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> While eliminating poverty and mental illness are of course lofty goals we should work to accomplish, they also seem quite difficult in the short to medium te

> While eliminating poverty and mental illness are of course lofty goals we should work to accomplish, they also seem quite difficult in the short to medium term (understatement!) so I don't think it can really be an answer. I don't think so. It's been done plenty of times in Europe. You can do it if you want to. > I also don't think it's all merely poverty or mental illness I agree. I think that's just the easiest place to start to knock out a whole hell of a lot of what's going on in the US. > Reality of the matter is, if you're opposed to gun control then you're making the trade-off that these type of things will happen Definitely, but they shouldn't be happening at the rate that they are. I think everyone sees that. (Cool username btw.)

Beltalowda 5y ago
Europe is very far from being free of poverty or mental illness. Is it better than in the US? Sure. But free of it? Far from it. And yes, we can do it if we want to, but the political reality is that we don't seem to want to. You can think all sort of things about that, but that's just how it is. And in the US specifically, the political reality is pretty fucked in all sorts of ways (that is my polite opinion) and I'm not expecting any significant movement on this in the foreseeable future.
- guerrilla 5y ago
  The poverty rate in Sweden is 1.20% and that's after taking in the most immigrants per capita of any Europen country. We have free health care, which includes mental health care treatment for everyone.
  - Beltalowda 5y ago
    I don't know much about Sweden, but in the Netherlands (my own country) poverty levels are reported at 0.3%, even lower, but this tells a very incomplete story as many people are struggling to make ends meet. For the record, the U.S. is reported at 1.7% poverty levels; not much above Sweden's levels. I don't know you or your background, but I think of people who are relatively well off (i.e. programmers and the like) don't quite grasp how much harder everything is if you're working low-income minimum wage jobs. It's perhaps not "poverty" by some measured standard, but it sure isn't easy sailing either.

Beltalowda 5y ago

Europe is very far from being free of poverty or mental illness. Is it better than in the US? Sure. But free of it? Far from it. And yes, we can do it if we want to, but the political reality is that we don't seem to want to. You can think all sort of things about that, but that's just how it is. And in the US specifically, the political reality is pretty fucked in all sorts of ways (that is my polite opinion) and I'm not expecting any significant movement on this in the foreseeable future.

guerrilla 5y ago
The poverty rate in Sweden is 1.20% and that's after taking in the most immigrants per capita of any Europen country. We have free health care, which includes mental health care treatment for everyone.
- Beltalowda 5y ago
  I don't know much about Sweden, but in the Netherlands (my own country) poverty levels are reported at 0.3%, even lower, but this tells a very incomplete story as many people are struggling to make ends meet. For the record, the U.S. is reported at 1.7% poverty levels; not much above Sweden's levels. I don't know you or your background, but I think of people who are relatively well off (i.e. programmers and the like) don't quite grasp how much harder everything is if you're working low-income minimum wage jobs. It's perhaps not "poverty" by some measured standard, but it sure isn't easy sailing either.