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Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

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Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#171

Post by kakarot »

ams6110 wrote: post #167
kakarot wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't have much sympathy for anyone who chooses to work in the arts... One must see the risks taken, and that the rewards are unpredictable. You have different goals in life than other people. Please try to be aware that the path you've chosen is not the only right one. Some people have different goals. Some people even have the cognitive ability to regard the goal of fulfillment in life and creativity as more im…

You can have whatever goals you like, but that doesn't entitle you to live in an area you can't afford.

What a massive oversimplification of extremely complex socioeconomic and cultural issues. Your argument is either deceptive or ignorant.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#172

Post by lotsofpulp »

dgzl wrote: post #147
sodiumjoe wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Portlander here, I used to work right by the food carts downtown on 10th and Alder. The hospital bracelet guy is one of regulars, he's been running that schtick for literally years. There's a cast off characters like him who are fixtures there. I'm not against compassion for the homeless, but after running into a few of these repeatedly, I tend to refrain from supporting them directly and give to local charities inst…

I wouldn't be surprised if this was a scam, but I'm not convinced. Between my own experiences interacting with the homeless and scammers, seeing his fresh physical wounds (including staples in his head), and the weird amount of knowledge he had about physics and obscure computer operating systems, I just don't see it. If anything, he deserves my help just for being so thorough.

Why would society want to reward people who go to great lengths to defraud others?

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#173

Post by NotAnEconomist »

cronix wrote: post #82
egypturnash wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW KOMO is now owned by Sinclair, and is increasingly rabidly right-wing. What to do about the homeless situation in Seattle is a big topic of discussion currently; we had an attempt to tax big companies to get some money to deal with this get shouted down by all the folks in Amazon's pockets.

I didn't detect any rabid right-wing bias in this documentary, despite whoever owns it. It seemed pretty neutral, if not from a humanitarian perspective. I don't think I've ever seen a rabid right-wing org point out that drug addiction is actually the biggest component of this homeless problem, and showing a solution working elsewhere that was primarily based on getting people off of drugs. > we had an attempt to tax…

> we had an attempt to tax big companies to get some money to deal with this get shouted down by all the folks in Amazon's pockets.

> assuming the majority of people actually wanted it because they believed it would solve the problem.

The poster is omitting that most people in Seattle were opposed to the tax, because it would have significantly harmed labor unions and regional businesses, like grocery stores.

The Seattle city council crafted a tax without consulting businesses about how economics works, doubled down and told people to stuff it when they pointed out that it was going to damage the local economy by crippling mid-tier businesses that had high-gross, low-margin revenues, and were then forced into an embarrassing retreat when labor unions started campaigning against it and neighborhood organizations circled the wagons to protect their historic businesses.

It was also a pocket change, feel good tax: Seattle spends over a billion dollars a year on poverty, between low-income subsidies and homelessness, and has nothing but a degrading situation to show for it.

People in Seattle just have a simple question: both Amazon and the SCC have spent about $25B over the past decade -- Amazon to rebuild SLU, and the SCC on anti-poverty; why does Amazon have a campus and tens to hundreds of thousands of lives changed, while the SCC has literal poop on the streets to show for it?

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#174

Post by ams6110 »

throwaway713 wrote: post #116

A little bit unrelated, but does anyone else get severe anxiety reading articles like this? I’m currently employed in a well-paying tech job, but it always seems like I’m just one giant disaster away from this kind of thing. Granted, I have a family “safety net” to fall back on in a worst case scenario, which I realize a lot of people don’t have, but it’s always in the back of my mind that the economy could crash, th…

Welcome to being a grown-up. These worries have been part of being a responsible adult for forever.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#175

Post by ams6110 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #172
dgzl wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was a scam, but I'm not convinced. Between my own experiences interacting with the homeless and scammers, seeing his fresh physical wounds (including staples in his head), and the weird amount of knowledge he had about physics and obscure computer operating systems, I just don't see it. If anything, he deserves my help just for being so thorough.

Why would society want to reward people who go to great lengths to defraud others?

It's just something we tell ourselves to assuage our embarrassment at getting conned.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#176

Post by f34 »

throwaway713 wrote: post #116

A little bit unrelated, but does anyone else get severe anxiety reading articles like this? I’m currently employed in a well-paying tech job, but it always seems like I’m just one giant disaster away from this kind of thing. Granted, I have a family “safety net” to fall back on in a worst case scenario, which I realize a lot of people don’t have, but it’s always in the back of my mind that the economy could crash, th…

I was wiped out back in 2017. I was a web developer living in Dallas and making 90K a year. My manager and I didn't get along and I eventually ended up on a PIP. After 30 days I realized I wasn't going to meet the PIP goals and resigned before being fired. I wasn't worried, I had about 50K in cash and 20K in credit, and I surly could find a job before it ran out. I was wrong. I got very few interviews and when I did, they were more fit than technology focused. I might as well have picked a number between 1 and 100 to decide the interview.

There comes a point when you go into emergency mode and start planning for the worst. We made it to tax season and got our return. we bought a used car and moved to Tulsa, Ok for the cheaper rent. I had also spent 20 years there when I was younger and felt confident I could find a development or any job. It didn't go as planned. I got plenty of interviews, but none panned out. Many employers questioned my time without a job and I think that and my rusting skills keep me unemployed. Hell, I can't even get a blue-collar job. And it didn't help that the used car broke down and I had to walk and ride public buses every where. Now my wife works for $8.50 an hour at a diner and that's what we make it on. I'm in a worse position than before I went to college and it makes me bitter about life, people, hiring practices, and that so much depends on luck and timing.

So yeah, you never know what's coming. Save all you can and keep working towards financial independence, which is the only real guarantee.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#177

Post by simonsarris »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #165
yonran wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yet in capitalist America...? Restrictive zoning is the prohibition of creating housing capital, so it’s ironic and incorrect to blame capitalism for the housing shortages in restrictive metros such as the Bay Area. Landlordism or rentierism might be better words for the capital repression.

Its still an economic system in place, whatever you wish to call it that causes these issues.

But the economic system in place is not producing those effects in all countries that subscribe to such a system, so saying so is a poor conclusion. Many capitalist countries do not have housing shortages, so it seems very glib to blame capitalism when there are more accurate and more granular phenomena to point to.

I mean out of these, which seems more accurate?

1) In some capitalist countries, there is a housing shortage.

2) In countries with restrictive zoning regulations, there is a housing shortage.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#178

Post by wybiral »

sodiumjoe wrote: post #117
dgzl wrote: post #67

I'm from a small town in Oregon that sees a lot of nomadic traveling folk, either homeless or lifestyle (the PCT comes through the area, for instance), and the town is generally pretty receptive of these people. Growing up I would hang out and spend time with them, just chatting and playing music and enjoying the area. I carried that to adulthood and I now live in Portland, where the homeless problem is quite severe.…

Portlander here, I used to work right by the food carts downtown on 10th and Alder. The hospital bracelet guy is one of regulars, he's been running that schtick for literally years. There's a cast off characters like him who are fixtures there. I'm not against compassion for the homeless, but after running into a few of these repeatedly, I tend to refrain from supporting them directly and give to local charities inst…

Here in Austin, Texas I encounter homeless people regularly and have become a bit numb to the stories after talking to people more and seeing their stories change.

I've bought food and even pumped gas into portable gas cans for people, refusing to give them any cash, only to see their story unravel when they realize they won't get money from me. The original story about needing gas to pick up their paycheck morphs into something else that requires money.

I had a man yell at me after I pumped gas for him because I didn't want to give him straight cash. And then seeing the same people whacked out on something or drinking beer a few days later trying to pitch you the same story.

The unfortunate thing is that those people do need help, usually mental health help but solving that problem will require more than people temporarily supporting their addiction.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#179

Post by dgzl »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #172
dgzl wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was a scam, but I'm not convinced. Between my own experiences interacting with the homeless and scammers, seeing his fresh physical wounds (including staples in his head), and the weird amount of knowledge he had about physics and obscure computer operating systems, I just don't see it. If anything, he deserves my help just for being so thorough.

Why would society want to reward people who go to great lengths to defraud others?

You're right, I suppose I should have said "because he's human", but I don't think this was a scam. Another point: he never once asked me for anything. Only after >30 minutes of conversation did I offer him a meal.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#180

Post by trashcan »

m_ke wrote: post #139
trashcan wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you watch the video? Removing access to drugs and providing them with I assume subsidized medication that is used to treat addiction.

Do you honestly believe that throwing mentally ill and addicted people in jail is the right solution to this problem?

I do believe that when someone is slowly dying of addiction on the streets, that it might be more compassionate to help them cure that addiction, even if it is against their will (not like you normally get to decide you don't want to go to jail when you've comitted a crime anyway).

I know it's not a one size fits all solution by any means, and has the potential for tons of liberty infringing issues, but it sounds better than doing nothing.

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