Finland is the only EU country where homelessness is in decline • Hacker News Board

Re: Finland is the only EU country where homelessness is in decline

#151

Post by gamblor956 » Wed, Jan 08, 2020, 9:01 PM UTC

refurb wrote: post #109

gamblor956 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the closure of mental institutions occurred during the Reagan administration because he cut funding for treating mental illness from his budget. In CA, when he was governor, Reagan ordered the closure of many facilities.

No, there was a society-wide push to close institutions. Reagan might make for a nice whipping boy, but putting it all on him is just silly.

No, this is false. The number of patients dropped but almost all facilities remained open and were improving care.

Reagan than decimated the mental health department in CA below sustainable levels, and followed that up by ending federal funding of mental health treatment only a few years after trying to make the federal government pay for it when he was governor. As most state budgets no longer covered mental health, the result was an enormous drop in government spending on mental health.

And yes, it's all directly traceable to Reagan.

Re: Finland is the only EU country where homelessness is in decline

#152

Post by gamblor956 » Wed, Jan 08, 2020, 9:03 PM UTC

refurb wrote: post #108

gamblor956 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They never had Reagan, so they still treat mental illness there. More importantly, Finland allows for the involuntary commitment if the mentally ill. In the US, this is only allowed if the individual presents a danger to themselves or others.

They never had Reagan, so they still treat mental illness there. This Reagan meme needs to die. The ACLU was very involved in "deinstitutionalization" as well since holding people against their will was regarded as problematic.

Deinstitutionalization is a very separate issue from closing facilities. The ACLU worked to prevent people from being committed who didn't need to be. Reagan simply shutdown mental health facilities regardless of need.

Re: Finland is the only EU country where homelessness is in decline

#153

Post by dang » Wed, Jan 08, 2020, 11:21 PM UTC

xorfish wrote: post #88

dang wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've replaced the baity headline with the less baity headline, in accordance with the HN guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

It should use EU, not Europe. The article only makes claimes about the only country that has a decline in the EU. There are quite a few European countries that are not in the EU.

Ok, we've narrowed the scope above.

Re: Finland is the only EU country where homelessness is in decline

#154

Post by 34679 » Sat, Jan 11, 2020, 3:03 PM UTC

mattkrause wrote: post #123

34679 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oregon's budget for retired state employees: $100 Billion I tried to find the same for California, but it seems they do a better job of hiding it. My point is that we are spending a tremendous amount of money on former government employees, so they can have nice homes, good healthcare, and a quality education for their children. But in the process, we're neglecting a large portion of the population that those people…

What would you do instead? It takes good, motivated staff to run an effective government department. Those same people have a lot of options, so the government has to compete for them somehow. We’re unwilling to pay them high salaries (take a look at the federal pay scales: GS-12, which is usually a scientist with a grad degree, starts at $66k). Benefits seem a little more politically palatable, so the government com…

What would I do? Reduce the number of state employees. And I'd do it without firing anyone. See: Gary Johnson, New Mexico.

When an existing employee retires or otherwise ends their employment with the state, don't hire a replacement unless that job is critical to the operation of the government.