$117 per year - poverty line in San Francisco: who are these people

Most of the residents of San Francisco are engaged in services and technology.

Фото: Depositphotos

Consequently, from the pace of technological development depend on unemployment rate and housing prices in the city, writes in his column for publication Wired Antonio Garcia Martinez.

Today, a family of four with a total income of $ 117 400 per year counts poor in san francisco. Who lives in this city, where the future is created, and everyday expenses exceed spending in almost any other metropolis of the world.

Locals can be divided into four large castes:

• Caste internal - venture capitalists and successful entrepreneurs who run technology companies - the engine of the city's economy.
• Caste external - experienced professionals and traders who provide the work of this locomotive. They are well paid, but they live like a middle class.
• Service caste. It includes drivers in Uber, purchasers in Instacart, workers in TaskRabbit - those who perform tasks that machines are not yet capable of.
• The Untouchables - tramps, drug addicts, criminals. They live in tent cities. The outer and inner castes pay no attention to them; Representatives of the service caste look at the untouchables with caution, because they, too, can be at the very bottom at any moment.

Castes are almost impenetrable. You can get into the inner class from the outer, for example, by joining a successful company (like Facebook and Google). Most members of the external caste prefer to work for wealthy entrepreneurs, gradually accumulating influence with the help of securities and real estate.

Representatives of the service class will never fall into the external caste, at least, without additional skills. Most of the time they are trying to maintain their position and not slip into the caste of untouchables. And employers gradually automate professions, for example, the Uber company is open said the intention to replace all their drivers with robots.

There are those who live outside this system, for example, the owners of residential buildings. They are cautiously watching the current technological boom, despite the steadily rising prices for real estate in the city over the bay.

This includes workers in non-technological industries. In cities with more diverse economies like New York, the development of technology has less impact on people. However, at the other end of the country, their lives become unbearable.

In Europe, there is a social safety net insuring the lower classes. It also protects more traditional industries from automation. In some European cities, Uber service is banned, taxi drivers organize protests against ubiquitous automation. And the authorities of Barcelona collapsed on Airbnb due to the fact that the old city center is turning into a huge hotel.

European neo-Luddism may seem funny, but it makes people's lives more pleasant.

The good thing about living in Europe or a rural town in the US is that you know that poor people are not doomed to isolation. Your place in the world is not entirely determined by wealth. In San Francisco, everything is completely different.

In addition, representatives of the external caste have developed their own consumer style: they tell a smartphone what to do, and the smartphone commands other people.

Often, a person of another race comes to you, an Instacart user, loaded with products that you did not bother to buy yourself.

The cost of the order often exceeds his daily earnings. In the order every now and then there are errors that give inattention or ignorance of the buyer - you yourself did not really know what you were ordering. But you still leave a tip to calm the conscience.
San Francisco offers us a fragmented future with narrow social mobility, feudalism with a good marketing department.

Inequality is rarely eliminated by peaceful means, and if today there is such a method, then it is just the class of outside that uses it.

The caste of the inner lives a separate life, while the outer ones lead a more mundane existence. And although they lack collective identity, representatives of the external caste have common interests: clean streets, anti-crime, schools and public transport.

In the recent mayoral elections, this force manifested itself - won the favorite of the middle class London Breed. Unlike typical progressive politicians, she proposes to demolish tent cities and start building more affordable housing.

However, stratification in San Francisco can only increase, and perhaps sooner or later all the locals will fall into the four-level hierarchy.

A short translation of the text prepared edition VC.

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