4 ms·

It's good that people investigate homelessness and go one level deeper. But why do they stop at drug addiction? Or worse, decide that drug addiction is the un

It's good that people investigate homelessness and go one level deeper. But why do they stop at drug addiction? Or worse, decide that drug addiction is the underlying root cause that now needs to be treated with rehab, detox, or what have you. Drug addiction is not the cause of poverty. Poverty is the cause of drug addiction. The stories of the people who get into drugs recreationally, then descend into addiction, and destroy their lives are the exception vs those that start using to escape deeply challenging lives with poverty, physical abuse, and mental health struggles. The dramatically rising rates of homelessness and addiction across US/Canada are the side effects of the toxicity of our society, the erosion of social safety nets, and runaway wealth inequality, capitalism, and housing affordability crises. The Portugal model works when the rest of your society is cohesive enough to support those at the fringes. I don't know if it actually can succeed in nations founded on rugged individualism and who instill the obsession with liberty and freedom in every person from birth. This not only leads to society unwilling to help those that need it, it also makes those that need that help unwilling to accept it.

nullc 5y ago
> Poverty is the cause of drug addiction. Can you elaborate? On it's face this seems really counter intuitive to me. Drugs cost money. Not having money doesn't somehow force you to use drugs. Where the opposite direction seems obvious: The cost of maintaining an addiction and the reduction in reliability from drug use can result in being unable to work, increasing your poverty.
refurb 5y ago
Poverty is the cause of drug addiction. That explains the rampant drug abuse in the wealthy?
- whateveracct 5y ago
  Nobody said poverty is the only cause of drug addiction period. The point was that with homeless people, the poverty and homelessness tends to be what causes the drug addiction.
  - refurb 5y ago
    That’s actually the opposite from what I’ve heard. Drug addiction results in poverty. Plenty of examples of people who had problems with drugs or alcohol, lost jobs and became homeless.
b9a2cab5 5y ago
No, it's the result of policies that tolerate and support people refusing to engage with society. Why don't you try going to Chinese slums and seeing if there's homeless? China is equally as capitalistic and has more wealth inequality than the US. And the same problems in housing costs. Homelessness is an American (West Coast liberal) problem. Funny how East Coast cities don't have these problems.
- mLuby 5y ago
  Cold winters drive homelessness out of sight; don't mistake out of sight for not having these problems.
- s5300 5y ago
  > Homelessness is an American (West Coast liberal) problem. Funny how East Coast cities don't have these problems. Hard to imagine anybody takes you seriously in life posting things this ignorant. Like, I can only be led to believe you've read not one singular thing about homelessness on the East Coast. "West Coast Liberal" is also hilarious but probably not an argument for HN.
- nuerow 5y ago
  > Homelessness is an American (West Coast liberal) problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_California Also, considering the deep-rooted socio-economic problems in the Appalachia region, I wouldn't claim that the root cause of this problem is a "West coast liberal" problem, unless you don't find families living in third-world conditions without any possibility of escape as not being a problem as they are out of sight. https://fahe.org/appalachian-poverty/ https://fahe.org/appalachian-poverty/
- whakim 5y ago
  > China is equally as capitalistic and has more wealth inequality than the US. Just wanted to point out that this statement isn't true, on number of counts. First, the value of the assets of the state in China is significantly higher than most Western countries, and the Chinese government plays a very strong role in the economy across a number of sectors. Secondly, while it's very difficult to gather estate data in China, most estimates (using the bad data we do have) suggest wealth inequality is higher in the United States.
2Gkashmiri 5y ago
Not an american, so don't take it personally. I understand in many big cities, most if not all are migrants from other places. If a person has left his home town to say SF, they live there, work there but if they become homeless there, why do they stick around? Is the stigma of "living with your mom/parents" that people are willing to live on a park bench and not go to their homes and live with their parents for free? Do the parents have problem accepting back "children who have flown the nest"? Genuinely curious. In India, when we have " migrants" living somewhere, locally or abroad even. If something happens or job loss or whatever, people just return home and survive. india on the whole does have some homeless problem but its not an epidemic level stuff. last year when the lockdown hit, the entire nation basically walked to their home towns and villages because they knew no work meant no rent and no place to sleep so everyone just packed their bags and returned homes. same for a lot of expat population, they all just returned home. i wonder if that happens there in the US or not?

nullc 5y ago

> Poverty is the cause of drug addiction. Can you elaborate? On it's face this seems really counter intuitive to me. Drugs cost money. Not having money doesn't somehow force you to use drugs. Where the opposite direction seems obvious: The cost of maintaining an addiction and the reduction in reliability from drug use can result in being unable to work, increasing your poverty.

refurb 5y ago

Poverty is the cause of drug addiction. That explains the rampant drug abuse in the wealthy?

whateveracct 5y ago
Nobody said poverty is the only cause of drug addiction period. The point was that with homeless people, the poverty and homelessness tends to be what causes the drug addiction.
- refurb 5y ago
  That’s actually the opposite from what I’ve heard. Drug addiction results in poverty. Plenty of examples of people who had problems with drugs or alcohol, lost jobs and became homeless.

b9a2cab5 5y ago

No, it's the result of policies that tolerate and support people refusing to engage with society. Why don't you try going to Chinese slums and seeing if there's homeless? China is equally as capitalistic and has more wealth inequality than the US. And the same problems in housing costs. Homelessness is an American (West Coast liberal) problem. Funny how East Coast cities don't have these problems.

mLuby 5y ago
Cold winters drive homelessness out of sight; don't mistake out of sight for not having these problems.
s5300 5y ago
> Homelessness is an American (West Coast liberal) problem. Funny how East Coast cities don't have these problems. Hard to imagine anybody takes you seriously in life posting things this ignorant. Like, I can only be led to believe you've read not one singular thing about homelessness on the East Coast. "West Coast Liberal" is also hilarious but probably not an argument for HN.
nuerow 5y ago
> Homelessness is an American (West Coast liberal) problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_California Also, considering the deep-rooted socio-economic problems in the Appalachia region, I wouldn't claim that the root cause of this problem is a "West coast liberal" problem, unless you don't find families living in third-world conditions without any possibility of escape as not being a problem as they are out of sight. https://fahe.org/appalachian-poverty/ https://fahe.org/appalachian-poverty/
whakim 5y ago
> China is equally as capitalistic and has more wealth inequality than the US. Just wanted to point out that this statement isn't true, on number of counts. First, the value of the assets of the state in China is significantly higher than most Western countries, and the Chinese government plays a very strong role in the economy across a number of sectors. Secondly, while it's very difficult to gather estate data in China, most estimates (using the bad data we do have) suggest wealth inequality is higher in the United States.

2Gkashmiri 5y ago

Not an american, so don't take it personally. I understand in many big cities, most if not all are migrants from other places. If a person has left his home town to say SF, they live there, work there but if they become homeless there, why do they stick around? Is the stigma of "living with your mom/parents" that people are willing to live on a park bench and not go to their homes and live with their parents for free? Do the parents have problem accepting back "children who have flown the nest"? Genuinely curious. In India, when we have " migrants" living somewhere, locally or abroad even. If something happens or job loss or whatever, people just return home and survive. india on the whole does have some homeless problem but its not an epidemic level stuff. last year when the lockdown hit, the entire nation basically walked to their home towns and villages because they knew no work meant no rent and no place to sleep so everyone just packed their bags and returned homes. same for a lot of expat population, they all just returned home. i wonder if that happens there in the US or not?