Restoring the Local Economy with Personal and Economic Liberty

By Robert Northington "Rob" Power, III

By maximizing the freedom of individuals and businesses to do as they see fit, the City could undo the economic damage already done.

Housing: The insanely high cost of living in San Francisco is a direct result of City government attempts to control market forces. The only realistic proposal I've seen to get us out of this mess is the Home Ownership Program for Everyone (HOPE). Though it doesn't go as far as I would like in removing government influence from the housing market, it's a reasonable compromise that allows us to bring the City's 34% rate of home ownership closer to the national average of 68%, while still preserving rent control and other "safety nets" that the voters of San Francisco overwhelmingly continue to support.

Poverty and Homelessness: (See Jobs and Housing.) If we can't get jobs to support ourselves, and City officials are artificially capping the housing supply while the demand skyrockets, it's no wonder that people have no money and therefore no place to live. In the short-term, we can continue existing programs for those already down on their luck, but with so many of us just a paycheck or two from homelessness, the City must revive the economy immediately or face poverty issues that are an order of magnitude worse than they are now. Current Supervisors offer two opposing categories of solutions (either burning more taxpayer money on a G.A. system that has never worked, or criminalizing homelessness altogether). Neither of these is going to solve the problem, and these Supervisors and candidates are certainly smart enough to know it. But slogans like "Care, not Cash" look really good on a bumper sticker, don't they? The current system of taking care of those less fortunate clearly has problems and does not deserve any budget increases, but yanking the rug out from under people during a recession isn't a good idea either. Why not immediately fix the cause of the problem -- the City's economy -- and deal with reducing/eliminating G.A. payments after we're out of the recession?