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‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

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Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#91

Post by ameister14 »

s73ver_ wrote: post #90
ameister14 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't take months to travel 300 miles by car. Bringing in income during the long trip is not a realistic issue.

It's going to take at least a week, and a lot of gas. We're talking about people who already aren't bringing in much, and so likely don't have anything saved up.

Have you never loaded everything you own in a car and moved before? It does not take a week. And driving 300 miles takes 6 hours in an RV, not 7 days. Within a 300 mile radius of SV is everything from LA to Reno to Eureka.

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#92

Post by leggomylibro »

deadmetheny wrote: post #60
leggomylibro wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, except maybe in St. Louis, which set a $15 minimum wage only to have it nullified by the state of Mizzureh. They technically exist, but it's like...would you ever think of opening a business somewhere like Illinois? That's like opening a tin of meat in a school of pirhannas.

I own a business in the Midwest. So, yes, I absolutely would.

Fair enough, to each their own. I like the Midwest a lot, don't get me wrong. It's just not the sort of place I'd go if I wanted to employ people.

More the sort of place I'd go if I wanted to run a small workshop for a year or two. Rent is cheap, and in my experience the people are friendlier than around the coasts so you won't go insane if you aren't willing to take on a second job called 'trying and failing to meet people.'

I did get the feeling it was because I was a white guy, in a lot of cities, but...is it wrong to say that at least they were friendly? As opposed to condescending everyone equally? Probably; I don't really feel comfortable with that line of reasoning...or maybe I just am dealing with mild discrimination and it's hard because so far I've basically been pampered through life on that count? It seems more likely that I'm just overly sensitive, but...fuck, the looks I get from people I've never seen before...I don't know, people are so complicated

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#93

Post by 5ourpu55 »

bdcravens wrote: post #46
gt_ wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those locations don’t pay $15/hr. if you can find a job, and you probably can’t. Employment is rising in densely populated areas and not so much in rural areas. This is a little different on the east coast, but that’s a more significant moving investment. Other services like healthcare in rural areas has eroded to barely existent. I can speak from experience in Oregon. Moving costs money, something they don’t have. F…

Unskilled labor in Houston may not get $15/hour, but jobs are pretty easy to come across. I know multiple people who really aren't good at their job (one's a waitress, one works in retail) but they frequently get new jobs when they lose the old (and sometimes have more than one at once). It's not hard to find a $700 apartment here either.

You're right! These people should just take their money and pay to move across country, easy peasy!

or better yet, ask their parents to loan it to them!

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#94

Post by 5ourpu55 »

alexandercrohde wrote: post #61
chrischen wrote: post #57

> Mountain View, a city of 80,000 which also is home to Mozilla and 23andMe, has committed more than $1 million over two years for homeless services, including money for an outreach case manager and a police officer to help people who live in vehicles. Why are local governments treating these people as dysfunctional when the dysfunction is in the government in its ability to provide an environment that is safe, stabl…

I don't get it. Is your premise is that every person making minimum should be able to live anywhere they want in the US, and if they can't the government is responsible?

So your argument is that since they aren't wealthy, they don't deserve to live with their betters?

Who is going to do service industry / low paying jobs in these high-cost cities if they can't afford to live there?

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#95

Post by jimmywanger »

caseydurfee wrote: post #81
jimmywanger wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternative is government mandated poverty. The government hardly ever creates wealth. They can create the conditions for wealth creation by getting the heck out of the way. To be a bit dramatic, Venezuela, PRK, Sudan, and Cuba all have incredibly low wealth inequality. Except for the rich and corrupt, everybody else has just about the same as everybody else, which is nothing, based on government policies. Hong K…

"The government hardly ever creates wealth. They can create the conditions for wealth creation by getting the heck out of the way." Yes, we're aware that's how it works in shitty novels about trains from the 1950's. Here in the real world, every single technological innovation in the iPhone was created by the US Government, or with the assistance of US government-funded basic research. This book breaks the whole thin…

I don't understnad your trains comment.

As for the government never creating wealth, most innovations that came out of government basic research came out of the DoD/partially NASA. Although mostly the DoD. Are you advocating for more defense funding, and then I'd be all behind you.

As for your income inequality chart, it shows exactly what I'm talking about. One of the highest "equality" ratings of the Gini coefficient is the Netherlands, where the Jante law holds sway. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante

As I said, those are countries who seem like they're stagnating. Do you really want countries with low outcome equality vs. equality of opportunitity vs countries who actually let you excel and keep the fruits of your labour and skill? Outcome inequality is not a bad thing.

Also note that in your gini chart, most of the countries which are awful have no statistics. Are they equal or just a blank slate that you can project your own feelings on?

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#96

Post by danmaz74 »

mywittyname wrote: post #28
ryaniscool wrote: post #15

There are easier locations to live on $15/hr in California and the USA than Silicon Valley. Some of the people featured in the article have vehicles which implies mobility. I wish the article focused more on the reasons people choose to stay in a place with a ridiculous cost of living that they can't afford. That seems like the real story to me. I'm sure there are valid reasons like family or other things but it's no…

Maybe it's hard for them to find work outside of the area and they are living paycheck to paycheck. So any gap in employment would sink them. It's hard to get out of an area when you're economically distressed. Cutting that tiny lifeline is a massive risk. This is the same problem keeping poor rural people stuck in poor rural areas.

Are there no unemployment benefits at all to cover that gap in the US?

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#97

Post by distances »

jimmywanger wrote: post #95
caseydurfee wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The government hardly ever creates wealth. They can create the conditions for wealth creation by getting the heck out of the way." Yes, we're aware that's how it works in shitty novels about trains from the 1950's. Here in the real world, every single technological innovation in the iPhone was created by the US Government, or with the assistance of US government-funded basic research. This book breaks the whole thin…

I don't understnad your trains comment. As for the government never creating wealth, most innovations that came out of government basic research came out of the DoD/partially NASA. Although mostly the DoD. Are you advocating for more defense funding, and then I'd be all behind you. As for your income inequality chart, it shows exactly what I'm talking about. One of the highest "equality" ratings of the Gini coefficie…

> Do you really want countries with low outcome equality vs. equality of opportunitity

This is a commonly given argument, but does not apply to the US -- it's nowhere near a country of equal opportunity. I'd be more open to the argument if you'd include items like no inheritance and no private schooling, to really give a more equal footing -- but I'm guessing these are not up for discussion. Thus, a certain amount of outcome equalizing is absolutely necessary.

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#98

Post by deadmetheny »

s73ver_ wrote: post #90
ameister14 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't take months to travel 300 miles by car. Bringing in income during the long trip is not a realistic issue.

It's going to take at least a week, and a lot of gas. We're talking about people who already aren't bringing in much, and so likely don't have anything saved up.

What world do you live in? 300 miles is like a 4 hour drive on the interstate.

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#99

Post by s73ver_ »

deadmetheny wrote: post #98
s73ver_ wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's going to take at least a week, and a lot of gas. We're talking about people who already aren't bringing in much, and so likely don't have anything saved up.

What world do you live in? 300 miles is like a 4 hour drive on the interstate.

Getting to somewhere in the Midwest from SV is far from 300 miles.

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#100

Post by alexandercrohde »

peoplewindow wrote: post #68
alexandercrohde wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get it. Is your premise is that every person making minimum should be able to live anywhere they want in the US, and if they can't the government is responsible?

This isn't really an abstract problem that requires reductio ad absurdum type arguments. I grew up in the UK and I visit the valley sometimes. There are several things you immediately notice: 1) Every building is incredibly short. 2) Every building is spaced very far apart. 3) Every road is incredibly wide. Even fairly unimportant roads, the sort that have rinky dink little cafes on them, will often have three lanes…

Yes, but why should they? If a community likes wide roads, low traffic, short buildings, are they somehow obligated to knock down those buildings so that other people can live there?
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