San Francisco library turning off WiFi at night to keep homeless from using it

Post by notaustinpowers » Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 9:25 PM UTC

scarmig wrote: post #68

notaustinpowers wrote: post #12

Every day I start to believe more and more that people won't stop with homelessness until every homeless person is dead. "Emergency housing is a drain on taxpayer dollars." "Job placement is taking jobs away from locals." "Soup kitchens are another drain on taxpayer money." "Homeless services are a waste of money." It makes me sick how people can act when it comes to the homeless population when so many of us are jus…

It's reasonable for people have access to public services. If you turn every public service--sidewalks, parks, libraries, public transit--into something unusable because it's really an ersatz homeless shelter, there's an entirely expected response: people cease to use those services, because they're not really public anymore. And then people either vote to cut funding for those services, or they defund with their fee…

Post by jrflowers » Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 9:25 PM UTC

nubb wrote: post #25

everyone acting so shocked here probably hasn’t had your home robbed, your car windows broken, or been assaulted and/or robbed by a drugged out bum. at some point enough is enough and they gotta go. i think it’s a juvenile attitude to look down your nose at the endless victims and tell them to just be more understanding of the hardships the homeless face.

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 9:26 PM UTC

Hermitian909 wrote: post #38

notaustinpowers wrote: post #12

Every day I start to believe more and more that people won't stop with homelessness until every homeless person is dead. "Emergency housing is a drain on taxpayer dollars." "Job placement is taking jobs away from locals." "Soup kitchens are another drain on taxpayer money." "Homeless services are a waste of money." It makes me sick how people can act when it comes to the homeless population when so many of us are jus…

As someone who volunteers with the homeless a lot I mostly agree, but I will take the other side for a moment: It's very hard to a voter base who feel financially squeezed that their taxes should be going to people who, usually, are not holding down a job. They're "doing everything right" and feel the government is robbing Peter to pay Paul as it were. There are a lot of sophisticated answers we can give as to why th…

Post by km3r » Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 9:27 PM UTC

warent wrote: post #42

Sparkyte wrote: post #36

The problem is that we decriminalized drug use. We have a heavily funded homeless system now and it works great but there is one little itsy bitsy problem... drug users and mental health folk. Rather than change the criminalization model, decriminalized drugs makes it more accessible than ever. Makes it so much harder to treat. What should happen is that we change our criminalization model to come health and safety f…

For those with mental health you obviously can not decriminalize this The exact opposite is true. It must be decriminalized for those with mental health issues. Criminalization of drug use was never about crime or drugs. It is to install a pipeline for people in poverty to be directed into a for-profit prison system in which they are used as legal slave labor under the 13th amendment. Drug use is not ever a criminal…

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 9:27 PM UTC

meetingthrower wrote: post #77

dijit wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost to run the service though is as close to zero as you can possibly get. It just feels somewhat inhumane to take something away which is a marginal cost and at best and doesn't cause harm. I mean, Libraries themselves do not need to exist, they are a service, they don't earn money, under pure capitalism they can't exist. But we know as a society that it improves social mobility and education. and I mean, you c…

Right, but bedding down outside the library at night so you can get free wifi is antisocial behavior. Why should we invest this much in our public spaces and then effectively give them away? I wouldnt want somebody sleeping next to my house so he could get WiFi. Public spaces are ours. Don't get me wrong. I think we should make massive investments in trying to solve the homeless problem, but giving away our public co…