California Politics: Madame Senator, this is a morgue

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > California Politics: Madame Senator, this is a morgue

mA: Jul 10, 2001; I am the ugly lover.

San Francisco can't get enough of income inequality.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Income-inequality-on-par-with-developing-nations-5486434.php

quote:

San Francisco likes to think of itself politically, socially and culturally as akin to European countries.

But when it comes to income equality - or lack thereof - we're far less Sweden and Denmark and far more Central America and sub-Saharan Africa.

In one measurement, we're about on par with Rwanda. Yes, Rwanda.

The city's Human Services Agency has released a new report filled with startling data about a rapidly changing San Francisco, where the rich are getting richer and more educated, the poor are falling further behind and the middle-class is skipping town altogether.

One way of measuring income inequality is called the Gini Coefficient, a century-old formula used by the World Bank, the CIA and other groups to measure national economies. If everybody in any given place shares wealth equally, the region scores a 0. If one person holds all the wealth, it scores a 1.

Using 2012 figures from the American Community Survey, a branch of the U.S. Census Bureau, the Human Services Agency calculated San Francisco's Gini Coefficient at .523.

According to the World Bank, Sweden scores a .25, Denmark scores a .24, and the United States as a whole scores a .45.

Rwanda actually shares wealth a little more than San Francisco, scoring a .508. But we are doing a bit better than Guatemala at .559. So there's that.

The scores are to be taken with a grain of salt since social services and charities mean it's different to be poor in San Francisco than in Rwanda or Guatemala, but they still demonstrate a quickly widening gap between our city's top and bottom earners.

The Brookings Institution recently found the income gap between San Francisco's rich and poor is growing faster than in any other city in the nation. The Human Services Agency's data further illustrate the phenomena.

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mA fucked around with this message at 22:56 on May 19, 2014

# ¿ May 19, 2014 22:47

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# ¿ May 4, 2024 09:22

mA: Jul 10, 2001; I am the ugly lover.

Slobjob Zizek posted:

Read the decision, it's pretty short: http://www.scribd.com/doc/229021741/Vergara-v-California

As most of you should know, if any federal law (or state law for some states) is quasi-racist in the US it gets auto-overturned because of the 14th Amendment (and corresponding portions of state constitutions).

The interesting part of this decision is the idea that teacher quality directly affects student outcomes. This is the product of research by economists like Raj Chetty and Tom Kane (expert witnesses here).

Anyway, this is just a lower court decision, but still an interesting result of social science research.

I've read that research and there are some real huge holes in it.

Interestingly enough, ASA just came out with it's own study slamming the unreliability of Value Added Measurement, especially when compared to other factors which are more stronger predictors of a students' academic achievement. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/13/statisticians-slam-popular-teacher-evaluation-method/

# ¿ Jun 11, 2014 05:29

mA: Jul 10, 2001; I am the ugly lover.

on the left posted:

Hispanics are only a tiny portion of UC admissions, which would explain a large part of the disparity. Also, if the immigration system were loosened up, you'd probably see a lot more immigrants from South America even out a lot of the numbers on white collar employment.

If you're attempting to justify Google's hilariously pathetic hiring track record by appealing to UC admissions you should probably look elsewhere (nice try, though!). The UC system's newly admitted class is over 28.8% Chicano/Latino, which is a tad higher than a "tiny portion".

http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2014/fall-2014-admissions-table3.pdf

Sorry - you don't have real diversity, especially when the percentage of black and brown people you employ is literally so minuscule that it could almost fall into the margin of error of an election year poll.

Since the Google non-diverstiy numbers have come out, it's been interesting watching the tech crowd try to "DISRUPT!!!!" and reconceptualize ideas of diversity (i.e. We have white, male programmers from all over and...... Asians! ). Since the tech world in SF and SV are so ahead of the curve compared to the rest of us, they've totally bypassed this antiquated idea of diversity and they literally are the embodiment of equal opportunity and meritocracy - everyone else just needs to catch up!

mA fucked around with this message at 12:53 on Jul 1, 2014

# ¿ Jul 1, 2014 12:23

mA: Jul 10, 2001; I am the ugly lover.

gonger posted:

Do you have a breakdown of majors/programs of study by race/ethnicity? Getting underrepresented minorities into the STEM pipeline is a big problem, and generally speaking it's those disciplines that the tech industry hires from. Seems like improving that would be the first piece of the solution.

Yeah - I agree. /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I work with youth in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood community of San Francisco, within the schools and within local youth organizations. I've done my share of outreach to tech organizations and companies to try to get volunteers to work with students, as tutors or mentors, or even teach code.

Literally 99% of responses I get are "Invite your kids to our "#HACK4POVERTY" event! While my story is anecdotal, I don't think it's a stretch to say that it's also symptomatic of how tone deaf and out of touch they are issues regarding poverty and inequity, which is sad considering the publicly extolled mantra of SF CEOs (Benioff) and VCs (Ron Conway) is to "give back".

mA fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Jul 1, 2014

# ¿ Jul 1, 2014 19:18

mA: Jul 10, 2001; I am the ugly lover.

I'm actually (pleasantly) shocked that Tuck didn't win, especially how things seemed to be trending during the last month and especially with the outside money rolling in.

I'm bummed about Chiu beating Campos in SF and Measure G going down, but it's not too surprising considering the hold that VCs and Tech has of the city these days.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2014 18:11

mA: Jul 10, 2001; I am the ugly lover.

To all my SF goons: gently caress SCOTT WEINER
Anyways, so sad about 15 and 22

mA fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Nov 4, 2020

# ¿ Nov 4, 2020 18:25

mA: Jul 10, 2001; I am the ugly lover.

CMYK BLYAT! posted:

What the hell was the no on 15 messaging and how did that messaging succeed in defeating it though? Blatant lying that it's the same as other prop 13 repeals and would push grandma onto the streets, and people just believed it?

Home and property owners in CA have a Pavolvian negative response to anything regarding property taxes. Same as it ever was. And it's one of the reasons CA is hosed indefinitely.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2020 21:47

mA: Jul 10, 2001; I am the ugly lover.

Arsenic Lupin posted:

Anybody got guesses on who Gavin Newsom would pick to replace Kamala Harris in the Senate?

Scott Weiner :barf:

# ¿ Nov 5, 2020 05:30

mA: Jul 10, 2001; I am the ugly lover.

Vox Nihili posted:

gently caress.

Although he'd probably still be the best Senator we've had in years... Christ.

Eh, I'd prefer Kamala over him. They're both neolibs who have a tough on crime record. At least with Kamala you get some idpol points.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2020 22:00

mA: Jul 10, 2001; I am the ugly lover.

Vox Nihili posted:

I don't know. I file them bother under "liberal who blows with the wind." Kamala had a genuinely distressing record as AG. Weiner is in bed with real estate developers but I'm not sure that hits the same level as opting to jail parents of truant children. I like Weiner's ongoing attempts to force density on stubborn, wealthy bedroom neighborhoods (even knowing it's partly at the behest if his financiers, it's at least an attempt to respond to a genuine crisis rather than making a crisis worse).

You won't find me defending cops. That said, Kamala was one of the original cosponsors of Medicare for All. She's obviously a careerist and opportunist, but I find her to be someone who you could plausibly "push left" in some aspects unlike Biden.

Weiner on the other hand is a true believer neoliberal on the policy front. When Weiner was a supe he helped to torpedo several police reform resolutions because he received big money from cops (which he still does). Thankfully prop e undoes some of his damage in this regard. And he hasn't been successful at all in convincing Daly City or other cities in the peninsula to increase density, so what does that matter?

mA fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Nov 5, 2020

# ¿ Nov 5, 2020 23:11

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# ¿ May 4, 2024 09:22

mA: Jul 10, 2001; I am the ugly lover.

I made a pit stop through Bakersfield last week and stopped at a diner for breakfast. No masks even from the staff. The middle aged waitress seemed to get annoyed at me that she couldn't hear me because of my mask even though I was pretty much yelling my order out loud for all the customers to hear.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2021 21:41

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