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Everyone knows that America's big cities and especially San Francisco live in their own financial bubbles.
Average rent in the City by the Bay is nearly four times greater than the US average, coming in at $3,750 a month for a one-bedroom apartment. The cost of living is 80 per cent higher than the rest of America. A typical cup of coffee costs a demented $6 – and some will charge a mind-boggling $20. The internet surge of the past few years has only deepened the problem: tech bros earning six-figure salaries have edged out working families, and homelessness, despite a slight retreat recently, remains high.
But among all the issues that have been rudely visited upon San Francisco, the one that has rich people most riled up is also the most human: shit. As in other people's shit. Dog shit, too, but mostly human shit.
Thanks to the impossible cost of living in the city and a repeated refusal by residents to cough up enough money to deal with the jump in homeless folk, more people that[sic] ever before are living on the streets with no where to go at night and – thanks to no one wanting to dirty up wonderfully clean and luxurious shopping centers and office buildings – no where to go (as in go) during the day. The result: shit. Tons of it.
"I will say there is more feces on the sidewalks than I've ever seen growing up here," said the city's new mayor London Breed recently. "That is a huge problem and we are not just talking about from dogs – we’re talking about from humans."
And so San Francisco has decided to deal with it in the only way it knows how: pay others to erase the problem from its sight. But before you wonder who on earth would accept a job cleaning up other people's excrement in one of the most expensive cities in the world, consider this: it pays well. Really well.
[...] All of which means that if you are lucky enough to grab a coveted spot on the Poop Patrol – it's a ten-person crew with its own minivan – you will earn a base salary of $71,760 a year. Add in benefits including health insurance, pension and so on and it brings the package to a rather enticing $184,678 a year.
Source: www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/25/san_francisco_clean_up/
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 26 2018, @08:36PM (10 children)
These people are not just "you on hard times".
This is a serious problem that requires serious measures.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 26 2018, @09:09PM (3 children)
you are a non-functioning person you just don't have a clue about it
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 26 2018, @09:25PM (1 child)
The U.S. public is getting tired of all the half measures and pussyfooting.
Either take command of the situation now, or me and my ilk will do it for you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @12:19PM
Your ilk? These days people make fun of you and your pointy white things that you can't see out of sometimes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @09:41PM
That this comment was modded to +5 indicates a serious infestation on this site.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by acid andy on Sunday August 26 2018, @10:34PM (5 children)
In what way? Are you seriously trying to tell us that these are the wrong kind of homeless people, that there's a right kind and a wrong kind? WTF?
Soylent's sinking to a new low with the comments on this thread!
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 26 2018, @11:03PM
Don't blame non-US soylenters for the crap in US, we are soylenting at home thank you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @03:53AM
Well, you won't be homeless for that long. You're a functioning person who just happened to have a bad turn of luck in terms of, say, cash flow; if someone gave you an apartment for free, you'd be back on your own feet pretty damn quick.
Chronically homeless people are not like that. They are broken people. You can't just give them a free apartment and think you've done something useful.
Get it yet, idiot?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @10:40AM (2 children)
I think he's still under the impression that most homeless people are either alchoholics or drug-addicts
If that's the case you can't help them get back on their own feet economically without fixing the addiction first
Of course "most homeless are addicts" hasn't been true for a at least a decade now... Things change
(Score: 4, Insightful) by acid andy on Monday August 27 2018, @11:31AM (1 child)
Addiction doesn't mean they shouldn't have a roof over their head. If having enough roofs to do that screws up the environment then that means there are too many people on the planet chasing too little land. The only ethical way to handle that is to gently incentivize lower birth rates. Contraception can help.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday August 27 2018, @01:30PM
I forgot to mention it also needs a new kind of economy based on businesses sustaining a certain size rather than on infinite growth. Infinite growth requires eternal population growth. I suppose you could punish a business for expanding beyond a certain size through taxation but you'd also need to reward sustainability so there's carrot as well as stick. If you reward a business financially for maintaining a constant size and profitability, that would mean they would have extra capital on top of their profits which they wouldn't be able to reinvest into the business without paying it out as taxes. I guess they'd have to pay it out as increased dividends or raise wages. I'm not sure whether that would cause inflation.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?