Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

It's housing, stupid

It seems my place of employment is not the only education system in dire financial straits. The San Francisco United School District (SFSUD) is facing a budget cliff as well. There’s been talks of school closures this year, but election season sort of put a kibosh on that. Now that the election is over, and the math remains terrible, I don’t see how they can avoid contracting the number of campuses.

SFUSD has the same problem as SFSU: a massive decline in enrollment. Funding from California is tied to pupil count, so less students, less operating budget. Hard decisions will have to be made. San Francisco State will be laying off lecturers and cutting courses come the Spring semester. I can tell you the atmosphere on campus is rather bleak these days.

I think this issue ties back to housing, or the lack thereof. How can you expect a thriving K-12 student population when the working-class cannot afford to live in San Francisco? It’s financially difficult to start a family here if you’re not of the upper crust working in tech or finance. People of those means are more likely to send their children to private school, exacerbating the enrollment problem. Public education needs a robust working-class to support it. San Francisco must build way more housing, driving down home and rental prices, to sustain said working-class.

Until that happens, SFSU must build way more student housing so students can actually afford to attend. The university isn’t renowned for anything in particular, so San Francisco becomes the de-facto draw. Tuition is expensive enough as is; it’s a tough ask to then add on one of the highest cost of living in the country. Never mind the retail crime, homelessness, and fentanyl crisis that gets shown on television.

I believe solving the cost of putting a roof over your head is the main lever to pull here.

They got him

It appears the alleged UnitedHealth CEO killer has been captured in Pennsylvania. That didn’t take long, did it? What a blatant showcase of class disparity. A CEO of a multi-billion corporation gets assassinated, the authorities spare no expense and manpower to hunt down the killer. A random guy in the inner city gets gunned down, nobody freaking cares. In a capitalistic society, the value of a life is pegged to how much he earns and produces.

I’m not anywhere near anti-capitalist, mind you. It is, what it is.

It reads to me like the alleged assassin wasn’t hiding all that intently. He’s still got the weapon, fake identifications, and manifesto with him when he was captured. Any other smart criminal would have dumped those items as soon as possible. Perhaps having his day in court is part of the killer’s plan. Take the stand and go on a diatribe, while the entire country is paying attention. The jury selection process alone will be fascinating to watch. It seems impossible to find 12 + 2 jurors without any bit of animus towards health insurance.

The killer is apparently from a prominent and wealthy family in Maryland. He really is living up to the name people have given him: healthcare Batman. The movie to be made out of this saga is already cooking in some Hollywood studio, I’m sure. Timothee Chalamet is a shoo-in to play antagonist. Or is it the protagonist?

I’ve not seen Americans from both side of the political spectrum so united since 9/11. Health insurance is a universal suck for everyone; the death of UnitedHealth CEO offers a modicum of justice, a helping balm of schadenfreude. You know who’s only got positive experiences with health insurance? The people putting out op-eds morally shaming the positive reaction. No skin in the game!

Economic turkey

You know what’s a surprisingly economical meal? Thanksgiving food. Turkey, mash potatoes, ham, and frozen broccoli can all be bought at Costco for about $75. That lot will comfortably feed 10 adults into a food coma. In this inflated economy, I think Thanksgiving food is a very viable option for other times of the year. The price per pound per gram of protein of a turkey is devastatingly superior.

You know what grinds my gears? When people say: “When adjusted for inflation.” It’s annoying because the person saying that line is invariable using it as a defense of the current economy. It’s not so bad once you adjust for inflation! A 2024 Honda Civic is magnitudes better than the 2000 version, at a cheaper price when inflation adjusted.

That’s great, but we don’t live in the past. Our reality cannot adjusted for inflation. Telling people X isn’t so bad when you consider Y and Z is a recipe for losing an election. The economy under President Biden may look mathematically great: all-time highs in the stock market, and broad wage increases that kept up with the pandemic inflation. But people don’t feel great about the economy. Facts may not care about feelings, but facts don’t vote, feelings do.

I’ve certainly been negatively vocal about the economy on this blog. I’ve had a fortunate 30% increase to my 2019 salary - the keeping up with inflation part - and yet I feel like my purchasing power has gone to shits. What people want is deflation, but without all the other hugely deleterious effects. Of course, that’s not possible, but the Americans sure voted like it is!

The finding out phase

I think it’s morbidly fascinating that the reaction to the CEO of UnitedHealthcare getting assassinated in New York City is mass jubilation. The Reddit pages are full of good riddances, and cheers to a deserved death for all the suffering the CEO and his company have caused. It’s a good thought exercise: if a million people become happy at the news of your death, perhaps you haven’t lived so honorably while you were alive.

It goes without saying, but murder is bad. Very bad.

The motive in killing the CEO of a private health insurer cannot be more obvious. Either the killer, or someone close to the killer, was done wrong by UnitedHealthcare. Most likely a denial of coverage for critical, life-saving aid. We cannot condone the how, but we can empathize with the why. In a country famous for gun violence and a lack of universal healthcare, It’s kind of surprising that something like this hasn’t already happened before. I think almost everyone has had - or knows someone who has - negative experiences with health insurance. You mean it’s only now that someone felt aggrieved enough to take premeditated revenge?

I guess the John Wick-type revenge plots are movie storytelling, not real life.

Because the pool of aggrieved UnitedHealthcare customers is so large (the company has the highest denial of coverage percentage of all health insurers), the number of suspects can literally be in the thousands. And because common sentiment is so against American health insurance - and healthcare in general, that even if the killer is caught, assembling an impartial jury just might be impossible. So many people on the subreddits I’ve read are applauding the actions of this healthcare Batman.

No matter what happens to the killer, the guy is already a historical legend. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield - another health insurer - announced today they are rolling back plans to limit anesthesia coverage. No doubt the murder of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO is making substantive waves across the healthcare industry.

But what about me?

It’s not very nice to wake up to the news that the President of South Korea has declared martial law. Because I was selfishly thinking about the implications it has on my trip to Seoul in five months’ time. Would I be able to get into the country? I’m going to lose a non-inconsiderable sum if I have to cancel flights.

Good news for me - and South Korean citizens, obviously - the Korean National Assembly quickly gathered and voted unanimously to veto the President’s declaration. Crisis averted, democracy prevailed.

I would like to believe that should such craziness happen here in the States, our “guardrails” can also act quickly to stop it. Say what you want about January 6, but Congress - once safe - acted decisively to certify the election for Biden. There was not going to be a coup against the Constitution. Your misgivings may be about the incoming President (or any future Presidents) can be assuaged by our democratic rules. Richard Nixon won in an absolute landslide; two years later he was persona non grata.

Or maybe I’m too idealistic and optimistic. If America ever goes to actual war with China, you bet my Chinese-born ass is getting hauled to an internment camp. Koremastu can totally happen again, given enough social pressure and xenophobia. All it takes is five Supreme Court justices to affirm the action to be legal.

Sad thing is: in that hypothetical situation, I can’t even defect back to China! (Not that I would. Maybe.) My Chinese citizenship was forfeit soon as I naturalized as a U.S. citizen. The ruling Chinese government does not allow for dual-citizenship.

Back your ass up

As an IT support monkey, one of the worst parts of the job is having to tell the customer their data is gone. Even when the data loss is through no faults of my own (of which sadly I have done once), the empath in me feels tremendous guilt for delivering the final negative verdict to the hopeful customer. Obviously, no one likes to hear bad news. If you’re the people-pleasing type (that’s me), you want to avoid being the messenger at all costs.

Friendly reminder: have backups of your digital life. A single point of failure can indeed fail at anytime, sometimes with no one to blame but god.

It’s frustrating when I am unable to book plane tickets via the Chase travel portal. (I want to use my credit card points, and get 5X back on the purchase, obviously.) Apparently, the portal might not show all available seating configurations, or that particular flight at all. Of course, the safest option is always to book directly with the airline, but then I would be losing out on precious reward points. Not in this economy! At least for me, I’ve never had an issue in all the years booking stuff through the Chase travel portal.

Due to the ticket unavailability on the portal, I had to book my fight directly with China Southern Airlines. Their website looks like it barely made it out of Web 1.0 era design language. I guess it’s easier to manage the backend when the frontend isn’t fancifully full of code. But who cares about shiny coats of paint so long as a website functions correctly. After a bit of clunkiness, I was able to book my ticket for the 2025 trip back home to China.

Instead of getting back 5% on my thousands of dollar, I have to settle for 2%. Very sad!

Gym, tan, Thanksgiving

I hope you’ve had a great Thanksgiving day. I certainly did. I cooked a meal, worked out, and then ate that meal. What more can you ask for on a day off? Thanksgiving is just another day off for me because my family did not celebrate it growing up. One, because we were immigrants from China (where it’s obviously not a thing). Two, because our mom did not want to take the pots and pans out of the oven just to cook a 20 pound turkey that would take forever to eat.

What’s wrong with a chicken?

For the Thanksgiving holiday my friend is going on a cruise with his family to Mexico. He told us he will be unreachable until he gets down there because the ship does not have free WiFi. For the privilege of an Internet connection, the cost is $40 per day. Absolute thievery. I guess we have a new pro tip: if you would like to do a digital detox, go on cruise! Unless of course you are rich enough that $40 per day for Internet is of no consequence to your finances. (Or charge it on a card like a good Gen Z.)

I do wonder what it would be like to be without Internet for multiple days. The longest I’ve been without connection is the 15-hour flight to Hong Kong. The smartphone has largely gotten rid of boredom, so it’s an interesting dynamic to see people having to be bored. I have doubts: folks can’t even use the restroom without bring in their phones. At work I see people scrolling while filling up their water bottles. Our inability to be still for even a minute is astounding.

Never say never, but I don’t think I’ll step foot on a cruise ship. If I wanted to be confined to a specific location with multitudes of entertainment and food options, I’d rather go to Las Vegas. To see the ocean, I would head to the local beach side (lucky to live right by the Pacific Ocean.)