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> Don’t pretend you want to help people if you don’t actually care what is most effective at helping them. I want to help people. I just recognize reality. All

> Don’t pretend you want to help people if you don’t actually care what is most effective at helping them. I want to help people. I just recognize reality. All of what you have suggested has been tried, and has failed, and now the streets of San Francisco are unrecognizably bad. Dystopian sci-fi movies from the 1980s are actually better than the reality on the streets today. Also, who are we trying to help? Personally I care more about the person living in an apartment who has to deal with crazy people stabbing each other outside of their window in the morning than I do about the crazy people stabbing each other. Not enough attention has been paid to the people who are trying to live upright lives while being surrounded by this violence -- going to work, raising children, etc. They matter too.

TaylorAlexander 4y ago
> All of what you have suggested has been tried, and has failed People love to say this while ignoring the fact that universal health care and social housing absolutely work in other parts of the world. Whatever parts of this strategy you think have been tried, it’s clear there are ways to make it work. You’d rather abandon those people you consider lesser because of mental illness or addiction, but we can in fact support those people for the same price as a prison cell. It’s remarkable that you think you recognize reality and believe these things can’t work, because $60k per year of spending on social services would absolutely work. I mean hell the average German only needs something like $8k in services for medical care per year. You don’t think that would help?? You can claim to “recognize reality” but you’re ignoring how effective public spending is the world over.
- twblalock 4y ago
  America is not Germany. We have different people, and different problems. We have a uniquely violent and psychotic homeless population. You have probably not seen anything like it.
  - munk-a 4y ago
    I believe this is extremely untrue - during the 70's it was (depressingly) actually accurate as stupid American politics kept leaded gasoline legal far beyond when it was known to be dangerous and caused a significant jump in violent crime but, for the most part, people are people. If you think Americans are unable to function as well as Germans then I hope you're speaking out loudly at PTA meetings because it must mean the American education system is utterly broken.
  - TaylorAlexander 4y ago
    Let’s say that you’re correct, and the homeless population in the USA is more psychotic than the homeless population in Germany. Can you possibly imagine any reasons why the German population, who has universal healthcare and a variety of other social services, would have better mental health than the US population? Could it possibly be that social spending absolutely does work? Like, you want to spend $60k/year or whatever throwing these people in prison for struggling to make it in the current system, and I’m here saying “spend that money on services, like Germany does”, and you say “no our people are way worse off than the German population” and you cannot seem to connect the dots that German social spending is exactly the reason Germany doesn’t have these problems… social spending works!

TaylorAlexander 4y ago

> All of what you have suggested has been tried, and has failed People love to say this while ignoring the fact that universal health care and social housing absolutely work in other parts of the world. Whatever parts of this strategy you think have been tried, it’s clear there are ways to make it work. You’d rather abandon those people you consider lesser because of mental illness or addiction, but we can in fact support those people for the same price as a prison cell. It’s remarkable that you think you recognize reality and believe these things can’t work, because $60k per year of spending on social services would absolutely work. I mean hell the average German only needs something like $8k in services for medical care per year. You don’t think that would help?? You can claim to “recognize reality” but you’re ignoring how effective public spending is the world over.

twblalock 4y ago
America is not Germany. We have different people, and different problems. We have a uniquely violent and psychotic homeless population. You have probably not seen anything like it.
- munk-a 4y ago
  I believe this is extremely untrue - during the 70's it was (depressingly) actually accurate as stupid American politics kept leaded gasoline legal far beyond when it was known to be dangerous and caused a significant jump in violent crime but, for the most part, people are people. If you think Americans are unable to function as well as Germans then I hope you're speaking out loudly at PTA meetings because it must mean the American education system is utterly broken.
- TaylorAlexander 4y ago
  Let’s say that you’re correct, and the homeless population in the USA is more psychotic than the homeless population in Germany. Can you possibly imagine any reasons why the German population, who has universal healthcare and a variety of other social services, would have better mental health than the US population? Could it possibly be that social spending absolutely does work? Like, you want to spend $60k/year or whatever throwing these people in prison for struggling to make it in the current system, and I’m here saying “spend that money on services, like Germany does”, and you say “no our people are way worse off than the German population” and you cannot seem to connect the dots that German social spending is exactly the reason Germany doesn’t have these problems… social spending works!