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130 sats \ 52 replies \ @Undisciplined 23h \ parent \ on: What To Do about Homelessness Politics_And_Law
I think the factors are more integrated than that makes it seem. The stress of exorbitant costs of living must play a role in drug abuse and poor mental health. Otherwise, there shouldn't be a relationship between housing costs and homelessness, but the worst homelessness occurs where housing costs the most.
You might note that the homeless problem really started and started getting noticed when the states shut down the institutions for the mentally ill. When they closed them down, all the patients were put out, on the street, so to speak, with no supervision or assistance. Then, everybody started noticing the problem of homelessness.
I have to say, though, that many of the homeless prefer their situation to being ensconced into an apartment, home or other accommodations. They choose to live that way.
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Indeed, the whole problem is a mass of complexity. It is a Gordian Knot to be untangled without the end being seeable. Perhaps this one of the results of the previous moulding that we have been subjected to. I think that what our overlords have done in the past has lead to this point. Happily, I think the overlords are losing their grip on society. Then, maybe, we can have some sane and not psychopathic guidelines for society.
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I don't disagree. But I just think the "housing first" advocates are delusional because they refuse to acknowledge any solution other than housing, and that actually hinders solutions because they won't acknowledge drug abuse as a problem. (These are the people that tend to support things like safe injection sites and laws against clearing homeless encampments off the streets.)
Michael Shellenberger wrote about this in San Fransicko. One of the interesting things in the book is that one of the professors most associated with housing first ideas has agreed that the advocates have gone too far with his ideas.
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But I just think the "housing first" advocates are delusional because they refuse to acknowledge any solution other than housing,
100%
It is indeed complex and more than housing. Its a loss of community as well and where the cost and regulation of housing comes into play is around providing shelter for these chronic. There are many stories of individuals and no-profits trying to fix this aspect. Creating communities for those with mental and drug issues. The governments get in the way. Some of this is due to the public not wanting these people to exist. I see this problem every time I visit a city in California.
Tiny house communities are shut down when attempted. Just having a roof and a door is a luxury we take for granted. I would take those in "public" office more seriously if they tried to get out of the way more and let those trying to actually help, do it.
We have some amazing organizations in my county that are funded by the public (voluntarily) and businesses. They do amazing work. I'm convinced if the state(government) would get out of the business of "helping" more could be done.
Don't get me started on the tax money that is just blown into the wind by the governments. These private orgs are far more efficient and focused.
So many things that politicians and gov officials say about homelessness sound good but in practice they make the issues worse. What's worse is that as I've followed this issue for years I have seen how cities just copy each other doing the same stupid things over and over again.
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You might like to look into how these situations were handled before the “progressives” got their hands on the levers of power. Almost everything was handled by voluntary charities that got their monies from the general public (not as taxes). They were very efficient and generated community.
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I have looked and you are correct. When I talk about helping the needy through voluntary means many of my more progressive friends doubt it would work. We have been told this over and over in history but its a lie.
Americans are very generous.
I usually try to explain how wasteful government aid programs are and how terrible they are at avoiding grift. When you have private charities they are always gonna be better at figuring out who really needs help vs. who is just milking the system.
I've seen this over the years in churches and charities.
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Here is another reframing: Government aid programs are not wasteful and the money goes right to where THEY want it to go, to them. THEY get their hands in the cookie jar and crumbs around their mouths, then deny the situation. Psychopaths one and all.
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One possibility is that voluntary charity orgs self-select for people that actually care about solving the problem.
Whereas government-run social services will select for people who want cushy jobs and prestigious titles and political careers. They aren't as likely to actually care about helping the poor.
(By select, I just mean the intentional or unintentional process by which these organizations end up staffing their positions)
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Yes, self-selection into the kinds of organizations and projects being done is rife in the system. However, how would you do it any other way. Other ways would involve the lack of freedom demonstrated by the bolsheviks.
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The point is that voluntary charities may solve the problems more efficiently because they tend to be staffed by people who actually care.
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Maybe better to say that they care about solving the problem using the resources they have on hand without having to take them away from somebody else forrcibly.
That has to be the mechanism, because they have the same incentives to not actually solve problems as anyone else.
As many people have described, activism becomes an industry.
The state/gov has no business doing any of this. That's my thought.
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I think you are absolutely correct. They also have no business making railroads, roads or airports but they usurp those roles anyway, don’t they?
The biggest lie we are told is that the government CAN fix things. The mistake people make with communism and socialism is focusing on the evil people. Those systems and the state fails even when you have good smart people running them.
The market is a magical thing. Masses of people figuring out how to cooperate and solve problems for profit and for the pleasure of doing it. The state is a monopoly that attracts the worst types of people to abuse the monopoly powers. But they can't compete with the millions of minds that are the market.
The market is something that is largely ignored in education. Its a hive mind that has produced all that we value around us. Even the things the state has "built" (by theft) is really only possible because of the productivity of people voluntarily doing things for others for money.
I love Goodwill. They figured out how to make a business where you drop off your used crap and they train and hire people that struggle to find work. They make a profit off of this selling my old crap to someone else. I find gems at Goodwill stores. Its a beautiful example of the market solving problems.
I totally agree with that. I'd say it's actually way more than two problems. Everything that makes it harder to afford and find housing plays a role, which means everything that makes it harder to find and hold employment plays a role, which means...
Basically, the progressive political bundle leads to homelessness, which makes it almost impossible to address in progressive cities.
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The slim ray of light is that California seems to be waking up from the progressive delusion they've been experiencing for past few decades. Emphasis on the word seems.
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I think that the fires are going to cause a lot of waking up in the very near future. Their insurance was cancelled just weeks before the fires, for instance. Perhaps there will be a sea change in Hollywood when they understand they have been abandoned to their own resources, too, just like the rest of us.
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they can ignore inflation and immigration and crime but they can't ignore their house being destroyed via fire
if this doesn't wake them up, then we need to shoot them
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What you might be saying is that tough love might be a lot more effective than warm and fuzzy treatment, am I correct? I quoted C.S. Lewis about what I think the problem is: the overlords think they know best.
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I think that the “housing firsters” have their hands in the cookie jar. Perhaps they are absconding with the monies that were intended to ensconce people in housing. Just a thought on the motivations and incentives behind what is going on on the west coast.
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Well, there is another way to state the problem, reframe it, if you will. The cronies of the state that profit from the ill gotten gains of taxation prefer to have their building projects state financed so they can rake off the profits privately. If said like that, you can see the problem and solutions more clearly.
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Yes, that way they can get more money to get more staffing beneath them and get raises for doing a whole lot of nothing.
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just shoot them
it's not like they have family and friends who will miss them
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the housing cost angle is a red herring, a bleeding heart red herring
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I kind of think that it may be the red herring covering up some folks bellying up to the trough and taking what they can without effort. Hand in the cockie jar sort of thing.
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who knew landlords in CA only accept dollars and not pesos
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I bet they could accept silver pesos!
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