3 ms·

If "helping the unfortunate" always worked, why is there still homelessness in the west coast? You can only help those who wish to help themselves. People who

If "helping the unfortunate" always worked, why is there still homelessness in the west coast? You can only help those who wish to help themselves. People who are in this category are willing to put in work and effort, regardless of success. People who are not just want a free handout and will quit if things don't go there way. Which ironically, is the social institution in much of the midwest, whom mostly have some of the lowest homeless populations in the US. Because they don't placate people contributing to the problem. They make people feel ashamed for contributing to it but empower them when they work towards getting out of it.

geofft 5y ago
Doesn't this analysis miss the fact that homeless people migrate around the country to places with better policies? If you're going to die in the midwest because there are no social institutions to support you and you don't see a realistic way for work and effort to keep you alive, you may as well use your last couple of bucks to take a Greyhound out west to Skid Row and take your chances there. Or, more brutally, doesn't this analysis miss the fact that without a social safety net, homeless people die? If you can get nutritious meals at a soup kitchen on Skid Row and you have a safe place to keep a tent and some belongings, you're going to be alive and contributing to the homelessness numbers in LA. If you die in the midwest, you don't contribute to their homelessness numbers.
- gotoeleven 5y ago
  Homeless people move to CA because it has great weather and social services and so its great to be homeless there compared to other places. Homeless people are rational so that's where they go. The crucial fact, though, is that none of these great conditions in CA do anything to actually get people out of homelessness, they just subsidize homelessness and make it easier to be homeless. So naturally, homeless people being rational, the effect of these policies is to increase homelessness overall. There are people who are legit mentally ill and somehow as a society we've decided that the best we can do is have them live like dogs, scrounging around and shitting in the streets. There are other people who just really like heroin and would rather do heroin than anything else and california is the probably the best place in the world if that's what you want to do. A truly humane homeless policy would institutionalize mentally ill people, not subsidize drug addicts, and help people on the edge of homelessness find jobs and housing.
  - MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
    >A truly humane homeless policy would institutionalize mentally ill people, not subsidize drug addicts, and help people on the edge of homelessness find jobs and housing. But that sounds mean and hard so we can't do that! No I agree 100%. I personally think mental institutions need to be reestablished by the state because frankly, there are too many severely mentally ill homeless people that need to be off the streets for everyones safety. Drug addicts honestly I'm incredibly apathetic to. I understand it's a big deal but frankly, they've gone the way of ruining their lives. Not much you can do to help them. Placating them only keeps the cycle going. The real people who are just down on their luck tend not to stick with homelessness (except for Californian homeless people where honestly it's the only way for lower income people to get by).

geofft 5y ago

Doesn't this analysis miss the fact that homeless people migrate around the country to places with better policies? If you're going to die in the midwest because there are no social institutions to support you and you don't see a realistic way for work and effort to keep you alive, you may as well use your last couple of bucks to take a Greyhound out west to Skid Row and take your chances there. Or, more brutally, doesn't this analysis miss the fact that without a social safety net, homeless people die? If you can get nutritious meals at a soup kitchen on Skid Row and you have a safe place to keep a tent and some belongings, you're going to be alive and contributing to the homelessness numbers in LA. If you die in the midwest, you don't contribute to their homelessness numbers.

gotoeleven 5y ago
Homeless people move to CA because it has great weather and social services and so its great to be homeless there compared to other places. Homeless people are rational so that's where they go. The crucial fact, though, is that none of these great conditions in CA do anything to actually get people out of homelessness, they just subsidize homelessness and make it easier to be homeless. So naturally, homeless people being rational, the effect of these policies is to increase homelessness overall. There are people who are legit mentally ill and somehow as a society we've decided that the best we can do is have them live like dogs, scrounging around and shitting in the streets. There are other people who just really like heroin and would rather do heroin than anything else and california is the probably the best place in the world if that's what you want to do. A truly humane homeless policy would institutionalize mentally ill people, not subsidize drug addicts, and help people on the edge of homelessness find jobs and housing.
- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
  >A truly humane homeless policy would institutionalize mentally ill people, not subsidize drug addicts, and help people on the edge of homelessness find jobs and housing. But that sounds mean and hard so we can't do that! No I agree 100%. I personally think mental institutions need to be reestablished by the state because frankly, there are too many severely mentally ill homeless people that need to be off the streets for everyones safety. Drug addicts honestly I'm incredibly apathetic to. I understand it's a big deal but frankly, they've gone the way of ruining their lives. Not much you can do to help them. Placating them only keeps the cycle going. The real people who are just down on their luck tend not to stick with homelessness (except for Californian homeless people where honestly it's the only way for lower income people to get by).