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San Jose: New law would make city first to allow “tiny homes” for homeless

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Re: San Jose: New law would make city first to allow “tiny homes” for homeless

#21

Post by saosebastiao »

ljf wrote: post #5
grecy wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is truly sad that in by far the richest country in the world, and ostensibly the best, millions of people are living this way. Why on earth Americans are not fixing America, I have no idea.

As a Brit and a left leaning type, it baffles me to see America. From talking to friends who live there (I won't pretend I know fully) but it seems between income, state and property taxes you guys pay a lot. Add in health care and it seems you pay in line with or above many European countries. Yet with your society's wealth there seems a resistance to supporting your own people, and almost actively seeking to add to…

I'd say that as well. A lot of people criticize our tax structure (probably with good reason) but a common criticism is that we don't pay enough in taxes and that we end up starving useful resources because of it. That criticism is pretty much false. When you count federal, state, county, and local taxes, and then throw in things that don't typically get counted like mandatory expensive-as-fuck health care, we easily pay just as much or more than many well functioning first world countries.

What we're really good at is throwing our money either in a dumpster or into corrupt people's pockets. Weve got farm subsidies, corporate health care, bombs in the Middle East, transit infrastructure that is 5-10x more expensive than anywhere else in the world, heavily subsidized roads, and pork barrel spending as the only way to break up congressional gridlock. We've fucked everything up, and it's probably too late to do anything about it.

Re: San Jose: New law would make city first to allow “tiny homes” for homeless

#22

Post by usaphp »

grecy wrote: post #3
hiou wrote: post #2

> the former accountant ended up outdoors after a divorce and a brain tumor. Sounds like our current resource allocation system here in the US is working great! Seems like a totally sensible reason for a human being to be forced to live without basic shelter. They obviously have no useful skills to provide society so let's just throw them away. What a time to be alive!

It is truly sad that in by far the richest country in the world, and ostensibly the best, millions of people are living this way. Why on earth Americans are not fixing America, I have no idea.

Well just look at the president candidates for the most powerful and richest country in the world. How is that possible that in a whole country of many smart people these two individuals could get someone's votes.

Re: San Jose: New law would make city first to allow “tiny homes” for homeless

#23

Post by freerobots »

mmmBacon wrote: post #20
ljf wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Brit and a left leaning type, it baffles me to see America. From talking to friends who live there (I won't pretend I know fully) but it seems between income, state and property taxes you guys pay a lot. Add in health care and it seems you pay in line with or above many European countries. Yet with your society's wealth there seems a resistance to supporting your own people, and almost actively seeking to add to…

We pay almost 50% in taxes which I think is close to what you guys pay in Europe. The lions share goes to Washington where as far as I can tell it either evaporates or gets spent on very expensive jobs programs like the F-35. Our states do a better job generally and provide the bulk of the services. However in many cities and states the budgets are consumed by pensions leaving less for services each year. A person wh…

I think you hit the nail on the head.

Mandatory spending was 65% of our budget last year the majority of which goes to healthcare, pensions, and social security. Defense was over half of our discretionary spending. I'm hopeful that the US could make changes in defense spending but healthcare and pensions will screw us and it will be our own fault.

The second you open a conversation with "We are going to reform pensions" or "We are going to guide health access in medicare" politicians have stepped on too many voters' toes and the system falls apart.

If the US adopted a policy for medicare similar to the UK's NICE it would be derided as "death panels".

I think we all want an easy ride and regrettably the people who will end up paying for it are going to be the people with little to no say.

Re: San Jose: New law would make city first to allow “tiny homes” for homeless

#24

Post by gok »

ljf wrote: post #5
grecy wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is truly sad that in by far the richest country in the world, and ostensibly the best, millions of people are living this way. Why on earth Americans are not fixing America, I have no idea.

As a Brit and a left leaning type, it baffles me to see America. From talking to friends who live there (I won't pretend I know fully) but it seems between income, state and property taxes you guys pay a lot. Add in health care and it seems you pay in line with or above many European countries. Yet with your society's wealth there seems a resistance to supporting your own people, and almost actively seeking to add to…

Americans complain about taxes more than perhaps any other people from a rich nation, but we frankly don't pay that much. The OECD average is about 35% of GDP. The UK pays right about that. The US pays ~27% of GDP. And of course even with that relatively small amount of revenue, a lot of it goes to uniquely American spending schemes like defense or NASA, both of which are vastly better funded than their European equivalents. So it's really not all that surprising that lots of other stuff doesn't get funded much.

That being said, the homeless rate in England and the United States is the same ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homeless_... ). Do you see a similar resistance to supporting people there?

Re: San Jose: New law would make city first to allow “tiny homes” for homeless

#25

Post by TaylorAlexander »

grecy wrote: post #3
hiou wrote: post #2

> the former accountant ended up outdoors after a divorce and a brain tumor. Sounds like our current resource allocation system here in the US is working great! Seems like a totally sensible reason for a human being to be forced to live without basic shelter. They obviously have no useful skills to provide society so let's just throw them away. What a time to be alive!

It is truly sad that in by far the richest country in the world, and ostensibly the best, millions of people are living this way. Why on earth Americans are not fixing America, I have no idea.

I've found that America makes a lot more sense when you think of it as a country run by rich people, with a whole lot of workers. For the rich, this place is amazing.

The rich have all the political power, so this makes sense. You'd think the working class has political power but their opinions are controlled by the wealthy.

So for the people running America, there's nothing to fix. The system is designed to produce exactly what it produces. The fact that there's no shelter or health care for the poor is a result of the fact that the poor in America are discarded. We don't have a cultural respect for human life here. We have business. And business doesn't need poor people. They're not good workers or good consumers.

I'd like things to be different, and I'm working on it, but I don't have much power at the moment.

Re: San Jose: New law would make city first to allow “tiny homes” for homeless

#26

Post by SomewhatLikely »

Chronic9q wrote: post #17
uxcn wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle has set up more than one tiny house village [1], at least that I know of. Some of them even have internet access. We still have a very real homeless problem though, and you'll see panhandlers if you drive through the city. People have even set up camps along I-5. [1] http://www.kiro7.com/news/seattles-first-tiny-house-village-...

Do democratic/left/liberal states generate or attract more homelessness? Seems to happen with many other liberal city hubs.

The homeless problem is worst in cities that are doing the best.

Re: San Jose: New law would make city first to allow “tiny homes” for homeless

#27

Post by notliketherest »

This is a mistake. As soon as you allow squatters to essentially start building shanty town communities, you are going to start exacerbating a lot of problems: drugs, crime, rape. All one needs to do is travel to Brazil and see the favelas to see the effects of an unchecked, institutionalized homeless population.

Re: San Jose: New law would make city first to allow “tiny homes” for homeless

#28

Post by oldmanjay »

enraged_camel wrote: post #11
grecy wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is truly sad that in by far the richest country in the world, and ostensibly the best, millions of people are living this way. Why on earth Americans are not fixing America, I have no idea.

Looks like the conservative crowd on HN is downvoting you, but that's probably because the truth makes them uncomfortable. The United States is by far the richest country in the entire history of the world. Every American should be deeply ashamed and embarrassed by the sheer number of people who don't have access to the most basic needs.

I never feel shame and embarrassment over actions other people have taken. Why would I?

Re: San Jose: New law would make city first to allow “tiny homes” for homeless

#30

Post by grecy »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #25
grecy wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is truly sad that in by far the richest country in the world, and ostensibly the best, millions of people are living this way. Why on earth Americans are not fixing America, I have no idea.

I've found that America makes a lot more sense when you think of it as a country run by rich people, with a whole lot of workers. For the rich, this place is amazing. The rich have all the political power, so this makes sense. You'd think the working class has political power but their opinions are controlled by the wealthy. So for the people running America, there's nothing to fix. The system is designed to produce…

> I've found that America makes a lot more sense when you think of it as a country run by rich people, with a whole lot of workers. For the rich, this place is amazing.

That's an excellent insight, and it agrees with my experience. When I lived there I was earning minimum wage, as were all my (local) friends and I was not impressed. Friends who needed surgery could not afford it, could not afford car insurance, etc. etc.

A few years later I met an Aussie working in a very high paying Engineering job and he loved the country because when you have money, you can own and do anything you want. You are a god.

>We don't have a cultural respect for human life here. We have business.

It blows my mind that masses have not voted to do something about this to better their lot.

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