San Francisco struggles with growing crime, blight after years of progressive policies

Progressive policies generate disastrous results. High government spending; over-regulation; higher taxes or their current equivalent, borrowing stifle business investment and economic growth; generous unemployment benefits "stimulate" more unemployment.

Leftists don't get it. The more government gets involved in the economy, the more dependent people become on government, and the weaker becomes the private economy. That is what is happening now, and will continue to happen as long as anti-capitalist leftists are running cities like San Francisco.

From Fox News:

San Francisco is earning a growing reputation for more than just its unmatched tech sector – for critics, the city stands as a profound example of the damage ultra-liberal policies can do. 

After 20 years of envelope-pushing changes to grow government and ease law enforcement, the once-shining City by the Bay has turned into a place where:

Property crime runs amok

An online map is needed to track human feces on city streets

Discarded syringes are common sightings

Public urination is so widespread it has damaged subway elevators and escalators, building walls and power poles

“There’s a very tolerant attitude, you can very much do anything on the streets you want,” said Marc Joffe, director of research at the California Policy Center think tank. “As members of a civilized society, there are things you should ​not accept. But we have ignored that … and there is nobody on the other side setting limits.”

San Francisco’s lax attitude is nothing new and has served as a beacon for the American counter-culture dating back to the Beat Generation. But the city’s embrace decades ago of free love and drugs has morphed into something else.

Read more......

As I have been writing for years, the left is in love with the Depression and its imagery. They were therefore determined to recreate it by crashing the economy. Then they could be the "government to the rescue" types they have dreamed about. FDR envy is at the center of the Obama administration.

I am an empiricist, and there is a big difference between an ideologue and an empiricist.

Progressives believe what they believe with religious fervor, in spite of the facts. The belief stems from a sense of "how things should be" rather than an understanding of how they are.

Continue reading the full article at High Plains Pundit.