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A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath (2020)
51–60 of 68 posts
Re: A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath (2020)
#52(2020) - but not much discussion here at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30626598
Re: A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath (2020)
#53In capitalist societies, homeless is a required thing. Even if it didn't exist, it would have to created.
What, what? Why?
Homelessness is the ultimate threat in capitalist societies. "If you are not independently wealthy, or make money for someone who is wealthy, this is your threat". That threat goes alongside destitution, hunger, low/no healthcare, and other threats. Even being is illegal.
Just yesterday, my SO forgot their wallet. They had $3 in their car. Went to a gas station, and the attendant said "The homeless shelter is that way. We dont want your kind here. LEAVE." This is also the societal part of the capitalist threat made good on by even members of society. Lest to say, they're a masters graduate of a highly prestigious university, and work a high paying job.
Homelessness is a government-created phenomenon. We could solve it, but we choose to use it as the ultimate threat if you do not behave and aren't wealthy. (The wealthy have their own legal system, and are roughly immune to most problems. But that's a different post.)
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When capitalists review socialism and communism, they talk of "how many millions of dead people they caused".
However when capitalists review their own policies leading to homelessness, destitution, starvation, etc; it's ALWAYS the individual's fault. And those millions affected/dead are just 'individual failures of bad choices from (insert vice of choice here)'.
Re: A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath (2020)
#54> Van Allen had budgeted £100 for the job, and come in under. I have a question to people in charge of politics everywhere: Given how much money governments spend on nonsense, why can't we take some money, and build simple, but quality and stable shelter for people? If there are 100.000 homeless in a community, and 2 people manage to build that sort of shelter, with what they could get in tools and materials for 1,00…
It’s even worse than that. In the US, at least, city governments are spending their money destroying the tents and tarpaulins that homeless people have set up for themselves on public land, and on fighting in court for the right to do so (see Martin v Boise and Johnson v Grants Pass). Then when someone uses their own land to allow tents or structures, the cities spend time passing unenforceable laws to ban it (see Fi…
Again, capitalist countries NEED the homeless people as a ultimate threat to everyone, that if you aren't rich or make someone else rich, you will end up living on the streets, homeless, destitute, hungry, and die.
Removing that ultimate threat is NOT in the interests of the government, which greatly utilizes that threat. How else do you force people to work in an open-air gulag 3.8m mi^2, where 1% live comfortably, and 99% dont?
And it's a double-fuckyou with US citizenship renunciation fees at $2350. Like, having a US citizenship is a 3 grand hole in my pocket. And I didn't even fucking choose it. Still, no choice.
Re: A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath (2020)
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t think words can state how angry this makes me. Wtf is wrong with those police and judge. How can this be socially acceptable? Those people should be behind bars for cruelty against humanity. Couldn’t imagine something like this in Europe. Certainly we have our systematic problems towards homelessness but what’s going on in the states is intensionaly beating down.
Maybe instead of going full-feels, you should pause and contemplate why those sorts of regulations and laws exist. I would imagine it relates to the premise that public spaces are supposed to be a benefit to all, which doesn't happen if they mostly serve as an encampment for a minority of a population. Well-intentioned actions like the ones in the parent post can actually come with negative externalities that entirel…
OK, I contemplated it. They’re band-aids, tools of oppression, and the worst possible response to “the problems” they profess to address. We can fix poverty and homelessness as a society. We choose not to do so. That’s a shitty excuse for criminalizing a person’s right to exist and survive.
Re: A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath (2020)
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t think words can state how angry this makes me. Wtf is wrong with those police and judge. How can this be socially acceptable? Those people should be behind bars for cruelty against humanity. Couldn’t imagine something like this in Europe. Certainly we have our systematic problems towards homelessness but what’s going on in the states is intensionaly beating down.
Maybe instead of going full-feels, you should pause and contemplate why those sorts of regulations and laws exist. I would imagine it relates to the premise that public spaces are supposed to be a benefit to all, which doesn't happen if they mostly serve as an encampment for a minority of a population. Well-intentioned actions like the ones in the parent post can actually come with negative externalities that entirel…
I see a lot of San Franciscans online complain about homeless people leaving their feces and used needles in the streets and harassing people going about their lives, I don't see so many complaints about them eating food. Surely an approach that maximises the freedom for all would be one that criminalizes the actually harmful behaviour, rather than going after the segment of society whose existence correlates strongly with that behaviour. It just seems like going after Tony Soprano by putting italians into internment camps, rather than devoting police activity to capturing mafia criminals
Re: A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath (2020)
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because a) he "stole" the land he used (land is really expensive in the UK and especially London) to build the shelter, and b) if the shelters were built officially there are of course rules to follow that I guarantee you this guy did not follow - e.g. fire safety. If the government built shelters out of some off cuts of wood and tarpaulin and then loads of homeless people burnt to death one day in them, who do you t…
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Re: A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath (2020)
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. Where are you going to build these? The neighbours will vote against you. Or you can build them in the middle of nowhere, meaning that they’re nowhere near any jobs. 2. This is appalling accommodation: no mains electricity, no heating, no running water, no sewerage. It is cheap, yes. People will assume that it’s part of a plan to _replace_ existing social housing, punish the working poor and generate tax cuts for…
> This is appalling accommodation: no mains electricity, no heating, no running water, no sewerage. It is cheap, Exactly. You can save a lot of money upfront by demanding cities allow shanty towns and slums but they'll only bring heavy costs and problems down the road that are far reaching and hard to clean up. The richest nations on Earth can more than afford to do better. Real, safe, sanitary housing is not impossi…
It also requires decent morality Living in close quarters is impossible if someone insists on smoking fentanyl and using their Bluetooth speaker at 11.
Re: A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath (2020)
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because a) he "stole" the land he used (land is really expensive in the UK and especially London) to build the shelter, and b) if the shelters were built officially there are of course rules to follow that I guarantee you this guy did not follow - e.g. fire safety. If the government built shelters out of some off cuts of wood and tarpaulin and then loads of homeless people burnt to death one day in them, who do you t…
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Re: A homeless man built a life underground Hampstead Heath (2020)
#60The article suggests he got sand from the "sandy carpark". While it is true that there are parts of Hampstead Heath with a lot of natural "bagshot sand"[0], it is a bit further away from the bunker, and is fairly compacted and difficult to access. On the other hand, about 2 minutes from the bunker, there is a children's playground with a sandpit, and that year I did notice the sand disappearing from the sandpit more…
The article does poke a little at that aspect:
> The bunker would need a lot of wood. He later insisted this came from fallen tree branches.