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Homeless encampment grows on Apple property in Silicon Valley

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Re: Homeless encampment grows on Apple property in Silicon Valley

#41

Post by hourislate »

whynotminot wrote: post #32
hourislate wrote: post #4

Apple should house these poor people at HQ. With employees working from home they should have a lot of office space that could be converted into rooms for the homeless. I'm sure there are fitness facilities they could use for basic hygiene and plenty of cafeterias that could feed them.

Imagine being this clueless about how cafeterias work when the employees aren’t in the office.

Imagine being so dumb to think some aren't open since there are a handful of employees there or opening a few since there would be homeless there.

Re: Homeless encampment grows on Apple property in Silicon Valley

#42

Post by CryptoPunk »

oliv__ wrote: post #23

"Clearing the camp likely will be difficult both logistically — it’s more challenging to remove structures and vehicles that don’t run than tents — and ethically — there are few places for the displaced residents to go." This might be an unpopular opinion, but since when did kicking "a sprawling camp of dozens of people, a maze of broken-down vehicles and a massive amount of trash" off of your private property become…

There is an entire industry of government funded NGOs who work with the homeless, who rely on these kinds of precepts, like evicting squatters being unethical, being accepted, for their funding. They're the ones who place enormous pressure on others to adopt this extreme compassion worldview.

Re: Homeless encampment grows on Apple property in Silicon Valley

#43

Post by xycodex »

Breefield wrote: post #5
hourislate wrote: post #4

Apple should house these poor people at HQ. With employees working from home they should have a lot of office space that could be converted into rooms for the homeless. I'm sure there are fitness facilities they could use for basic hygiene and plenty of cafeterias that could feed them.

Poe’s law strikes again.

Btw Amazon actually did this, they have space for 200 a night right in one of their hq buildings in downtown Seattle called Mary’s place.

Re: Homeless encampment grows on Apple property in Silicon Valley

#44

Post by freen »

edgyquant wrote: post #12
na85 wrote: post #7

Instead of stroking his ego by racing Branson to space, Bezos could personally buy each of these people a home in the Bay Area and wouldn't even notice a difference in his lifestyle. Tax the rich. Spend it on social programs.

If you believe Bezos buying everyone a house is a solution to the homeless crisis you are so naive and ignorant of the situation that your views aren’t even worth a rebuttal. Do better.

~500k homeless in the country. [0]

Average monthly rent in the US:~ $1000 [1]

Bezos net worth: $213 billion [2]

Average return on investment for DJIA for the past ten years: 10.6% [3]

Paying rent for all homeless folks is $6 billion a year.

Bezos, if he makes average returns, makes $21.3 Billion a year.

He can afford it. And still e one the richest people in the world.

How do you live with that?

0: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_S...

1: https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/average-ren...

2: https://wealthypeeps.com/jeff-bezoss-net-worth/

3: https://www.5yearcharts.com/last-10-years-return-of-dow-jone...

Re: Homeless encampment grows on Apple property in Silicon Valley

#45

Post by na85 »

fshbbdssbbgdd wrote: post #13
na85 wrote: post #7

Instead of stroking his ego by racing Branson to space, Bezos could personally buy each of these people a home in the Bay Area and wouldn't even notice a difference in his lifestyle. Tax the rich. Spend it on social programs.

Who’s Bezos supposed to buy the homes from? It seems like there is already a higher than average number of people living per house here, so distribution of housing is not really the problem. The total number of homes is too low. It would help if Bezos could build a huge number of new housing units, but that’s illegal (which is the problem).

My point, which seems to have soared over the heads of my detractors in this thread, is that the ultra rich should be taxed at a higher rate, and that money used to fund programs that combat homelessness.

Jeff Bezos and the other dragons^H^H^H^H^H^H^H billionaires have demonstrably too much wealth, to the extent that they can afford dick-measuring contests like "whose CEO can get to space first, for no reason whatsoever".

The measure of a great society is by how it treats its least fortunate members.

Re: Homeless encampment grows on Apple property in Silicon Valley

#46

Post by monkeybutton »

CryptoPunk wrote: post #35
sp332 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is in the part you quoted - when you get them off your property, they don't stop existing. Where do you want them to go to ?

You not solving their/society's problem doesn't make it unethical.

Maybe if they'd paid their fair share in taxes, they'd feel less guilty about the ethics. As it stands, they're not exactly helping society fix these problems.

Re: Homeless encampment grows on Apple property in Silicon Valley

#47

Post by Teever »

rlp wrote: post #33
sp332 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is in the part you quoted - when you get them off your property, they don't stop existing. Where do you want them to go to ?

The property owner should not be responsible for answering that question.

The property owner in question has evaded paying billions of dollars in taxes, taxes that could have gone to fix the systemic issues in America that perpetuate homelessness.

Think different indeed.

Re: Homeless encampment grows on Apple property in Silicon Valley

#48

Post by awsthro00945 »

hamburgerwah wrote: post #22

I could not conceive of a more poetic example of silicon valley dystopia than the richest entity in the history of the world stymied to come up with a solution to help 35 people suffering on it's throne room doorstep. What a terrible joke silicon valley has become.

I read this, and my first thought was "what are they supposed to do? buy houses for all these people? Yea, Apple could afford it, but then they'll be sending the message that if you want Apple to buy you a house, all you have to do is pitch a tent on their lawn".

And then it reminded me of a quote from The West Wing, after Toby uses the president's name to pull some strings for a random homeless person he happened to run into:

> President Bartlet: "Toby, if we start pulling strings like this, you don't think every homeless veteran will come out of the woodwork?"

> Toby: "I can only hope, sir."

I know that "solving" homelessness isn't really as simple as just having the wealthiest company on the planet buy homes for people, but... it could be a start.

Re: Homeless encampment grows on Apple property in Silicon Valley

#49

Post by smnrchrds »

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #34
sp332 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is in the part you quoted - when you get them off your property, they don't stop existing. Where do you want them to go to ?

I exist and I'm not camping in your front yard. Isn't that crazy how that works? Somehow the laws of physics don't break when I leave your lawn.

"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread."

- Anatole France

Re: Homeless encampment grows on Apple property in Silicon Valley

#50

Post by isatty »

sp332 wrote: post #26
oliv__ wrote: post #23

"Clearing the camp likely will be difficult both logistically — it’s more challenging to remove structures and vehicles that don’t run than tents — and ethically — there are few places for the displaced residents to go." This might be an unpopular opinion, but since when did kicking "a sprawling camp of dozens of people, a maze of broken-down vehicles and a massive amount of trash" off of your private property become…

The problem is in the part you quoted - when you get them off your property, they don't stop existing. Where do you want them to go to ?

Sure you’ve identified the problem but the problem is not the responsibility of the owner of said private property.
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