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Right, the old "take it or leave it" proposition. But is it actually better for our society to have all of these people living on the street? Becoming homeless?
by wonderzombie 14y ago
Right, the old "take it or leave it" proposition. But is it actually better for our society to have all of these people living on the street? Becoming homeless? Going to our emergency rooms for medical care? Or, better yet, forcing them to become dependents on the next generation for food, shelter, and (expensive) medical care?
Realistically, those are the alternatives. A large subset of people have insufficient education or qualifications for a desk job. And note that "being old" is itself likely to disqualify you from a lot of jobs.
Remember, this amounts to $13,000/yr, which hardly qualifies as a sinecure, and health insurance. Do you think they're likely to be able to get a job which includes health insurance? Because otherwise "get a job" is a non-starter.
- marknutter 14y agoI'm betting when faced with the prospect of living on the street, or worse, starving to death, these people would figure out a way to cope with their current afflictions.
- wonderzombie 14y agoI'm not really sure what kind of jobs you have in mind--- an employer can basically turn you away for any plausibly-non-discriminatory reason. And the kinds of jobs we're talking about here simply don't provide health insurance. Period. Even if you think "high blood pressure" isn't a disability, the set we're talking about is older and more likely to require expensive medical care.
- king_jester 14y agoThis is ridiculous considering that a large number of homeless people have a disability, physical or mental. To say that this people are just faking it or overreacting because they don't want to work is really messed up, you are essentially saying you really don't believe those people actually live with a disability.
- wildgift 14y agoI know I'm repeating here, but have you met the people living on the street? They aren't starving, thanks to charity, but they aren't that employable. A lot of them lack limbs, or have serious mental health problems that are probably exacerbated by living on the street, and would probably be exacerbated by working in a rough job. I've tried thinking of jobs they could do, but I have had a hard time coming up with anything except recycling - something like sorting through residential trash picking out the recyclables. As it turns out, that industry is employing a lot of homeless people. And, you have to consider that recycling is subsidized by fees on bottles and cans. I've also worked at a place were we hired a guy with some mental disability to clean up the cafe. He did OK, but not a really good job. If they offered $2 more an hour, they could have hired someone who'd clean AND fix things, easily saving more than the $4000 extra a year he'd cost.
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