A homeless man who turned his life around by offering book reviews
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Re: A homeless man who turned his life around by offering book reviews
#2Quick fact check: 20-25% of homeless people in the United States suffer from "a severe mental illness." (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/27/mental...)
Props to this guy for turning his life around despite a lack of support from the society he lives in, but there are hundreds of thousands of people here in the United States alone who will never have a similar opportunity.
Re: A homeless man who turned his life around by offering book reviews
#3Sometimes it seems to me that histories like this put the weight of leaving poverty in the individuals himselves rather than the government social services, enforcing the myth that poor people is people that chooses to.
Re: A homeless man who turned his life around by offering book reviews
#4Quick fact check: 20-25% of homeless people in the United States suffer from "a severe mental illness." ( https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/27/mental... ) Props to this guy for turning his life around despite a lack of support from the society he lives in, but there are hundreds of thousands of people here in the United States alone who will never have a similar opportunity.
It wasnt meant to be prescriptive, just hopeful. I'm glad to have read about how one man's ingenuity completely changed his situation.
Re: A homeless man who turned his life around by offering book reviews
#5Quick fact check: 20-25% of homeless people in the United States suffer from "a severe mental illness." ( https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/27/mental... ) Props to this guy for turning his life around despite a lack of support from the society he lives in, but there are hundreds of thousands of people here in the United States alone who will never have a similar opportunity.
On a similar note, it's always nice to see the "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" stories involving homeless people, but we (meaning the U.S) need to place higher value on assisting those who can't assist themselves.
Mental illness is the root of the problem. From homelessness to suicide rates to general well being, we need a better mental health care system in place.
I've been reading "Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging" by Sebastian Junger and it draws a pretty clear connection between what we consider a "successful person" and unhappiness. In essence, people were happier when they lived simpler lives in tribes, and as society grew to place value on financial/personal independence and move away from the tribe system of survival - people became more unhappy and mental illness/suicide rates rose.
The more we segregated people by wealth/social status, the more isolated people feel and mental illness rates creep higher and higher.
This article just reinforces the idea that only lazy/dumb people are homeless, and only those who "put in the work" deserve recognition.
Re: A homeless man who turned his life around by offering book reviews
#6Sometimes it seems to me that histories like this put the weight of leaving poverty in the individuals himselves rather than the government social services, enforcing the myth that poor people is people that chooses to.
You don't think personal change represents any elevation from poverty? I think we certainly agree it can play a major role into poverty descent.
Re: A homeless man who turned his life around by offering book reviews
#7Sometimes it seems to me that histories like this put the weight of leaving poverty in the individuals himselves rather than the government social services, enforcing the myth that poor people is people that chooses to.
You don't think personal change represents any elevation from poverty? I think we certainly agree it can play a major role into poverty descent.
I agree, but after reading articles like this I always leave with the impression that the personal change doesn't need to be encouraged by the society, and must come solely from the individual. Like other commenter said in the post, some people like the mentally unstable can't change without a lot of outside help.
Re: A homeless man who turned his life around by offering book reviews
#8Sometimes it seems to me that histories like this put the weight of leaving poverty in the individuals himselves rather than the government social services, enforcing the myth that poor people is people that chooses to.
You don't think personal change represents any elevation from poverty? I think we certainly agree it can play a major role into poverty descent.
do you athleticism at the pro level is achieved by personal abilities alone? what if you grew up in a society that doesn't value basketball for example, you will never have opportunities and support to develop a physical ability to reach pro level status. Societal conditions play a critical role in my example
Re: A homeless man who turned his life around by offering book reviews
#9Sometimes it seems to me that histories like this put the weight of leaving poverty in the individuals himselves rather than the government social services, enforcing the myth that poor people is people that chooses to.
You don't think personal change represents any elevation from poverty? I think we certainly agree it can play a major role into poverty descent.
Not really, no. In the US, it's mostly about your family, although there are exceptions of course:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socio-economic_mobility_in_the...
> The correlation between parents' income and their children's income in the United States is estimated between .4 and .6.
> If a parent's income had no effect on a child's opportunity for future upward mobility, approximately 20% of poor children who started in the bottom quintile (in the bottom 20% of the US range of incomes) would remain there as poor adults. At the other end of income spectrum, if children were born into wealthy families in the top 20%, only 20% would stay in that top income category if their mobility opportunities were equal to every other child's in the country.
> But long-term income statistics show this isn't happening. Mobility opportunities are different for poor and wealthy children in the US. Parental incomes and parental choices of home locations while raising children appear to be major factors in that difference. According to a 2012 Pew Economic Mobility Project study 43% of children born into the bottom quintile (bottom 20%) remain in that bottom quintile as adults. Similarly, 40% of children raised in the top quintile (top 20%) will remain there as adults. Looking at larger moves, only 4% of those raised in the bottom quintile moved up to the top quintile as adults. Around twice as many (8%) of children born into the top quintile fell to the bottom. 37% of children born into the top quintile will fall below the middle. These findings have led researchers to conclude that "opportunity structures create and determine future generations' chances for success. Hence, our lot in life is at least partially determined by where we grow up, and this is partially determined by where our parents grew up, and so on."
Re: A homeless man who turned his life around by offering book reviews
#10Quick fact check: 20-25% of homeless people in the United States suffer from "a severe mental illness." ( https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/27/mental... ) Props to this guy for turning his life around despite a lack of support from the society he lives in, but there are hundreds of thousands of people here in the United States alone who will never have a similar opportunity.
On a similar note, it's always nice to see the "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" stories involving homeless people, but we (meaning the U.S) need to place higher value on assisting those who can't assist themselves. Mental illness is the root of the problem. From homelessness to suicide rates to general well being, we need a better mental health care system in place. I've been reading "Tribe: On Homecoming and Bel…
I wonder how the people who are currently homeless would have ended up, if they were born in tribal times?