...their lives are increasingly impossible in a city taken over by tech, and the socioeconomic stratification it fosters.
It's strange to blame the tech industry for San Francisco's fate, because there is nothing peculiar about what the tech industry has done. Astronomical returns to capital for a few senior people, high salaries for a large body of skilled professionals, and concomitant demand for office space, housing and services from other industries -- that's what successful industry looks like everywhere. Usually the result is not shortages, homelessness, and lack of services.
There was -- and is -- a failure of public policy here.
It's strange to blame the tech industry for San Francisco's fate, because there is nothing peculiar about what the tech industry has done. Astronomical returns to capital for a few senior people, high salaries for a large body of skilled professionals, and concomitant demand for office space, housing and services from other industries -- that's what successful industry looks like everywhere. Usually the result is not shortages, homelessness, and lack of services.
There was -- and is -- a failure of public policy here.