Ask HN: What's an important problem that more people should work on?

Post by anindha » Fri, Sep 29, 2017, 6:47 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #20

joeblau wrote: post #13

There are probably huge strides that can be taken in healthcare, food, energy, transportation and finances. The challenge is that most of these industries are heavily regulated so you go in optimistic then get inundated with endless waves of bureaucracy, and end up making a new version of Twitter. I'm personally fascinated with the transpiration industry. Everything from city bikes, to self driving cars, to hyper loo…

Definitely feels like SpaceX just ate Boom's lunch last night.

Post by david927 » Fri, Sep 29, 2017, 6:51 PM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #46

david927 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really not. First, I said industrialized . I know that homelessness is high in some poorer countries. I'm talking about the wealthy countries such as most EU countries. Switzerland, for example, doesn't remotely have this problem.

I know from being involved with a Washington state based NGO That there are entire unincorporated Spanish speaking villages in Washington. Even in places like Germany and Japan, you have itinerants. I highly doubt any country has a zero homeless population. That said, there is a big difference between such people who are largely self sufficient and stay out of the public eye, and those that don't. The latter are iden…

Post by hacking_again » Fri, Sep 29, 2017, 6:52 PM UTC

david927 wrote: post #51

aaron-lebo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SF is also an extreme example of homeless problems because of various factors (weather, systems which attract homeless, etc). There's a homeless problem in other cities, but we don't have tents downtown.

I was in LA recently and there was an entire tent city in the heart of downtown Orange County. The link below lists around 30 US cities with tent cities downtown.

Post by marak830 » Fri, Sep 29, 2017, 6:55 PM UTC

david927 wrote: post #22

mojomark wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>That's solved in every industrialized country besides America. Whoa. That's an interesting unsubstantiated statistic. A quick (albeit unnecessary) Google search begs to differ: https://homelessworldcup.org/homelessness-statistics/

It's really not. First, I said industrialized . I know that homelessness is high in some poorer countries. I'm talking about the wealthy countries such as most EU countries. Switzerland, for example, doesn't remotely have this problem.

Post by marak830 » Fri, Sep 29, 2017, 6:57 PM UTC

david927 wrote: post #30

jbg_ wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can only assume you haven't spent a lot of time in the EU... Switzerland (which is not in the EU) is the only European country I've been to that does not have a very visible population of homeless people.

20 years in Europe. I've never never never never tripped over crazy homeless. It's all I do in Berkeley and SF. It's not a small, nuanced difference but literally night and day. Have you really seen tents downtown in any city in Europe? I'm American but most Europeans I know struggle with living in the Bay Area because it's such a shock for them.