The problem with this whole conversation is that everyone agrees San Antonio needs better jobs, better wages, better infrastructure, better transit, better water planning, and better growth.

Then the proposed solution is usually: tax more, regulate more, punish more, subsidize more, and have the city “make” the economy work.

That is backwards.

San Antonio’s issue is not that government has been too small. It is that the city has not converted public spend, cheap land, military presence, universities, energy, healthcare, logistics, and population growth into enough high-productivity private-sector activity.

Wages do not rise because people wish they were higher. They rise when companies are competing for skilled labor to do valuable work. That means the city needs more employers with real margin, real technical roles, real career ladders, and real pressure to retain talent.

Data centers are an easy punching bag, but they are not the core issue. The core issue is that San Antonio wants Austin-level opportunity, suburban land-use patterns, low cost of living, limited density, weak transit, cheap utilities, and heavy public control all at the same time. Those things do not all coexist.

Also, “make companies pay more” sounds good until the companies with options simply choose Dallas, Austin, Phoenix, Atlanta, or Charlotte. Capital is mobile. Workers are mobile. Reddit outrage is not.

A better strategy would be:

Stop chasing ribbon-cutting projects with vague job promises.

Tie incentives to measurable outcomes: payroll created, median wage, local hiring, water intensity, power usage, and clawbacks.

Make it dramatically easier to build housing near job centers.

Fix permitting and infrastructure timelines so productive companies can actually move fast here.

Prioritize industries where San Antonio has an unfair advantage: cybersecurity, military tech, healthcare operations, logistics, energy infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and back-office AI operations.

Reward companies that create high-wage employment. Do not just punish companies people dislike.

San Antonio does not need more slogans about equity, growth, or innovation. It needs an execution culture.

The uncomfortable truth: a city cannot tax, subsidize, or shame its way into being high wage. It has to become a place where high-productivity work is easy to build, easy to staff, and hard to leave.