[jato]

Don't forget to factor in all of the social programs for the chronically homeless:

Emergency health care
Soup kitchens
Shelters
Jail
Police
Courts
Social workers
Probation officers
Psychiatric services
Alcohol production and/or Drug production/distribution.

The chronically homeless use a disproportional amount of the above "services". Last I checked, they all use fossil fuels.

[emersonbiggins]

Riding the bus with the homeless this morning (and for the past couple of months) has eviscerated any sense of empathy that I've had for them. They are a shiftless bunch, going nowhere in particular and, while I enjoy some of them for pure entertainment value, most suffer from mental conditions and no doubt enjoy showing them off by talking at their captive audiences, themselves, and their invisible friends all at once.

As for most of my experience, I can wrap my head around the woman dragging her trash bag full of clothes and empties onboard, and at the man whose clothes could stand at attention on their own, but I simply can't get past the odors of some of these guys, and the fact that most transients I've encountered are using public transit for its "mobile park bench" qualities, affronting us and circumventing its original intent.

On the bright side, though, one offered me a mini Mounds bar this morning. It was in a wrapper, so I know he wasn't trying to fool me.

[frankthetank]

Now wait just a second. Mental problems??? I know some pretty successful people that are more fucked up then some homeless dude with an imaginary friend! True story: I was told by a VERY credible source that a guy i know cleans his own shitter(outhouse near his cabin), with a mask and plastic gloves. This guy could have it pumped for like $30. Lots of people use this shitter during hunting season, other times. This same guy alone makes well over $50K/year. Homeless do stink, but i would stink to if i never shower !

[I_Like_Plants]

Kicking the sick ones out onto the street, you can thank Reagan for that. Lack of cheap, dare we say "flophouse", accomodations, we can thank the yuppies and gentrification for that. Most of us being one financial or health catastrophe away from homelessness, we can thank Calvinism for that.

Family turning their backs on these folks, we can blame "all for one and every man for himself" consumerist culture for that. (Yes I have family more of them with money than not, and if I showed up at their door they'd call the police.)

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', 'T')his same guy alone makes well over $50K/year. !

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', 'K')icking the sick ones out onto the street, you can thank Reagan for that. Lack of cheap, dare we say "flophouse", accomodations, we can thank the yuppies and gentrification for that. Most of us being one financial or health catastrophe away from homelessness, we can thank Calvinism for that.
Family turning their backs on these folks, we can blame "all for one and every man for himself" consumerist culture for that. (Yes I have family more of them with money than not, and if I showed up at their door they'd call the police.

[I_Like_Plants]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', 'N')ow wait just a second. Mental problems??? I know some pretty successful people that are more Expletive deleted up then some homeless dude with an imaginary friend! True story: I was told by a VERY credible source that a guy i know cleans his ow outhouse near his cabin, with a mask and plastic gloves. This guy could have it pumped for like $30. Lots of people use thisouthouse during hunting season, other times. This same guy alone makes well over $50K/year. Homeless do stink, but i would stink to if i never shower !

[I_Like_Plants]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'H')ave you behaved in a way, in the past, that scares them?

[Ayame]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', ' ')I'm just sensitive on this subject because I'm about to become homeless.

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', '.')..None of 'em help each other out either - in fact I'm hard put to think of any combinations of them that even talk to each other.

[I_Like_Plants]

Ayame, Zardoz, you guys speak truth!! Indeed, we rag on Mexicans and Viets whose moms still squat down on the floor and eat with their hands, at those shantytown people, but it's true, they all have people who will take them in and a place to call home.

In fact intrepid Americans who've gone into the shantytowns to visit have found that there's very little crime, and a huge feeling of family. The Navajos on the "rez" are very poor, but they feel they are rich since as it's been put, "if one of us has a sick child, we all have a sick child" which is unknown in American families.

Consumerism comsumes human-ness first?

[vision-master]

One of my Brothers would be homeless if not for caring friends and family. Well, he's got a roof over his head anyways, but the drinking is gonna kill him. There is nothing more we can do for him.

His best friend paid of a $140,000 mortage for him. Thing is, he's half owner now. So much for the family summer cabin.

[I_Like_Plants]

A cheap van or pickup with a camper will be first on my "wish list" you can believe me.

I need to spend the next few years developing skills rather than trying to amass money, who knows, I may be the "famous" caricature artist at fairs around there who goes by the name "no comprende".

[zoidberg]

Homeless are going to be the first swipe of death's sickle in the die off. Starvation or revolution await them.

[threadbear]

Plants, Could you show samples of your work, on this forum? Perhaps you could begin selling caricatures or portraits for those interested, on this forum. I mean, if they are half as funny looking as they are funny sounding, it'd be a cinch!

[Tyler_JC]

I live in Boston, we spend an awful lot of money trying to help the homeless.

But some people just can't be helped.

We round up the lunatics every now and then in order to place them in shelters.

And what happens? They wander outside and vanish.

Your average lunatic with an invisible friend, a shopping cart full of junk, and a rat that he believes is a pony....he's just beyond help.

Most of the panhandlers make a decent enough living not to die, right?

And even if we lose a few, who notices or cares?

I don't think we have to worry about them.

[Blacksmith]

I don't know to whom my heart cries out more, the homeless or some of the people who have made comments on this thread.

[OilIsMastery]

Because they deserve it.

[Tyler_JC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Blacksmith', 'I') don't know to whom my heart cries out more, the homeless or some of the people who have made comments on this thread

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'I') live in Boston, we spend an awful lot of money trying to help the homeless. But some people just can't be helped. --snip-- And even if we lose a few, who notices or cares? I don't think we have to worry about them.