Mason  🏃‍♂️ ✂️

Wealthy boomer landowners & the local permanent underclass kept under their thumb have an uneasily alliance, here. New blood — who, without personal dynamism, could never succeed here — align with visitors, who often come under the impression that "Silicon Valley" is descriptive

The war isn't contrived. The Wealthy Boomers grow their wealth on the New Blood, but they also believe that without them the Permanent Underclass would be more easily contained to ghettos that are now becoming gentrified, and less often pushed into their spaces

The Permanent Underclass is rightfully resentful of being pushed out of their homes due to a static housing stock that primarily benefits the Wealthy Boomers, but as it's the New Blood moving in, it's not hard to point their spears in their direction

The Wealthy Boomers, whose assets are largely untaxed, keep the spears pointed away from them by bemoaning the "lack of services" & insisting the New Blood pay for more. Many in the Permanent Underclass would rather a path to self-sufficiency, but who's offering that? Noone.

In fact, to maintain the state of things, the wealthy zero-sum players have to make sure the poor fundamentally accept their framework. But they'll still call the cops if a tent pops up on their sidewalk, god forbid

Meanwhile, the New Blood are thinking "WTF? I thought this place wanted me." Yes and no. To one team, you're a useful scapegoat; to the other, you're a thrilling & potentially profitable combatant in the modern Hunger Games. Good luck with that.

And Visitors? Yeah, welcome. Buy a bridge-shaped souvenir at a 400% markup, get assaulted on the BART and GTFO. If you're not up for the Hunger Games, you should have gone to LA or Big Sur, depending on your budget and tastes.

It doesn't have to be this way, and in the long-run, it won't. Eventually, the zero-sum players will "win," and reap their just deserts from a genuinely static pie, or the positive-sum players will & passive capital will win alongside everyone else, albeit a bit less egregiously.