For the record, when you see someone mentally ill on the street. Do this: http://brokeassstuart.com/blog/2016/02/18/what-to-do-when-so...
Before you write angry (mostly useless) blogs.
SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
471–480 of 515 posts
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#472Earlier quoted context omitted.
> To 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. Only if people agree, offer their solidarity, and approve the city government of doing so (with their taxes etc too). Which is exactly what people like him don't allow.
> Which is exactly what people like him don't allow. How did you come to that conclusion?
From actual experiences talking to multiple upper class people who "don't want to see those homeless" that are invariably anti-taxes/government spending for such issues.
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#473Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah! It's why it's so weird to see politicians and their supports protest efforts to reduce trade tariffs. With more trade, we will be literally creating new wealth. It will be helping lower the cost of the related goods in the first world, and it'll be giving more and slightly better jobs to the third world, where it'll be helping the poorest there. So why is it a bad thing again?
It's not good to end statements by throwing your hands up in the air and going "golly gee I just can't possibly fathom why anyone would think differently than ME!" Right off the bat, never regulating trade means you only create short term wealth. You can't possibly think that no one would ever take issue with trade deals that take advantage of countries participating in human rights violations, or countries whose eco…
The "golly gee" isn't what I was going for--- I'm saying that if we're looking to help the poor, then we should help the poor, rather than the poor in region. But I am maybe trying to challenge people to come up with good reasons for trade regulation. :)
I agree that we shouldn't partake in violating human rights.
Your other points aren't good reasons to regulate trade. If other countries can produce goods for drastically less then that's exactly when we should be opening up trade! It's a more efficient use of resources, and it creates more wealth for everyone. Here's a Khan academy economics video on how trade creates wealth: https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/microec...
Trade does not produce short term wealth, it just creates wealth. And if anything, "short term wealth" is an oxymoron. If HDDs are $50 cheaper because they're manufactured in Thailand rather than California, then the people who buy those HDDs are never going to have to turn in the $50 they saved at some later point.
We still have trade protections set up from the great depression. That's why our sugar costs 2x what it costs the rest of the world. http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/06/us-trade-po... That's bad, and we should get rid of it.
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#474Earlier quoted context omitted.
"tech bro" is like the n-word for a software engineer. It's demeaning, dehumanizing, and offensive. The writer needs to pick a less offensive word to describe precisely what he means.
You're being really fragile about this. A "bro" is someone who's out of touch, not a sub-human creature. If this person doesn't want to be called bad names, they should stop being bad things.
Consider the analogy raised by the parent, reapply your advice, and it should make you cringe.
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#475Earlier quoted context omitted.
Co-worker of mine, actual quote: "Yeah, I know there's a pay disparity, and women are paid less than men. But really, socially, they have all the power." THAT, my friend is a "tech bro" and he's in SF.
Does he even lift? Maybe he's a neckbeard instead for having that view. I mean, as long as we're throwing sterotypes around, maybe that one fits better.
He's from Chicago. He's already had a car window busted by a (punk-ass) angry cyclist. He's actually a good guy, there's nothing wrong with him. But yeah, from my POV he's "right out of the stereotype catalog".
The vast majority of people are basically doing their best, but they (we, I) have a really hard time getting outside their own head.
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#476From the posts here I can see that Justin's mentality is not remotely unique. Anyone thinking of moving to SF should simply be shown this thread so they can see what kind of people they will be around all day. Hey Washington Post, why not write an article about this site. Start with this thread. Here's a winner https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11127645 (I hope I'm not oppressing him by linking to it)
"Whoosh!"
(that link is clearly satire)
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#477Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dude, he didn't say "we should ensure that we offer social programs and housing supply to address the needs of the poor, mentally ill, addicted, or otherwise disadvantaged", he said (literally) "I shouldn't have to see the pain". He clearly doesn't care that people who are being priced out of the city they've lived in longer than he has are helped, just that they're gone. What a disgusting attitude.
You can cherry-pick from his letter, but it's obvious that his first concern is about safety: > Worst of all, it is unsafe. > The residents of this amazing city no longer feel safe. > I shouldn’t have to worry about being accosted.
If that's his central message, he's wrong. Aside from some dips in 2013-2014, most crime rates in the city are lower than over the past ~15 years.
Anecdotally, I live here now and I also lived here in 2006-2007, and most of downtown feels much safer. I am not a mind reader, but I think the guy sees poverty and feels threatened, and lacks the empathy to understand that the poors are human beings getting fucked by surging costs they literally have no control over.
His comment that the city's wealthy people earned their spots implies that he thinks that the less wealthy who've lived here longer and simply can't afford current prices didn't. Like I said above, not a very nice attitude.
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#478As an India currently here for work in the Bay Area, when I saw the homeless people in SF, I saw scenes very similar to the ones I see back home in any major Indian city. I've also seen a lot of ill people(intoxicated/under the influence of drugs?) near bus stops too.
Once I almost got mugged in a VTA train station, by two teenagers. Thankfully I escaped the situation on arrival of an elderly couple in time.
Like always I understand these people aren't there by choice and might have their own reason for why things turned out that way. Can anybody give a socio economic perspective on why these people are like this in a first world rich country like the US?
Also the more I learn about the American culture, the more I realize the only change I see between India and the US is the infrastructure, everything else, all other problems seem to be the same. We are not so different after all.
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#479Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nicely said! This is purely anecdotal, but in my experience, proponents of the 'HF creates slums' theory tend to fall into one of two camps: - functionally blind - landlords The functionally blind (note that I'm not saying 'sight impaired...this is by design) tend to argue that homelessness is okay...as long as they can't see it. Often, they live in cities like mine (Regina, Canada) where for 3-4 months of the year,…
I suspect a 'better' way of handling the landlord issue is for the government to be the 'landlord of last resort' but I'm pretty sure that would be a hard sell. Still, it would remove the profit motive. As to the functionally or willfully blind, I wonder if the HF campaigns start their publicity too late. Perhaps if there were more pictures of tent cities and shelters people would realize there is a local problem? I…
I agree with you! Many European countries (and I think Australia, though don't quote me) use government funded social housing as part of their HF programs. To me, that seems like an obvious solution to the supply problem though others in the anti-poverty community point to the stigma of housing projects in the US.
I've never lived in a housing project and to tell you the truth, most of what I know about them comes from hip hop. But, I'd rather live in the projects than under a bridge...
Re: SF tech bro: ‘I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, despair of homeless’
#480Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I've loaded many a homeless into my fire engine Err... why? Were they on fire? Why is the fire department involved in homeless people?
The fire departments in most towns in America provide emergency medical services. 911 calls about health related things often result in a fire truck arriving, rather than an ambulance.
What?