San Francisco - a fascinating place to visit

San Francisco has one of the most breath-taking settings of any city in the world. It is blessed with a natural port, a benign climate, rich inhabitants and all kinds of businesses. I remember my first visit, walking the city streets. I got a fallen metatarsal arch walking those hilly sidewalks. Every corner brought something new and interesting into view. I was warned by a passerby not to enter the Tenderloin district. Chinatown was fascinating. My Aunt Jean commuted over the bay to teach English to immigrants, most of them Chinese. Some of the upscale business districts had far fewer people on the sidewalks. There were panhandlers, though. Sometimes quite aggressive panhandlers.

Housing costs in San Francisco are among the highest in the nation. Service workers typically live far from the city and commute in. Lots of fairly well-off business people commute in, too. There are street people who sleep in doorways at night. But per capita, people who live in San Francisco can afford to have among the the most progressive, compassionate city governments in the nation. Especially since that government is also supported by businesses whose labor largely comes from outside the city.

We can learn from the rich city government in San Francisco a few things about how far government compassion should be taken. We can also learn from the story linked how government compassion toward a certain group of people predictably leads to a lack of compassion toward other people. Those who decide to dispense compassion through government need to weigh whether the predictable resulting lack of compassion toward others will be justified.

Dennis Prager's dream for an ideal society comes to mind: A just government and a compassionate population. As opposed to a compassionate government and a self-congratulating population.

It's a good thing that San Francisco is a rich city. The city can probably re-adjust and recover from its government's decision to become a sanctuary city, a shining example for all those morally inferior cities across America. Some nearby cities may find the quest for a civil society a little more challenging.