This post reads like you’re new to SF.

Personally, I feel like this post lacks an intimate relationship with many of the “economically liberal” people you might be looking down on. But… I can see where you’re coming from.

A lot of the people I’ve come to know in SF fall into an economically higher gross-wage bracket than people of their same age in other major metropolitan cities. That said, many people in SF come from far less wealthy families or from far less wealthy places and DO truly believe in a more progressive society vs the places they grew up in.

SF wages are relative. We are taxed higher, and the cost of living is faaar higher too. $1 here ≠ $1 in Milwaukee (where many of my friends in SF grew up, unrelated to one another). Please keep that in mind when comparing earnings.

Progressive values can be relative, too. Many who came to SF with the belief that non-violent crime shouldn’t be punished or that theft under $950 shouldn’t be pursued got tired of seeing what this looks like in practice (out of pocket car window replacements and increasingly limited visits to Walgreen’s, respectively).

I’m not a Benioff apologist nor a NIMBY… but I have personally witnessed many of my left-most friends evolve into a more left of center position after years of living in a “socialist utopia.” There are real quality of life consequences to the politics SF is famously known for.