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Homeless alone

homelessalone.blogspot.com

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Re: Homeless alone

#271

Post by Mz »

Mz wrote: post #269
RyJones wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was homeless, I lived in my car. I lived like a king compared to those actually sleeping rough. I frequently slept near/at the Burnside Project (PDX), and saw many far worse off. I had a water tight heated home that I moved whenever I wanted.

My father and ex husband were both career military. I never slept in a tent before I went homeless, but I had heard enough stories about keeping warm, dry, or whatever while out in the wilderness. I have never once slept on a sidewalk. I hike out to a patch of wilderness every single night. Where I currently sleep, there are deer and coyotes (a few minutes walk from a paved road). I blog about my experiences in part…

Missed the edit window. Obviously, that should say "Humans ate food..." not "Humans are food...

Whoops!

Re: Homeless alone

#272

Post by toomuchtodo »

the_ancient wrote: post #246
toomuchtodo wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey there! Can you provide proof? Because every other first world country achieves better care at lower costs than the US with universal healthcare.

I am sure they do, I never argued that I like our Current mix of heavily government regulation, mandatory 3rd party billing, and a variety of other fucked up policies imposed by government. It is likely that single paying would be provide lower cost then what we pay today, I think it is highly unlikely it would result in better care. For example in many places in the EU semiprivate rooms are only for those Rich peopl…

> One big one is our obesity problem, once we have Universal Healthcare, are you then going to support Universal Diets, and Universal/Mandatory Exercise??

I would add a tax onto activities that increase healthcare costs, yes. I'm not stopping your from doing it, I'm just bringing the externality into the equation.

If you speed, we ticket you. If you speed too much, we raise the price of your insurance. And so on. This is no different. Risks have costs, and you pay for the risk you create (when a choice is provided).

Re: Homeless alone

#273

Post by tedmiston »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #229
Riseed wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something the other replies didn't mention is that some (many?) homeless people wouldn't be hired for minimum wage jobs because they'd be considered overqualified. [0] There's always the option to leave education and employment off of your resume, but during the interview how do you explain even a four-year gap without mentioning "I was doing a Ph.D in particle physics" or "I designed marketing materials for Goodyear…

To expand on this: low-end employers want people who (it appears) don't have any better options. If someone seems like they could find a better job at some point in the future, then they're less likely to put up with the kind of treatment that minimum-wage earners usually get. They might quit, or they might cause trouble and have to be fired. Better to go with someone who knows that they can't do any better.

This reply is interesting. I wonder if this doesn't apply at other levels as well. For example, a small business with a tiny engineering team not wanting to hire an engineer qualified to work for a top tier startup or tech titan.

Re: Homeless alone

#275

Post by toomuchtodo »

joslin01 wrote: post #186
toomuchtodo wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't referring to you in particular, but Americans as a whole. The thought that if you work hard, you will always succeed. This is not the case, of course. I agree with your post.

I just got done cleaning the dishes when I was like oh wait, maybe he wasn't referring to me? Sure enough. Sorry about that I understand now.

No worries at all. 'Tis the nature of text communication!

Re: Homeless alone

#276

Post by woodpanel »

apozem wrote: post #266
woodpanel wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Germany it is virtually impossible to become homeless, because of many, many welfare programs to keep you afloat (Guess also in most of Western Europe). Thing is, you still have homeless people here. Not just those that flock from other countries. But people you might recognize from elementary school. A lot of welfare programs do a lot for the majority of people in need (mentally sane) but nothing for a small mino…

One of my professors worked with the homeless and said living on the streets is often the symptom of a greater problem, rather than the problem itself.

I agree, though there's a worsening to your situation once you're homeless. I can't find the study right now, but it basically said homeless people have a significant higher chance of being schizophrenic. It was concluded then, that being homeless was to blame for mental illness. I think this conclusion is not just wrong, because it's the other way around (mental illness causes homelessness) but I think this faulty conclusion actually hurts progress.

(Can't remember if this conclusion came from the authors themselves or from some media outlets trying to use this headline for some other agenda or biased readership.)

Re: Homeless alone

#277

Post by the_ancient »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #272
the_ancient wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am sure they do, I never argued that I like our Current mix of heavily government regulation, mandatory 3rd party billing, and a variety of other fucked up policies imposed by government. It is likely that single paying would be provide lower cost then what we pay today, I think it is highly unlikely it would result in better care. For example in many places in the EU semiprivate rooms are only for those Rich peopl…

> One big one is our obesity problem, once we have Universal Healthcare, are you then going to support Universal Diets, and Universal/Mandatory Exercise?? I would add a tax onto activities that increase healthcare costs, yes. I'm not stopping your from doing it, I'm just bringing the externality into the equation. If you speed, we ticket you. If you speed too much, we raise the price of your insurance. And so on. Thi…

Fucking authoritarians. I really do not have much else to say, I can not have a reasonable conversation with people that believe the government should control everything.. Including what the fuck I eat and tax (aka Punish me if I make the "wrong" choice by their standards

you basically want to live in a world like this

https://www.aclu.org/ordering-pizza

Re: Homeless alone

#278

Post by rtpg »

drumdance wrote: post #264
rtpg wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your theory falls apart to the evidence of health systems in basically every other OECD country. A theory that fails to match the data in any case doesn't seem to be much of a theory, is there something I don't know about that's happening in other counties?

My guess is that doctors in other countries have less choice. In the US a doctor can opt out of Medicare and offer concierge services instead. Which many of them have done because Medicare reimbursements are much lower than in the private market. US doctors also can make money through self-referrals such as ordering a test be done through a clinic in which they are an owner. This article from 2009 talks about the lat…

So in France you have a similar system:

There are base prices for operations, doctor visits and the like. But doctors can choose to charge above this price (and mostly do so in places like Paris, where rent is too high to charge just base price).

Doctors have to declare whether or not they do this. So if you're a price-sensitive person you can lookup doctors "inside" or outside the system.

In my experience, there are longer waits for things like optomotrists, but that's more due to government-mandated limits on how many can graduate in a year than the price controls (that you can opt out of anyways).

General practitioners are fine though. Like "call for an appointment, show up the next day" sort of fine. And even in big cities I would always end up at a doctor charging "base" price. The visits would end up only costing something like 7 euros.

Re: Homeless alone

#279

Post by toomuchtodo »

the_ancient wrote: post #277
toomuchtodo wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One big one is our obesity problem, once we have Universal Healthcare, are you then going to support Universal Diets, and Universal/Mandatory Exercise?? I would add a tax onto activities that increase healthcare costs, yes. I'm not stopping your from doing it, I'm just bringing the externality into the equation. If you speed, we ticket you. If you speed too much, we raise the price of your insurance. And so on. Thi…

Fucking authoritarians. I really do not have much else to say, I can not have a reasonable conversation with people that believe the government should control everything.. Including what the fuck I eat and tax (aka Punish me if I make the "wrong" choice by their standards you basically want to live in a world like this https://www.aclu.org/ordering-pizza

One man's authoritarianism is another man's efficient market.

Re: Homeless alone

#280

Post by justinlardinois »

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #219
capote wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always have to wonder why people don't work at least minimum wage jobs, to solve the base problems like hunger. I apologize if I'm missing something or if I seem really ignorant. Actually, I realize I am totally ignorant in this respect. I've never worked a job outside of programming, so I don't know—is it very difficult for some people to get 'normal' jobs? Is it mostly people with some kind of issue or disability…

Being homeless and getting a job makes it very difficult, almost impossible. Where are you gonna keep a nice suit? Where are you going to get shaving materials? Make-up? Do your hair? Even if you got the job, where will they send your checks? What if you don't have official documentation (birth certidicate, social security, etc) because you're homeless? How would you get around if public transport is unreliable? And…

> How would you get around if public transport is unreliable?

As an American, I always found it so ironic that public transportation is often the worst in areas where only those who truly need it use it.

People make a big deal about how better quality public transportation can be good for the environment (by getting more cars off the street), but what I think is more important is that getting more higher-income people on the bus vastly improves fare revenue and local political will for having good public transportation.

I would definitely take public transportation to work if I could, but Silicon Valley public transportation is awful. The lightrail doesn't go through too many useful stops; it's only good if you live somewhere along the line and are trying to get to downtown San Jose. My car commute to Cupertino takes half an hour or less, but if I wanted to take the bus it'd be an hour.

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