We Don't Want Your Kind Around Here

If you'd like some insight into the chaos that unfettered liberalism can have on a society, check out what is going on in San Francisco right now.  Residents of that city have declared all-out war on tech companies who are trying to bring new jobs to the Bay Area.  At first you might think, "Wow, a city doesn't want new jobs in this economy, what are they stupid?"  Nope, just liberal.

You see, the problem with the jobs coming to San Francisco and surrounding suburbs is that they pay too much.  Now you're probably really confused.  "They don't want high paying jobs?  What is wrong with them?"  What's wrong with them is that they live in fear of "gentrification"--or an increased standard of living within the city. 

San Francisco is already a very expensive place to live--due in large part to high taxes, an artificially high minimum wage, and other regulations on commerce and business (nearly all of which were approved by voters in referenda).  That means to live there, people are dependent upon government programs like rent control--which is supposed to keep housing costs lower than they would be if free market forces were allowed to operate as they should.  The "problem" that has developed in the Bay Area is that companies like Yahoo and Facebook have brought in a bunch of young, well-paid professionals who are also looking for a place to live in such a "cool" city--and they are buying the houses that had previously been available as rent control units for use now as single-family homes--meaning the people who have been getting by "on the cheap" need to find a new place to live.

The easy solution would be to build more houses right?  Well, that isn't so easy in the Liberal Utopia.  Ordinances are in place to limit urban sprawl and decades of efforts to make driving a car as difficult as possible leave city dwellers no choice but to use the limited options available through public transit (which has led to the buying up of former low-rent units close to train stations in outlying areas as well.  Plans to build the types of apartment and condo developments (with more rent-control units as well) within the city are inevitably derailed--as neighborhood associations hold incredible power to limit what can be built in order to "protect the unique character of their area".

Yahoo is particularly hated by the anti-tech crowd.  They are trying to lessen the impact of its employees on the city by offering to build apartments on their campus out of town.  But that effort was derailed when it was found that burrowing owls live near the area and the new development would disrupt their habitat.  Yahoo sought to limit the impact on public transit by setting up their OWN BUS SYSTEM to drive around town and pick up their employees.  But those buses are being stopped in the street by protesters--who even vomit on the vehicles--and the city now wants to charge Yahoo a "per stop fee" for curbside pickup.

So the message is clear to those who want to live stable, well-paid lives in San Francisco: We don't want your type around here.  Maybe those big tech companies (run--ironically enough--by well-known liberals themselves) will eventually get the message and consider moving all of those family-supporting jobs to "less progressive" places like Wisconsin.  We'd be more than happy to take them.