Socialist Paradise Lost: San Francisco Passes "Twitter Tax Break"

As reported in today's San Francisco Chronicle, the city's Board of Supervisors voted yesterday to back a six-year payroll tax break for new employees of firms that locate in the sketchy Central Market and Tenderloin Districts. Because the social networking firm Twitter has lobbied for the break as an incentive to remain in San Francisco, it has become known as the "Twitter Tax Break". Some, such as Supervisor Mark Farrell, recognize the reality of imposing a city payroll tax: "We can't look at this as a corporate giveaway. The bottom line is, if we don't do this ... we will not have their payroll to tax. Companies will leave this city." Others, who view the blight and crime as the cost of enjoying the fruits of socialism, disagree. Some decry the "corporate welfare" (it takes a dim bulb to equate transfer payments with "letting someone keep more of their money") and the adverse consequences of gentrifying these parts of the city (we're sure the residents will be sad to see drug violence replaced by software engineers). And we have this nugget from Supervisor John Avalos:

I believe that businesses in San Francisco and around the country should be socially responsible and part of that social responsibility is paying our taxes. ... If we're going to be allowing a company to threaten to leave, and give them a tax break so they don't leave, we're setting a really bad precedent for other companies to do the same.

So, let's all have a moment of silence, and remember that April 5, 2011 was the day when the city of San Francisco recognized that private businesses had a right to (some of) their property, and betrayed the revolution in the process.