The wealthy tech people aren't the ones ruining San Francisco. You have to ask yourself: in what universe would constant increases in tax revenues and wealthy consumers be bad for a city?
The answer, sadly, is a universe where said city has an utterly incompetent government.
Both of those things are bad in general for cities. However, OP expressed doubt that increased presence of wealthy residents couldn't be anything but good for a city when clearly it is not so obvious.
Except that when it related to san francisco, some of the things on that wikipedia page are directly contradictory to the point i think parent was trying to make:
IE
"When wealthy people move into low-income working-class neighborhoods, the resulting class conflict sometimes involves vandalism and arson targeting the property of the gentrifiers. During the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, the gentrification of San Francisco's predominantly working class Mission District led some long-term neighborhood residents to create what they called the "Mission Yuppie Eradication Project.(image)" This group allegedly destroyed property and called for property destruction as part of a strategy to oppose gentrification. Their activities drew hostile responses from the San Francisco Police Department, real estate interests, and "work-within-the-system" housing activists.[37]"
This is not a problem with the wealthy people!
Now you could argue this is still "not good", but there was no real argument made at all, just an implication of "you should read this wikipedia page since it comprehensively responds to your ideas", and it really doesn't.
Basically, i'm trying to understand whether he actually wanted to participate in the discussion and had substantive points, or just thought it was obvious and covered by this wikipedia page.
The wiki article on gentrification goes over some of the basic causes and effects that can occur, to that end the movement of wealthy people into places that were affordable to those with less causes displacement. To that end, wealthy people play a part in the systemic issues that cause class disparities and change and ultimately harm the makeup of existing communities.
The gentrification complaint always seems hollow to me. There's nothing cooler than seeing some run-down urban area transformed into a place that's more successful and vibrant through renovation and revitalization.
Some people may find that the environment outpaces their income or lifestyle... okay. Record companies found that technology outpaced their business model. The changes are good regardless what the curmudgeons think.
> There's nothing cooler than seeing some run-down urban area transformed into a place that's more successful and vibrant through renovation and revitalization.
This change almost always coincides with a displacement of people, esp. existing communities of those with lower incomes or communities inhabited mostly by people of color. What exactly is cool about the destruction of a standing community that is caused by issues of systemic class and racial inequalities?
You use words like "destruction" inappropriately, I think.
Ironically, things like wage controls, rent controls, and welfare have locked these very people into a cycle of poverty out of which they have trouble escaping. Continuing communities that are perpetually in blight is not the an obvious good. Allowing the system to change naturally with healthy commerce would seem to be an improvement.
One would hope that government masterminds who were responsible for creating the blighted areas in the first place would just get out of the way and allow the system to heal itself through growth and change.
> Ironically, things like wage controls, rent controls, and welfare have locked these very people into a cycle of poverty out of which they have trouble escaping.
Uh what? Things like rent control and welfare allow people to have shelter and eat when they otherwise wouldn't be able to. Systemic poverty occurs not because there is a welfare program, but rather because of classism, racism, and capitalism. That's not hyperbole, this is well understood in logical argument and through real world evidence.
> Continuing communities that are perpetually in blight is not the an obvious good. Allowing the system to change naturally with healthy commerce would seem to be an improvement.
Except that said development skews heavily towards white people and heavily disfavors black and hispanic people. This doesn't address livability for people and communities, this kind of attitude is a direct endorsement of systemic racism and classism.
Systemic poverty occurs not because there is a welfare program
rather because of classism, racism, and capitalism
Yeah, we completely and totally disagree. Racism is obviously wrong, but you'd have to show why other minority groups (korean, japanese, chinese) don't have the same poverty rates as blacks and hispanics before attributing poverty to racism.
Capitalism has been the greatest economic system for humanity to break out of poverty in history. Feel free to point me to another economic system that has worked better at taking a diverse melting pot like the USA and allowing anyone to achieve the highest economic and political levels in society -- hand-waving theoretical economic systems are not admissible as evidence.
Classism tends to happen when layers of a society calcify because the framework reduces mobility. Free market capitalism allows people to start businesses and achieve the ultimate in economic mobility, shattering the classes.
Apart from all that, welfare and assistance is taken by force from others in society. I'm okay with caring for those who are truly unable to work, but most of the dollars going to such programs today go to fraud or other unnecessary use of that money.
this kind of attitude is a direct endorsement of systemic racism and classism
As usual, your political persuasion tries to throw out the race card. That tactic offends me mostly because the irony is that your political philosophy causes more stifling economic stagnation than any other. That stagnation is the cause of distinguishable classes and just reinforces economic distinctions between races that reinforces racial stereotypes, encouraging racism.
The answer, sadly, is a universe where said city has an utterly incompetent government.