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Old 07-17-2007, 12:51 AM
 
1,463 posts, read 6,205,392 times
Reputation: 941

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Lmao...I think some of your upset that mentally ill people could rationalize they can make more money begging then waking up for someone else, giving them all your great ideas making them uber wealthy why you receive a 1 percent raise with management planning to ship your job to Mexico or fire you and replace you with a H-1 B visa, only to watch YOU BEG to keep your job.
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Old 07-17-2007, 04:06 AM
 
7 posts, read 24,264 times
Reputation: 10
Quote:
Originally Posted by American_Libertarian View Post
I watched your video.

Did you watch the video I posted and what is your opinion?

PS
I am very unhappy with you, because I was ready to quit my job and go buy a squeegee.

Thank you for watching!

Concerning your video, I thought it was fairly interesting. I find it possible that in some places, such a situation would be possible, but I do not think it is a representative of the situation. Instead, I believe it is more the exception than anything else.

In certain places, perhaps those with many religious or charity organizations (such as the city in the video with 21 in addition to religious orgs.), the homeless would not have such problems with food or shelter. However, I do not think the majority of places fit this bill. As of Jan 2005, there are some 3+ million homeless people in America, so how many of them are actually living the kind of life detailed in the video?
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Old 07-17-2007, 04:08 AM
 
Location: Penobscot Bay, the best place in Maine!
1,895 posts, read 5,881,526 times
Reputation: 2703
Quote:
Originally Posted by NewToCA View Post
San Francisco publishes a program explaining how any city can increase their homeless population:

How to increase your city's homeless population - San Francisco Business Times:
You do realize that piece is an editorial, the opinion of one contributor, don't you? It's not an actual city-sanctioned list of ways to increase the homeless population.
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Old 07-17-2007, 06:27 PM
 
Location: USA
308 posts, read 709,947 times
Reputation: 77
Quote:
Originally Posted by KoZmiC NinJa View Post
I cannot take anything Stossel says seriously.
It is too one sided. He is an angry conservative
in liberals costume. I lost all respect for him when
I read his views on development in the USA.
Anyway....the real figures speak for themselves...the majority
of homeless people arent scammers. With our economy
and manufacturing / middle class gone, a whole new
class of poor has been created. These people need to
eat, and need services. If one was to actually beleive
the corvette window washer story (which I dont), if this
was a kid from an upper-class, conservative town, he
would be applauded for his entrepreneurial spirit and
being quoted about how great opportunities in America
are. This culture of freeloaders exists only as a Stossel
ratings grab.



You have got to be one the most partisan intellectually dishonest members on this board.


You obviously didn't even watch the video. The majority of the guys holding "will work for food" signs didn't even show up for work when they said they would.



You obviously didn't see the FAT homeless guy telling Stossel how he can go all over the city and get free meals.


You obviously dont' know what the hell you are talking about.


John Stossel is a LIBERTARIAN who is against the Iraq War and is an intellectually honest man who has no loyalty to the Republicans or Democrats.



He wants to solve problems in America not ***** and moan.
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Old 07-17-2007, 07:19 PM
 
2,434 posts, read 6,661,027 times
Reputation: 1064
I think costs are a lot higher than they should and need to be. We could lower costs significantly by providing support and help to the homeless when we can. Certainly, there are some freeloaders or homeless that simply don't want help, but we can turn many indigent people and freeloaders into tax paying contributing members of society.

We create, or at least contribute to the homeless situation simply because we are setting many up for failure. We are not giving assistance in the way that can actually help them become productive members of society. Many homeless people eventually commit extremely violent crimes, and that frequently results in huge hospital bills for the victims, and extremely expensive incarceration costs imprisoning the homeless man who committed the crime. It's very common to see homeless people who have extremely long rap sheets. And that usually translates to a whole lot of money being spent on putting them in jail over and over.

It is actually true that it's cheaper to send someone to college or trade school, than it is to jail or imprison them. Add in the fact that most people that are homeless or freeloaders will be frequenting visiting our jails and prisons rather regularly, the cost becomes extremely unaffordable for society in general.

As far as the ones that simply don't want help or refuse to live a productive life we just have to acknowledge that there isn't anything we can do if they absolutely refuse help. As a corrections officer I saw this. As winter comes on many indigent people deliberately commit crimes so they can get locked up for the winter. And depending on what part of the country you live in it costs somewhere between 20 thousand and 30 thousand dollars a year to lock someone up.

But we are a rich country. Even if the homeless or freeloaders out there refuse to contribute to society, they should still be given adequate food, clothing, shelter and quality medical care. Because if we don't, the cost in the end will be a whole lot higher.
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Old 07-17-2007, 07:42 PM
 
Location: Sacramento
14,044 posts, read 27,120,516 times
Reputation: 7373
Quote:
Originally Posted by deerislesmile View Post
You do realize that piece is an editorial, the opinion of one contributor, don't you? It's not an actual city-sanctioned list of ways to increase the homeless population.
Yes, I was saying it tongue in cheek. The author is a writer for the Pacific Research Institute, which is a think tank organization similar to American Enterprise Institute and CATO Institute.
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Old 07-19-2007, 10:59 AM
 
Location: Penobscot Bay, the best place in Maine!
1,895 posts, read 5,881,526 times
Reputation: 2703
I think you will find that those most obvious people who label themselves as homeless (ie- the folks with the signs) are not representative of the homeless as a whole.. As with most groups, it's the few loud, rotten ones at the top that give the whole bunch a bad name. Most of the homeless people that I know would NEVER hold up a sign that said they needed money, but quite a few (non-homeless) drug addicts would....(hold up that same sign, that is). So what you see, in this case, is not always what you get. I know many people, living at homeless shelters, who still work 40 hours a week, still have to make car payemnts, and get their kids to daycare, etc- people that you wouldn't think "homeless" if you saw them in a grocery store. I have seen a huge increase in the number of whole families and elderly that are using the 3 local area shelters/homes.

It does appear that agencies/charities in the more urban areas need to consolidate their programs and services to avoid such duplication as depicted on the Stossel segment, but I know many areas that have one shelter, one food bank, and one soup kitchen (usually at the shelter itself)- and all are running at maximum capacity, and would serve more people if they had the resources, but are limited in what they can do. But then again, it appears that the homeless here in Maine are quite different than what some of you have where you are...
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Old 07-19-2007, 11:16 AM
 
434 posts, read 1,733,010 times
Reputation: 487
Quote:
Originally Posted by KoZmiC NinJa View Post
Anyway....the real figures speak for themselves...the majority
of homeless people arent scammers. With our economy
and manufacturing / middle class gone, a whole new
class of poor has been created. These people need to
eat, and need services.
Where are you getting your "real figures"?

Also if the most of the poor and homeless wanted to work we wouldn't have people lobbying for a "guest worker" program for illegal immigrants. Every time I hear someone say "we need them for the jobs Americans WON'T do" I have to wonder if we didn't have all the hand-outs and welfare would there be any jobs "Americans wouldn't do?" I suspect if you were poor and couldn't get a freebie those peach picking jobs would look very good. How can we say we need to give out welfare and hand out free services like Halloween candy and in the next breath say we need illegal immigrants to do jobs "Americans WON'T do"?
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