Successful in San Francisco? The homeless want your money

by Mouser The King Cat

In San Francisco, media outlets recently colluded, trying to put the subject of homelessness on the front burner. But the coverage was incomplete, because smellevision hasn’t been invented. Now there is a new development: Politicians want to further burden tech companies, because, you know, many of them are successful. From CNBC.com:

Eric Mar, a member of the city’s board of supervisors, announced the proposal last week for a 1.5% payroll tax that would serve as a form of indemnification for what he described as the downside of the technology boom. Tech companies have been "a tremendous benefit to the city in many ways," Mr. Mar said. "But I don’t think they’ve been paying their fair share.”

Ah, there’s that word liberals love – fair. It can be defined any way they want it. More from the article:

“The proposal for what has become known as the tech tax would go toward paying for programs for the homeless and the housing ‘affordability crisis,’ Mr. Mar said. Behind the proposal is more than just an effort to raise revenue. The tech tax, the passage of which is consider a long shot, is the latest manifestation of resentment … against the proliferation of high-paid tech workers and the pressures that rising prices have put on residents. Tensions have flared over the notion that tech workers live in a parallel society, in which they are whisked in private buses to work, socialize in their own circles and do not participate in San Francisco’s traditions of social collaboration.”

Social collaboration? That’s interesting. Maybe if I visit I’ll be welcomed in to play fan-tan at an opium den four levels below Chinatown. But probably not. In the 20th paragraph of the story, CNBC gets around to pointing out the obvious: 

Skeptics say it is difficult to define what a tech company is, and they criticize the measure for singling out companies based in the city while the giants of Silicon Valley are not affected – even those thousands of their employees live in the city and have contributed to the income inequality and high housing costs.

And there’s this from Supervisor Scott Wiener, who opposes this ridiculous tax:

“This tax on technology jobs will not help our housing crisis. It won’t make housing less expensive. It won’t reduce the number of homeless people. What it will do is chase away good-paying jobs and erode our tax base.”

It is always fascinating how liberals are eager to tax success and embrace fascism when it suits their purposes, such as limiting the First Amendment. A better approach would be to round up the homeless and make them get help for their drug and alcohol problems. If we’re on the path to fascism, may as well get some better-smelling downtown streets out of it.