Why is Portland so infested with homeless? (landlord, live in)

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by pdxMIKEpdx

First your "balance point" is way off.
It seems to be only about having money and not having money whether it's deserved or not.

If I had to pick a "balance", it would be how much you "give" to your fellow man and society versus how much you take.

Since, by your own admission, you are "poor and homeless" by choice, rather than by circumstance, it seems that your above balancing example might work for others, but when it comes to you, the great balancer in the sky will only see your selfishness and how much you take from society without giving back to it.
Especially when you are playing the system and essentially stealing from people that really need the "services" that are in place to help the truly poor and homeless.


Maybe your life is what needs to be balanced the other way...

Good Luck!
Karma is a bitsch

Excellent points. If one is speaking about balance, it is not a "Robin Hood" type of thing. That only comes from jealous people who are too lazy and possibly too stupid to know how to work to obtain what they want.

Take Bill Gates as an example. One of the wealthiest men in the world. He is spending his days and his wealth balancing out the days he spent earning, and I emphasize the word earning his wealth by working on projects to cure illness and obliterate hunger in third world countries. He has already given away millions to these causes.

Bill Gates and other wealthy people like him, and there are many, are true "balancers." There have been throughout history. They just don't go about tooting their own horns. They go about quietly leaving leaving endowments and legacies to help others. The more skeptical among us may say those can be used as tax write-offs but there are other means if that was the sole purpose to do these things. They don't have to give to others just for the purpose of saving on their taxes.

As you say, the true measure of balance and deserving is to how someone uses what they have no matter how much or how little. Taking from the rich and giving to the poor simply makes the poor rich and the rich poor; it only reverses the roles. It doesn't vindicate anything.

[Sondeera]

Giving free money to people won't change anything. Look at lottery winners - 70% file for bankruptcy within 5 years.

Bill Gates is an incredibly inspiring person. He and Warren Buffett started The Giving Pledge and over 100 billionaires have signed up to give away at least half their fortunes to philanthropic causes. Kudos to them I say.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by Sondeera

Giving free money to people won't change anything. Look at lottery winners - 70% file for bankruptcy within 5 years.

Bill Gates is an incredibly inspiring person. He and Warren Buffett started The Giving Pledge and over 100 billionaires have signed up to give away at least half their fortunes to philanthropic causes. Kudos to them I say.

Howard Schultz, I think that is his last name, who made Starbucks what it is today, is also one of those people. He was raised dirt poor in one of the boroughs of New York when his dad was injured when Schultz was very young. There was no Worker's Compensation in those days so he watched his mother struggle to support the family because his dad couldn't work.

Schultz was the first to give part time employees full health insurance benefits. He also supports charities because he knows what it is like to be poor. His first philanthropic endeavors were right here in the PNW. People like to bash Starbucks but I used to work with a single mom who rose up in the ranks from barista trainee to store manager and she was always allowed to work in her hours around taking care of her child.

She said nowhere else was so generous to her needs. Schultz remembered what it was like for his mom struggling to raise him and his siblings and work at the same time and it wasn't easy so he allowed his employees flexible hours whenever possible.

It isn't how much you have, it's what you do or don't do with it.

[Yankeemama]

Thanks, Minerva, for that info. I am a Starbucks fan AND I support local coffee houses, and Peet's, of course.

[Homelessadvocate]

Originally Posted by Yankeemama

Thanks, Minerva, for that info. I am a Starbucks fan AND I support local coffee houses, and Peet's, of course.

Starbucks? Are you serious? That's the most inflated overpriced pretentious chain I have ever had the misfortune to encounter in all my 42 years! I tried walking in their once, looked at their "menu" and walked back out and went to mcdonalds for coffee, and never went back in! The type of person that supports places like starbucks gets no kudos from me.. Where's the "mel's diners" greasy spoons, and old time CHEAP coffee shops of yore? Are they completely extinct, to be run over by uppity overpriced starbucks and their clones? I suppose old fashioned greasy shops have went the way of the dodo.. No wonder I find myself despising this time period we live in! As we get more "advanced, modernized", we lose something precious, and the poor suffer for it! And no one seems to see it but me!!

[GeorgiaTransplant]

Originally Posted by Homelessadvocate

Starbucks? Are you serious? That's the most inflated overpriced pretentious chain I have ever had the misfortune to encounter in all my 42 years! I tried walking in their once, looked at their "menu" and walked back out and went to mcdonalds for coffee, and never went back in! The type of person that supports places like starbucks gets no kudos from me.. Where's the "mel's diners" greasy spoons, and old time CHEAP coffee shops of yore? Are they completely extinct, to be run over by uppity overpriced starbucks and their clones? I suppose old fashioned greasy shops have went the way of the dodo.. No wonder I find myself despising this time period we live in! As we get more "advanced, modernized", we lose something precious, and the poor suffer for it! And no one seems to see it but me!!

42. 'oh, you youngsters! The cheap coffee shops of yore! You youngsters have no idea!'

I'm older than you. The world you're bemoaning really didn't exist except in your imagination. You're not a special snowflake. Quit dramatizing crap.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Originally Posted by Homelessadvocate

Starbucks? Are you serious? That's the most inflated overpriced pretentious chain I have ever had the misfortune to encounter in all my 42 years! I tried walking in their once, looked at their "menu" and walked back out and went to mcdonalds for coffee, and never went back in! The type of person that supports places like starbucks gets no kudos from me.. Where's the "mel's diners" greasy spoons, and old time CHEAP coffee shops of yore? Are they completely extinct, to be run over by uppity overpriced starbucks and their clones? I suppose old fashioned greasy shops have went the way of the dodo.. No wonder I find myself despising this time period we live in! As we get more "advanced, modernized", we lose something precious, and the poor suffer for it! And no one seems to see it but me!!

Well, Homelessadvocate, you said (in a previous post of yours) that you will be here in about two weeks.
August 2nd if I remember correctly.

You'll have plenty of time this summer to scout out Portland and find your "old time CHEAP coffee shops of yore".

They are still around, you just have to find them.

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by Homelessadvocate

Where's the "mel's diners" greasy spoons, and old time CHEAP coffee shops of yore? Are they completely extinct, to be run over by uppity overpriced starbucks and their clones? I suppose old fashioned greasy shops have went the way of the dodo..

I gave you a list of such in another thread.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

So Homelessadvocate, looks like you are all set.
You've been given more than enough information to make your transition from Las Vegas to Portland much, much easier.

Now you need to "come on over" so you can see what Portland is really like, instead of fantasizing about it constantly.



Also, your ravings and rants will be taken a lot more seriously (on this, the Portland forum) when they are truly specific to Portland.
See you in August!

[Homelessadvocate]

Originally Posted by pdxMIKEpdx

So Homelessadvocate, looks like you are all set.
You've been given more than enough information to make your transition from Las Vegas to Portland much, much easier.

Now you need to "come on over" so you can see what Portland is really like, instead of fantasizing about it constantly.



Also, your ravings and rants will be taken a lot more seriously (on this, the Portland forum) when they are truly specific to Portland.
See you in August!

Well fortunately none of you will actually "see me" at all, I'll be there, but just another homeless bum among thousands! I do have a unique look, and its always been hard for me to blend in a crowd, but there are soo many wierdos downtown i'll be harder to pick out anyway! HAHA But you are correct, ill be posting on far more specifics after I arrive...