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You remind me of someone who thinks he can fix a mouse problem in just one room of the house, without paying attention to the other, connected rooms. "I'm only

You remind me of someone who thinks he can fix a mouse problem in just one room of the house, without paying attention to the other, connected rooms. "I'm only worried about mice which are currently in the bedroom - thinking about the entire house is too much."

cheriot 9y ago
Solving big problems works better when you can solve the small problems they're composed of. First figure out how to catch, kill, or deter a mouse and then expand the solution to the rest of the house. You're way to focused on the concept of elasticity. There's a lot more to figure out before that's the immediate problem.
- racer-v 9y ago
  You're making it sound like this is some difficult research problem. The answer to homelesness is simple: give them homes. Give them food. Give them money. This is how it works in every industrial society that's solved the problem. Your error is that you're obsessed with trying to fix this within a market economy, by specifically housing them in areas of high economic activity where they can supposedly find "opportunity". That won't work and is counterproductive.
  - cheriot 9y ago
    Making people permanently dependent doesn't work either. This country has entire communities subsisting on Medicare and social security. We don't need more of them. There's plenty of space in the places that have jobs and no reason to exclude people.
    - racer-v 9y ago
      If you're convinced that you should be making everyone work instead of subsidizing their existence (which is much cheaper), you need to bring jobs outside of the city. Telling everyone to just live in San Francisco doesn't scale.
      - cheriot 9y ago
        It can't happen in every city until the first one figures it out. The next step needed is often not the full solution.
euyyn 9y ago
Dude nobody in this whole post is saying the federal government shouldn't do anything. Read these threads again.
- racer-v 9y ago
  I'm addressing comments that the solution has to be housing in San Francisco itself, rather than outside the city, such as: > Only housing near economic opportunity means anything.

cheriot 9y ago

Solving big problems works better when you can solve the small problems they're composed of. First figure out how to catch, kill, or deter a mouse and then expand the solution to the rest of the house. You're way to focused on the concept of elasticity. There's a lot more to figure out before that's the immediate problem.

racer-v 9y ago
You're making it sound like this is some difficult research problem. The answer to homelesness is simple: give them homes. Give them food. Give them money. This is how it works in every industrial society that's solved the problem. Your error is that you're obsessed with trying to fix this within a market economy, by specifically housing them in areas of high economic activity where they can supposedly find "opportunity". That won't work and is counterproductive.
- cheriot 9y ago
  Making people permanently dependent doesn't work either. This country has entire communities subsisting on Medicare and social security. We don't need more of them. There's plenty of space in the places that have jobs and no reason to exclude people.
  - racer-v 9y ago
    If you're convinced that you should be making everyone work instead of subsidizing their existence (which is much cheaper), you need to bring jobs outside of the city. Telling everyone to just live in San Francisco doesn't scale.
    - cheriot 9y ago
      It can't happen in every city until the first one figures it out. The next step needed is often not the full solution.

euyyn 9y ago

Dude nobody in this whole post is saying the federal government shouldn't do anything. Read these threads again.

racer-v 9y ago
I'm addressing comments that the solution has to be housing in San Francisco itself, rather than outside the city, such as: > Only housing near economic opportunity means anything.