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Comment by jchiu1106 | Hacker News Reader

Have you lived in Toronto? Houses in the city average over 1M CAD and there are tons of vagrants on the street.

I currently live in Toronto, but I didn't buy a house. My monthly expenses would be nearly 30% higher for a morgage and condo fees for the place I'm renting now. I rather invest that in a business.

As for people living on the street. According to wikipedia the estimated homeless population in San Fransisco is between 7000 and 10000. The estimated number in Toronto is 5,253 (source: Toronto.ca), but since Toronto has 3.5 times the population, this means that the homeless population is at least 5 times bigger.

The greater Toronto area includes other cities and the suburbs. Not a fair comparison to SF proper.

Compare SF bay area to Toronto would be more fair.

I'm not sure any comparison would ever really be fair simply because SF is much more hospitable in the winter as compared to Toronto. That has an effect on homeless populations as well. Compare Vancouver and Toronto and you'll see a similar difference.

The city of Toronto is a lot bigger than SF as a result of amalgamation[1], but most vagrants "live" in downtown core, which is an area a lot smaller than SF.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalgamation_of_Toronto

Have you considered Seattle? I used to work in Toronto and I am currently living here and I love it.

I've lived in Toronto and Portland (Oregon). Portland had more vagrants than I've experienced in Toronto. I'm sure the absolute number is probably higher, but the distribution doesn't seem the same. From what I hear, SF also has a large problem with vagrants / homeless. I'm not sure that "move to SF" is the solution to the "I don't want to be around these vagrants" problem.

Just making sure, my point was not "I don't want to be around these people". My point was that I don't want to partake in a system which such a big income-gap.

In the Netherlands (where I come from) the average saleries for programmers are even lower, but in return you get a pretty great social system and a much saner work/life balance.

I wouldn't assume that Toronto does a better job at income equality, just that the weather is significantly harsher.

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