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homelessness is the societal manifestation of the lower end of the bell curve. period. anyone who's interacted with homeless people knows this. yes there are ex

homelessness is the societal manifestation of the lower end of the bell curve. period. anyone who's interacted with homeless people knows this. yes there are exceptions, and no they do not make up the bulk of the distribution. putting your hand in the sand and blaming "slow wage growth" or some other secondary factor instead of pointing out the obvious is a disservice to those people. and before you call me harsh, know that I mean this in the complete opposite way: acknowledging the problem with pragmatism is the first step toward its resolution.

andrewmcwatters 8y ago
being a serf is the societal manifestation of the lower end of the bell curve. period. anyone who's interacted with peasants knows this. yes there are serfs who fell out of wealthy families, and no they do not make up the bulk of the distribution. putting your hand in the sand and blaming "aggressive royal taxation" or some other secondary factor instead of pointing out the obvious is a disservice to the peasantry. and before you call me uncouth, know that I mean this in the complete opposite way: acknowledging the problem with honor is the first step towards its resolution.
- blancheneige 8y ago
  not sure what point you where trying to make with this analogy. hierarchies are an emergent property of every self-assembling structure -- we all started from the same unicellular organisms after all.
whatever456 8y ago
You are spot on. It's unpopular to talk about this, but it's absolutely true. 90% of homeless people are on the low end of the IQ spectrum, some with other mental issues to boot. Low IQ is strongly correlated with poor self control and an inability to delay gratification. You couple that with a lack of decently paid low-skill work in America (thanks Globalism!) and these people can't survive any longer. They simply don't have the biological or mental makeup to succeed. 50 years ago they would have worked at a machine press, or done physical manufacturing tasks like assembly. Those options don't exist anymore.
- sctb 8y ago
  Using throwaways to post handwavey flamebait will get your main account banned too, so please stop. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

andrewmcwatters 8y ago

being a serf is the societal manifestation of the lower end of the bell curve. period. anyone who's interacted with peasants knows this. yes there are serfs who fell out of wealthy families, and no they do not make up the bulk of the distribution. putting your hand in the sand and blaming "aggressive royal taxation" or some other secondary factor instead of pointing out the obvious is a disservice to the peasantry. and before you call me uncouth, know that I mean this in the complete opposite way: acknowledging the problem with honor is the first step towards its resolution.

blancheneige 8y ago
not sure what point you where trying to make with this analogy. hierarchies are an emergent property of every self-assembling structure -- we all started from the same unicellular organisms after all.

whatever456 8y ago

You are spot on. It's unpopular to talk about this, but it's absolutely true. 90% of homeless people are on the low end of the IQ spectrum, some with other mental issues to boot. Low IQ is strongly correlated with poor self control and an inability to delay gratification. You couple that with a lack of decently paid low-skill work in America (thanks Globalism!) and these people can't survive any longer. They simply don't have the biological or mental makeup to succeed. 50 years ago they would have worked at a machine press, or done physical manufacturing tasks like assembly. Those options don't exist anymore.

sctb 8y ago
Using throwaways to post handwavey flamebait will get your main account banned too, so please stop. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html