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Comment by _k3an | Hacker News Reader

Silicon Valley? Left wing? You've got to be kidding me.

SF is like the ultimate neoliberal bubble.

This kind of comment is exactly what we're referring to. I'm sorry to be blunt, but it's so false that I wonder if it's a parody. SF's government is one of the most left wing of the entire country. Taxes are very high, the economy is extremely regulated (getting a building permit can easily take 6-10 years) and there's a ton of public aid.

In case anyone is wondering SF county (& many of the counties around it) pay 16.2% of their income in taxes putting them in the top 20 of the country [1]. SF/Oakland have some of the longest waiting for permits for residential at 10.2 months on average [2]

I can't seem to find any good sources on exactly how much public aid is spent.

Because I was wondering, the SF MSA ranked 25th out of ~1k in terms of worst income inequality [3]

All of these data points come from different sources and from different years.

[1]: https://www.brookings.edu/interactives/map-income-taxes-in-y...

[2]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/building-permit-delays-choke-u-...

[3]: https://www.epi.org/publication/income-inequality-in-the-us/

SF and California at large is run by liberal Democrats, but that's a far cry from actual leftism.

Do you know how many members of the San Jose City Council are Republicans?

One. And he's Vietnamese.

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