Things that made you frown today (Political Version)

[Astray]

Shitty. What a sham. What a fraud. What a sham of a fraudulent fuck.

[Tgo01]

Shitty. What a sham. What a fraud. What a sham of a fraudulent fuck.

Normally I would say this has no way in hell of passing, but it IS San Fransisco so who the hell knows.

[Neveragain]

The bag lunch was satire on Richard's part. The part that is real is the lawmakers are looking to stop tech companies from giving their employees free food at their place of business.

They claim this is encouraging people to eat at their place of business (because yeah, free food > paying for food) and thus it is leading to empty streets and local businesses not receiving as many customers as the lawmakers feel they should. They even offered a solution that the businesses should instead pay for their employees' lunches and the employees can go to a local restaurant. Really just sounds like a roundabout way of taxing a company.

[Neveragain]

Normally I would say this has no way in hell of passing, but it IS San Fransisco so who the hell knows.

It will be illegal in CA to give customers plastic straws.

[time4fun]

This is what really gets me. Who are these politicians to dictate where these corporations spend their money? Restaurants are not magically entitled to anyone's money just because they exist.

As one of those tech employees who works at one of those big tech companies everyone loves to hate- I absolutely understand the sentiment behind this law. The job I do is very similar to my non-tech job 7 years ago, and I get paid over 5x as much now to do it. The kind of income inequality this creates is destroying tech hubs. Tech workers get all of the money, and everyone else has to deal with the consequences of that money- insane rent, huge increases in costs of living, etc. Some of that money does go into the local economy but not nearly enough.

Right now the food perks we get aren't taxed, and that money tends to get funneled into a few large catering companies who likely aren't sourcing their food locally. So the money that we would be spending at the local restaurants is going to some food distributor in Utah. That's not good.

Having said that- this law isn't likely going to do what they're hoping it will do. Most companies will just have their catering companies make the food off-site. They're not going to stop giving free food perks because the market for good tech talent is extremely competitive, and they honestly don't want us leaving the office any more than we have to.

What I'd rather see is a tax on the food benefits that goes directly to tax breaks for local restaurants, and for tech companies to start contributing to their communities.

[Neveragain]

This is what really gets me. Who are these politicians to dictate where these corporations spend their money? Restaurants are not magically entitled to anyone's money just because they exist.

They are communists, you support them.

[Androidpk]

They are communists, you support them.

Trump is getting ready to give farmers billions of dollars because of his disastrous trade policies. Does that make the farmers communists? Why should those farmers get a handout, they should just learn a new trade.

[Neveragain]

As one of those tech employees who works at one of those big tech companies everyone loves to hate- I absolutely understand the sentiment behind this law. The job I do is very similar to my non-tech job 7 years ago, and I get paid over 5x as much now to do it. The kind of income inequality this creates is destroying tech hubs. Tech workers get all of the money, and everyone else has to deal with the consequences of that money- insane rent, huge increases in costs of living, etc. Some of that money does go into the local economy but not nearly enough.

Right now the food perks we get aren't taxed, and that money tends to get funneled into a few large catering companies who likely aren't sourcing their food locally. So the money that we would be spending at the local restaurants is going to some food distributor in Utah. That's not good.

Having said that- this law isn't likely going to do what they're hoping it will do. Most companies will just have their catering companies make the food off-site. They're not going to stop giving free food perks because the market for good tech talent is extremely competitive, and they honestly don't want us leaving the office any more than we have to.

What I'd rather see is a tax on the food benefits that goes directly to tax breaks for local restaurants, and for tech companies to start contributing to their communities.

The thousands of people they employ doesn't contribute to the community?

[Tgo01]

The kind of income inequality this creates is destroying tech hubs.

I'm sure you're doing your part though and giving 50% of your income to a needy black family.

[time4fun]

Trump is getting ready to give farmers billions of dollars because of his disastrous trade policies. Does that make the farmers communists? Why should those farmers get a handout, they should just learn a new trade.

I love how if the government pays for health care it's dangerous socialized medicine, but if we throw a bunch of money at farmers to help them handle a REALLY stupid trade war Trump started for literally no reason- it's totally fine.

Republicans are insane.