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Why is there something to do? Your questions seem predicated on a false assumption that no one likes to say out loud: Drug users have a better life waiting for
by alphazard 3y ago
Why is there something to do? Your questions seem predicated on a false assumption that no one likes to say out loud: Drug users have a better life waiting for them after they stop using.
Daily drug use may actually be the correct way for some people to maximize the integral of happiness over their lifetime. Especially for those at the bottom with limited prospects. I don't think most of HN can fathom what it's like to actually be completely useless. You're delusional if you think the homeless problem is a bunch of software engineers who tried heroin once, and left FAANG to get high every day.
> Should we require drug tests for homeless people to receive government help like SF CAAP payments?
This is a great idea. If you want society to invest in you, you have to take basic steps to be a worthy investment. But even this is predicated on the idea that what these drugs users are doing is wrong, and that they should instead do something that lets the rest of us reap the benefits of their productivity. Who are we to demand someone be more productive for our own benefit? We're right to want something in exchange for our investment, but there's no place to stand and say a drug user is wrong for not taking the deal.
- sbierwagen 3y agoOkay, then build a camp for them out in the desert. There's no reason to have them shitting on the streets of downtown SF.
- RoyalHenOil 3y ago[flagged]
- Aunche 3y agoIf you had real empathy, you would understand how people would be upset that their streets are covered by used needles and feces rather than accuse them of being sociopaths. Anyways, I'm pretty sure GP was being facetious. If using drugs is were optimal choice for a bum, then, it would be a much better outcome for everyone involved if California diverted funding from million dollar per unit "affordable housing" into camps in the dessert that provide free hard drugs and basic necessities, and ship homeless people there, where they're likely to overdoes in a few weeks. That your immediate reaction is that of disgust suggests that the premise that drugs are good for the bottom of society is wrong.
- creata 3y ago> Anyways, I'm pretty sure GP was being facetious. I hope so: if "build a camp for them out in the desert" is serious, it is a horrible way to talk about other humans, no matter how upset you are.
- RoyalHenOil 3y agoIt is telling that you perceive their comment as facetious, but not mine, even though mine was clearly written to mirror theirs in mockery. In any case, claiming I have no empathy because I disagree with people exhibiting a lack of empathy is...an interesting take. Claiming that I want to see homeless people suffer from addiction is an absolutely wild take. Steel manning them while simultaneously straw manning me implies that you are not arguing in good faith, and it makes me doubtful that you are actually interested in finding a workable solution for addiction and homelessness.
- selimthegrim 3y ago>You're delusional if you think the homeless problem is a bunch of software engineers who tried heroin once, and left FAANG to get high every day. Replace heroin with meth and FAANG with MS and I can definitely state it’s happened in Portland at least
- seattle_spring 3y agoYou're claiming that a non-trivial part of Portland's homeless crisis is caused by ex-Microsoft employees becoming addicted to meth?
- selimthegrim 3y agoI can tell you there’s at least one of them. From what I understand his mother drives down from Seattle, and tries to bring him food with varying levels of success.
- mptest 3y agoWell that anecdote is veeeery helpful from a sociological perspective. Thanks for that insight.
- lanstin 3y agoI have talked to a number of homeless folks (I tend to go to a bagel shop for breakfasts most mornings) and a few of them are former engineers, both software and hardware. A little untreated mental unhealthy, a divorce, loosing the job, and boom. A lot of engineers have various rough bits to their ability to introspect and be flexible and so on. Being unwilling to bend in ways to go along to get along, and once you are older and you get off the track of normal life, home, etc., it's excruciatingly difficult to get back on. For the matter, the one person I grew up with that has been homeless had a math, physics and econ triple major from Duke. Also no drugs involved, but maybe some untreated OCD.