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> Americans are very often blind to the poverty in their own backyards. it doesn't help that it's in practice illegal to be in such poverty.

by baq 1y ago

breakingrules3 1y ago
[dead]
potato3732842 1y ago
Legality only matters insofar as people use it as a mental shortcut to turn off their brains. Which TBH I think is way less than it used to be, but feels like it's more because so much more stuff involves law and government than it did 50yr ago.
ModernMech 1y ago
If anyone is wondering why solving homelessness and poverty is so hard, this sibling reply is dead but I think people need to see that this opinion exists, and we need to contemplate the richest and most powerful people in this country share this sentiment: "we're not blind to it, half of us are sick of paying for it for multiple generations, accruing interest. we're paying for poor people from 20 years ago still. let them sink, let them go away. its a test, they failed it." Here, "go away" is a euphemism for "die from exposure". 20 years ago we had a worldwide financial crises caused by the capricious whims of the richest people in this country, they caused massive amounts of damage, destroyed people's lives and livelihoods, kicked them out on the street, and it's framed as "paying for poor people".
- carlosjobim 1y ago
  It's nobody's fault for becoming poor. But if you're staying poor (dirt poor) for decades, then there is something you're doing wrong. The other commenter puts it in a rude way, but there's something to it. If you evidently can't take care of yourself, then you shouldn't be given more money. You should be in some kind of institution which takes care of your basic needs.
  - ModernMech 1y ago
    > It's nobody's fault Sure, but it's the system's fault, and we can point at the people who are keeping the system the way it is. The system is what it does, and what it does is syphon money from everyone else and pumps it upward to a few individuals. That's not an accident, people are responsible for that, they like the way it works, and they're intent on keeping it that way. Remember, in this system you get paid money for having money and you get charged a fee if you don't have enough. You get taxed more for working with capital than for owning capital. You pay more the less you buy. People always say "The hardest million was the first million". This is by design! > You should be in some kind of institution which takes care of your basic needs. Maybe, but we refuse to fund those because they're too expensive to operate.
    - potato3732842 1y ago
      If it only pumped the money to a few individuals someone would've pushed those individuals off a cliff and seized power by now. The magic of the system is that there's enough trickle down to motivate the petite-bourgeois (I hate Marx, but I'll be darned if he didn't enumerate some good economic tiers) to make them keep the system running. Your media talking heads peddling division, your 200k+/yr software engineers implementing extractive algorithms to make the gig economy tick, etc, etc, etc.
      - TheOtherHobbes 1y ago
        It looks like the times are changing thanks to AI, so we'll see what happens when the petite-bourgeoisie stop being quite so bougie.
      - ModernMech 1y ago
        If that were true, the Vice President wouldn't be trying to convince us that housing costs are high because of illegal immigration.
    - carlosjobim 1y ago
      Have you seen "the system" sleeping on the streets, starving, or not having enough clothes? No matter who or what is to blame, the individual is who is paying the price and who should have the strongest interest to get out of that situation. Which means, if you're staying in that situation for years on end you have to admit to yourself you are doing something which isn't working. Thats why people have more sympathy for somebody who is poor because they are temporarily down on their luck or born into poverty, and less sympathy for somebody who has been poor as an adult for decades.
- steveBK123 1y ago
  I often find the loudest voices with this mentality either come from well off families, or were poor enough themselves in childhood to have benefited from the government programs they wish to destroy. The first is ignorance and the second is some sort of self hatred / shame. I rarely hear people that grew up fairly middle class and "made it" looking back at the poor as someone holding them back in this same manner.
  - duskdozer 1y ago
    >or were poor enough themselves in childhood to have benefited from the government programs they wish to destroy or, are currently benefiting, but they're just getting what's owed to them, unlike all the other moochers taking handouts
- piva00 1y ago
  It's always sickening to hear more educated people (compared to the average) repeating this inhumane bullshit. Wanting people to die because they are poor, losing complete touch of why we humans even develop what we do: to the betterment of us all, to enrich all of our lives, to make the lives of future humans better. There's no other point to it, the absurd individualism is a disease, I'd much rather eradicate those from our lineage than the less fortunate, for a better future for humanity.

> Americans are very often blind to the poverty in their own backyards. it doesn't help that it's in practice illegal to be in such poverty.

by baq 1y ago

> Americans are very often blind to the poverty in their own backyards. it doesn't help that it's in practice illegal to be in such poverty.

breakingrules3 1y ago

[dead]

potato3732842 1y ago

Legality only matters insofar as people use it as a mental shortcut to turn off their brains. Which TBH I think is way less than it used to be, but feels like it's more because so much more stuff involves law and government than it did 50yr ago.

ModernMech 1y ago

If anyone is wondering why solving homelessness and poverty is so hard, this sibling reply is dead but I think people need to see that this opinion exists, and we need to contemplate the richest and most powerful people in this country share this sentiment: "we're not blind to it, half of us are sick of paying for it for multiple generations, accruing interest. we're paying for poor people from 20 years ago still. let them sink, let them go away. its a test, they failed it." Here, "go away" is a euphemism for "die from exposure". 20 years ago we had a worldwide financial crises caused by the capricious whims of the richest people in this country, they caused massive amounts of damage, destroyed people's lives and livelihoods, kicked them out on the street, and it's framed as "paying for poor people".

carlosjobim 1y ago
It's nobody's fault for becoming poor. But if you're staying poor (dirt poor) for decades, then there is something you're doing wrong. The other commenter puts it in a rude way, but there's something to it. If you evidently can't take care of yourself, then you shouldn't be given more money. You should be in some kind of institution which takes care of your basic needs.
- ModernMech 1y ago
  > It's nobody's fault Sure, but it's the system's fault, and we can point at the people who are keeping the system the way it is. The system is what it does, and what it does is syphon money from everyone else and pumps it upward to a few individuals. That's not an accident, people are responsible for that, they like the way it works, and they're intent on keeping it that way. Remember, in this system you get paid money for having money and you get charged a fee if you don't have enough. You get taxed more for working with capital than for owning capital. You pay more the less you buy. People always say "The hardest million was the first million". This is by design! > You should be in some kind of institution which takes care of your basic needs. Maybe, but we refuse to fund those because they're too expensive to operate.
  - potato3732842 1y ago
    If it only pumped the money to a few individuals someone would've pushed those individuals off a cliff and seized power by now. The magic of the system is that there's enough trickle down to motivate the petite-bourgeois (I hate Marx, but I'll be darned if he didn't enumerate some good economic tiers) to make them keep the system running. Your media talking heads peddling division, your 200k+/yr software engineers implementing extractive algorithms to make the gig economy tick, etc, etc, etc.
    - TheOtherHobbes 1y ago
      It looks like the times are changing thanks to AI, so we'll see what happens when the petite-bourgeoisie stop being quite so bougie.
    - ModernMech 1y ago
      If that were true, the Vice President wouldn't be trying to convince us that housing costs are high because of illegal immigration.
  - carlosjobim 1y ago
    Have you seen "the system" sleeping on the streets, starving, or not having enough clothes? No matter who or what is to blame, the individual is who is paying the price and who should have the strongest interest to get out of that situation. Which means, if you're staying in that situation for years on end you have to admit to yourself you are doing something which isn't working. Thats why people have more sympathy for somebody who is poor because they are temporarily down on their luck or born into poverty, and less sympathy for somebody who has been poor as an adult for decades.
steveBK123 1y ago
I often find the loudest voices with this mentality either come from well off families, or were poor enough themselves in childhood to have benefited from the government programs they wish to destroy. The first is ignorance and the second is some sort of self hatred / shame. I rarely hear people that grew up fairly middle class and "made it" looking back at the poor as someone holding them back in this same manner.
- duskdozer 1y ago
  >or were poor enough themselves in childhood to have benefited from the government programs they wish to destroy or, are currently benefiting, but they're just getting what's owed to them, unlike all the other moochers taking handouts
piva00 1y ago
It's always sickening to hear more educated people (compared to the average) repeating this inhumane bullshit. Wanting people to die because they are poor, losing complete touch of why we humans even develop what we do: to the betterment of us all, to enrich all of our lives, to make the lives of future humans better. There's no other point to it, the absurd individualism is a disease, I'd much rather eradicate those from our lineage than the less fortunate, for a better future for humanity.