3 ms·

At least here, the problem is absolutely not the "bottom 1/3" but the mentally deranged and the outright violent. Completely different category. You seem to con

by creer 2y ago

At least here, the problem is absolutely not the "bottom 1/3" but the mentally deranged and the outright violent. Completely different category. You seem to conflate the two and that doesn't represent the situation on the ground. The 1st category is poor but civil. Even then, the system is slow, sparse, unreliable. Most of the time this wouldn't be a desired transport, more like one of the rare ones available.

ryandrake 2y ago
Exactly. Nobody is avoiding public transportation because there are poor people riding it. They're avoiding it because there are mentally unstable, violent people, and pickpockets riding it. It's a totally different set of people, totally different reason.
adventured 2y ago
The rates of violent crime, murder, and untreated mental illness directly correlate in the US with the rate of poverty. In locations where poverty is very high, the murder rate is very high (and that combo is amplified by population density). That's due to the exceptionally mediocre social safety net in the US, among numerous other causes. If you're in the bottom 1/3 you have very limited access to quality+sustained mental health treatment. If you're in the top 1/3, you have nearly unlimited access to getting treatment for a mental illness. It's not millionaires roaming the streets of US cities looking like zombies, blasted out on drugs, hauling around untreated mental illnesses.
- seanmcdirmid 2y ago
  It’s mostly fentanyl or some other kind of drug abuse, not mental illness. Seattle made the mistake of trying to treat drug abuse as a form of mental illness and got burned badly since you can’t really treat it without getting rid of the drug abuse aspect first. Decriminalizing hard drugs definitely hasn’t helped, and you can’t really force any of these people into drug treatment because they prefer cheap drug fixes instead.
  - Brechreiz 2y ago
    Yeah, those stupid drug addicts who prefer taking drugs over treatment!

by creer 2y ago

ryandrake 2y ago

Exactly. Nobody is avoiding public transportation because there are poor people riding it. They're avoiding it because there are mentally unstable, violent people, and pickpockets riding it. It's a totally different set of people, totally different reason.

adventured 2y ago

The rates of violent crime, murder, and untreated mental illness directly correlate in the US with the rate of poverty. In locations where poverty is very high, the murder rate is very high (and that combo is amplified by population density). That's due to the exceptionally mediocre social safety net in the US, among numerous other causes. If you're in the bottom 1/3 you have very limited access to quality+sustained mental health treatment. If you're in the top 1/3, you have nearly unlimited access to getting treatment for a mental illness. It's not millionaires roaming the streets of US cities looking like zombies, blasted out on drugs, hauling around untreated mental illnesses.

seanmcdirmid 2y ago
It’s mostly fentanyl or some other kind of drug abuse, not mental illness. Seattle made the mistake of trying to treat drug abuse as a form of mental illness and got burned badly since you can’t really treat it without getting rid of the drug abuse aspect first. Decriminalizing hard drugs definitely hasn’t helped, and you can’t really force any of these people into drug treatment because they prefer cheap drug fixes instead.
- Brechreiz 2y ago
  Yeah, those stupid drug addicts who prefer taking drugs over treatment!