25 ms·
The only time I've seen something similar to what you describe was on my trip in New York. And I've been to about 20 countries across 4 continents. It's an Ame
by ascar 8y ago
The only time I've seen something similar to what you describe was on my trip in New York. And I've been to about 20 countries across 4 continents.
It's an American homegrown problem with too much focus on capitalism.
edit: You can downvote this, but it doesn't make it untrue nor irrelevant to the point. If you have basically no people living on the streets, you also avoid this problem. I'm still shocked from seeing homeless (nearly) die in the cold in New York.
With a better social systems it's maybe not fully solvable, but reducible to a point where it's no longer an apparent problem in every day live. It does work, many countries in the world do it, also in major cities.
- LyndsySimon 8y ago> It's an American homegrown problem with too much focus on capitalism. Capitalism does not preclude charity. It could be argued that it precludes state-funded social programs, but the US has a very large number of those already, so it follows that Capitalism (as implemented here) is not the cause of this problem. Regardless of what I or anyone else thinks about the necessity and morality of those programs, they do exist, and they are ineffective. The question is "Why are the ineffective?"
- dahdum 8y agoMost European countries also allow involuntary psychiatric treatment and admission, while the US does not. If you started forcibly hospitalizing the mentally ill homeless in SF you would "solve" the issue pretty quickly, but that goes against some core American values.
- magduf 8y agoThe US used to be like this, and changed somewhere in the 1980s. It wasn't because of "core American values", it was because of the removal of funding.
- dahdum 8y agoThere was widespread abuse and the expense kept going up, laws were passed that curtailed involuntary commitment (based on civil rights, not expense), and we are left with what we have today.