The Tech Gentrification Of San Francisco

[jazzy_dave]

Thanks to pigshitpoet

This is so damn fucking awful. Once again, when dig money moves in the ordinary people, the artists,the hippies, and the mavericks are moved out. Watch this HBO documentary and be angry , like i was, with tears as well.

The Tech Gentrification Of San Francisco

The man who is interviewed near the end of this documentary is in a bad situation. I understand his pain. I hope someone seeing this documentary has offered him a regular job at a living wage. Toss in rampant age discrimination and you're looking at potential homelessness. I hope someone is able to help not only that man but everyone in San Francisco who is facing eviction and being priced out of their neighborhoods. The tech industry could step up and help. We need to remind these young techies that they too will grow old. How will they feel when this happens to them?

This has made me feel so sad , and the fact is, it is happening everywhere. Capitalism at the sharp end sucks.

Comments

[pigshitpoet.livejournal.com]

yes, be fucking furious! it messed up my whole week. my tragedy is that my actually son works in the game industry building video games. he and i have a huge generational gap. as artist, he would be the most beautiful thing i could have created. i hate myself. and i try not to hate or blame him.

he visited a fellow tekkie friend in frisco who was proud to be living in a $3800 US 400 sq ft bachelor suite in recently gentrified Mission Hill.

holy fuck!

when did the matrix happen? overnight it seems

i totally relate to the old guy you mention at the end who used tohave a job and live in a 1000 sq ft apt

stay human

take care, man

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

They want to think of this as the 'new art' I'm sure. But corporate brings codes, rules and people-as-numbers. And that doesn't fit in well with San Fransico and all that it has been over the last century. They shoulda stuck to Los Angeles, I'm thinking. UGH.

*HUGS*

[ba1126.livejournal.com]

My daughter and SIL live in a trailer (a very POSH trailer) because there was no way they could afford an apartment, despite his army pension and both working.

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

Capitalism at the sharp end sucks.
Amen to that. :o
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what the alternatives are to capitalism. Economic socialism and communism don't work. The problem is that capitalism, as practiced in the USA, has become so corrupt by buying politicians and getting laws tilted in the corporation's favor. And when they can't get the laws that they want, they find loopholes to exploit. Case in point: General Electric. GE is one of the world's largest corporations, and it doesn't pay any taxes in the USA. They've rigged their finances so that they actually get incentives and rebates in the USA. We are PAYING THEM to be a corporation. They recently announced (this week) that they're relocating their world-wide HQ to Boston after various cities tripped over themselves to offer the sweetest tax incentives and rebates to get them to move there. They had some valid reasons to move, such as looking for a brighter college educated pool and needing close access to an international airport. Valid, but they still appreciated all of the tax incentives and rebates.

The second part is that greed has overtaken humanity and compassion. I've been saying for a while that the unofficial matra of the Republican Party is "I have mine, screw you." I guess the UK version would replace the second half with "Sod off." Wall Street demands quarterly profits, and if a corporation doesn't deliver, it is punished. Thus, we have companies outsourcing their computer departments to India to save labor costs, so people (like me) who have developed skills over a 30 year career can't find good positions that don't involve relocating, lots of travel, or no benefits. I read recently about one company who not only outsourced their entire IT operation to India, that if you didn't train your replacement, you didn't get the severance package. Talk about rubbing salt in to the wound.

The phrase Compassionate Conservative not only epitomizes oxymoron, people spouting it should be flogged.