> The assumption would be that all the benefits that came from banding together as a city and creating a modern society were net negative to the residents of LIC.

I suspect we could find many people who do think life was better before tech and finance took over. Not only in LIC, but in blue, pink, and even some white collar neighborhoods around the country.

Whether their opinion feels right to us here on Hacker News is only relevant to the extent that our political influence outweighs theirs (if it does).