4 ms·
The rustbelt, deep south, and Appalachia are not some beautiful, middle class paradises. They're full of towns littered with heroin and meth addicts subsidized
by nemo44x 4y ago
The rustbelt, deep south, and Appalachia are not some beautiful, middle class paradises. They're full of towns littered with heroin and meth addicts subsidized by welfare and petty crime. You just don't see it or read about it because it's across thousands of small towns and not concentrated in major cities, where media also tends to live.
These places have a lot of violence, social issues, drug overdoses, etc. They may not have homelessness at the same level because housing is cheaper and in many cases involves a trailer or an old house in disrepair.
- asow92 4y agoNot disagreeing with that, and both city and rural have their problems.
- Zanneth 4y agoWhether they exist or not, the fact that the normal working population don't have to see or deal with it sounds like a significant upgrade.
- bsder 4y agoSo, it's perfectly okay for the poor to suffer terribly as long as it's out of your sight. Got it.
- Zanneth 4y agoI'm saying that it sounds like they are suffering equally in both environments, so living in a place where it is hidden is a net benefit for everyone.
- baud147258 4y agowell, it is a net benefit for those who are not suffering from poverty, not everyone
- skinnymuch 4y agoHow is it benefiting the people suffering?
- Zanneth 4y agoBecause they don't have to suffer in public and deal with the shame.
- haberman 4y agoI just spent a few days in Birmingham, Alabama. The downtown streets were so clean you could eat off of them. It is really hard to come back to Seattle and see all of the trash everywhere. In the Seattle airport one of the bathroom stalls looked like someone had used the floor as a trash can. There were orange peels, discarded shoes, and various other trash sitting on the floor next to the toilet. Social problems exist everywhere, but that's no reason to give up on having pleasant and usable public spaces.
- Der_Einzige 4y agoBirmingham has all of its black people locked up with some of the highest incarceration rates in America. They'd just arrest your ass and throw the book at you if you camped in the streets. This is your alternative.
- nemo44x 4y agoPrisons are just used for too much. I wonder if there’s a coincidence in incarceration rates increasing as we phased out mental asylums. Asylums had some issues but maybe there’s a middle ground between lobotomy and todays situation of treating so much as criminal.
- haberman 4y agoOffer people food and shelter. Hopefully they will take it. If they decline because they like the streets better, there has to be some recourse. We can't cede the health and safety of public spaces because we are too afraid of having to ever tell a person "no." It's not compassionate to let people live in dangerous and unregulated encampments.
- lupire 4y agoFYI this is Seattle mayor's currently model.
- troon-lover 4y ago
- Nfjfjfmfmkf 4y ago