4 ms·
Most of them are addicts who don't want help. You could give them a job and a free house and they'd end up right back where they are now.
by homonculus1 8y ago
Most of them are addicts who don't want help. You could give them a job and a free house and they'd end up right back where they are now.
- peterwwillis 8y agoThis attitude is the reason this problem isn't getting solved.
- mrep 8y agoWhat do you recommend then? The homeless population in Seattle (where I live currently) vastly decrease my quality of life despite the vast sums of money our government spends on them. I would happily contribute a lot more to taxes if it actually solved the problem but I have yet to see anyone give a good solution.
- wahern 8y agoFatalism is a big part of the problem. But what he says is also largely true, particularly when it comes to long-term homeless. So another big part of the problem is people denying that truth. We do need to provide "free homes" but we also need to coerce acceptance of assistance.
- egypturnash 8y agoAmerica continues to collect the wonderful, wonderful dividends of Ronald Reagan's decision to cut the funding for mental health to the bone.
- mrep 8y agoThat and the war on drugs...
- mac01021 8y agoI'm no fonder of the war on drugs than anyone else. It promotes violent crime and places an enormous burden on the state. But how does it cause there to be more homeless addicts?
- TelmoMenezes 8y agoIn several ways. - It is very likely that drugs are more addictive when you are uncertain about obtaining your next fix. http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comic/rat-park/ http://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comic/rat-park/ - The criminalization of drug addicts turns them into an excluded class. They find it harder to get jobs or even to stay out of jail. If they start young -- and many will, once the problem becomes generational -- they are prevented from developing certain life skills and successfully develop their personality into adulthood. - If drugs are criminalized, people will be afraid to ask for help. - The war on drugs guarantees an unregulated black market for drugs. This means there will be no quality controls. Drugs are laced with all sorts of things that can be much worse than the pure version of the substance. - Being arrested for something that harms nobody instills a distrust on society that, many times, never goes away. Imagine being sent to prison for years for smoking cannabis. Your life ruined. It doesn't take a lot of empathy to see how one would never trust society and its institutions again. - The solution for addiction is, many times, other drugs. For example methadone for opiate addicts, and Ibogaine -- which appears to be a miracle cure for many addictions, but that is Schedule I in the US (and by consequence in many other countries). The war on drugs is based on pseudo-science and fear. These are not just a bunch of hypothesis. They have been empirically confirmed by a nation-wide, multi-decade trial in Portugal. Policy-makers that ignore all of this are not driven by the desire to help people. They have other incentives and/or irrational biases.
- masonic 8y agoMental health funding was higher as Reagan left office than it was when he took office, both as CA Governor and as US President. What changed was case law, as the court rulings made it much more difficult to keep mental patients in treatment against their will.