or not.

Re: San Francisco’s Financial Crisis

#48

Post by monero-xmr »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #41
monero-xmr wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t understand. The incentives are all wrong. There is absolutely zero benefit for a bureaucracy to make itself more efficient and require less money each year. No one is incentivized to ensure money is being spent well. The biggest incentive for a lifelong bureaucrat is to increase budget and headcount - the more money and headcount you have, the more important you are. There is never a time when you aren’t re…

Couple that with the fact that it’s nearly impossible to fire people from these jobs, regardless of their competency. Some of the absolute laziest and rude people I’ve ever interacted with are CA government employees who deal with the public.

How many fucks would you give if it was effectively impossible to get fired? It isn’t exactly surprising. When I worked at McDonald’s decades ago I would have greatly enjoyed telling numerous people to go fuck themselves, but I’m a consummate professional and needed the cash.

Now isn’t it crazy that government employees, who ostensibly serve us the tax payers, treat their fellow citizens like shit? A travesty all around but it makes sense when you analyze the incentives.

Re: San Francisco’s Financial Crisis

#49

Post by nwiswell »

kfarr wrote: post #28
inferiorhuman wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The budget is freely available on their web site. It's worth noting that San Francisco is a consolidated city and county, so the budget covers things that most other cities don't (e.g. public transit, libraries, schools, jails). While there is indeed some consolidation San Francisco is on the hook for two separate law enforcement agencies (police – which are typically the domain of cities and sheriff – which are typi…

And an international airport and a water source and pipeline from the mountains. Crazy stuff

SFO is in San Mateo County.
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