40oz
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Post by 40oz on Nov 30, 2016 14:28:08 GMT -5
What are Doomer boards thoughts on homelessness?
I’ve been told I have pretty arrogant thoughts towards homelessness in the past. I still believe im in the camp that believes there’s no realistic reason why anyone should be homeless. For many, it’s more so a lifestyle choice than an unfortunate circumstance. I don’t think anyone just loses their shelter. There’s a series of poorly educated and/or deliberately irresponsible decisions that get someone to a state where they have nowhere to live.
When thinking about it, I ask myself, what if my bank accounts froze for no apparent reason? What if I drove home from work one day and where my house was, there was just an empty lot? What if upon discovering that my house had vanished, I got a call from my boss to tell me that my employment has been terminated? What if my parents fled the country? I just have nothing but the clothes on my back. What would I do? Beg for change? After a few hours of bothering people I might be able to afford a McChicken at mcdonalds which might hold me over before I get hungry again in a couple hours. Begging for change is not an income and I won’t be able to afford shelter unless securing at least $8,000 a year at the very least.
I have grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends, cousins etc. I’m sure they would take me in, and help me find work, just as I would if they were in any similar situation. So do homeless people have no friends and family? I find that hard to believe that if you were a genuine humble person down on your luck, that you wouldn’t be able to find a single friend or family member who respects you enough to help you get back on your feet. Where could everyone go? Is there any rational reason for them to desert you? Did you desert them to go be independent far away from people who care about you? What was the point of that?
In any case, there are people out there who could use the help and are in trouble. What I find off-putting however, is that they are often asking for money. If I give them money, I’m not really giving them what they need. It’s a reward that positively fuels their choice to beg. I’m not convinced that they have $799.50 and that extra fifty cents I give them will afford them another month’s rent. Giving them money is giving them the freedom to make financial choices, which is moronic if you consider that their judgment led them to make the financial choices that got them here.
I still however respect that people who are homeless need to eat, and they need their basic human rights. If a homeless person asks me for food, I would have no qualms against sharing my lunch with him. I really don’t see the positive effects of handing that person money though.
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GRUG
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Post by GRUG on Nov 30, 2016 15:26:03 GMT -5
It's a touchy subject. I personally believe that a lot of homeless people became homeless due to making very poor life decisions such as doing drugs and alcohol or foolishly spending money on stupid shit. There are some homeless people who may be homeless due to unavoidable circumstances in life, such as losing a job, losing a house and insurance refusing to cover it, or from a divorce and an ex-wife takes more than half your assets. When this happens, usually family members help each other out. This happened to a family member of mine NUMEROUS times. One time we had to take him in for almost a year until he was able to accumulate enough money so he could move out to an affordable apartment. He lost his house due to the subprime mortgages back in 2007-2008. He's been in debt and broke many times and he never learns his lesson. You can give him $1 Million dollars and by the end of the year, he'll piss away almost all of it. Also, I notice a lot of homeless people live in major cities (such as NYC). You can't go 5 blocks without seeing a few homeless people sleeping and panhandling on the sidewalks. Homeless people do find ways to survive and I'm also willing to bet that there are rural communities of homeless people who perhaps try to work with each other to survive. They would probably try to stay away from the severely mentally ill though for obvious reasons. I think some cities have temporary shelters for homeless, but I think most of them don't want to live in close quarters with others. Honestly, I don't know what the best solution is for helping the homeless. |
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Post by Doomer Boards on Nov 30, 2016 15:26:27 GMT -5
Growing up, I knew a lot of people that were squatters in a big music studio that used to be a warehouse. A lot of them I guess chose the rock n' roll lifestyle, despite some of them having families of their own. Some people are really ruined by alcohol, and hard drug abuse, and just can't get it together. One of the people I knew was a great guitar player, and would play in the NYC subways for money. However, he was eventually kicked out the studio for turning the room into a dump. But more than that, he was a belligerent alcoholic. Another guy I knew I believe was squatting because he didn't want to pay alimony, and child-support payments. Then, there was this other guy who was a manipulative coke head, and had to disappear from the studio, because he supposedly robbed some people.
One of my best friends growing up, who introduced me to a lot of cool music, (Stuff I still listen to today), became homeless by choice, because he couldn't tolerate living with his mother. However, he died 10 years ago from a heroine overdose; again drugs certainly played a role. He was actually a very hard working guy, when he was sober. He used to bust his ass, just to make rent for his little studio apartment. Nevertheless, he would not be able to keep a job for very long, because his life was in total disorder. I was very sad that he died, but I sort of knew it was going to happen eventually. I still have many of his books, that he collected; which he told me to hold on for him, since he was homeless at the time.
Another guy I knew, who was actually homeless by choice, was a street punk, that traveled across the country with crusties. He made it all the way to California, from NJ with them. However, he had gotten into an argument with some asshole Juggalo, that hacked at his head with a hatchet while he was sleeping. That guy went to jail, but my friend was left quasi-crippled from the attack. He had to re-learn how to walk. Nevertheless, he's actually doing pretty good right now, has a cute girlfriend, and they live together.
ANOTHER guy I knew became homeless, because he is fresh out of prison, from a 5 year sentence. He was staying at my friend's house, but they had some kind of falling out, and he's in a shelter right now I believe.
I knew a lot of other homeless people in addition to the aforementioned. Most of them have similar stories, with drug and alcohol addiction. Ultimately, substance abuse seems to be the biggest indicator for why someone is homeless, from my observation. The people that managed to overcome addiction, or never really had an issue with it, seem to have pulled themselves out of homelessness.
Substance abuse may or may not be the reason why some people become homeless. But substance abuse seems to be a big reason why they stay homeless.
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technician
Doomer
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Post by technician on Nov 30, 2016 18:55:55 GMT -5
I remember your legendary homeless posts on Doomworld. Most homeless people here in Canada are usually mentally handicapped or completely mentally functional but incapable of keeping a job. For many of us without family, it will be hard to pick one's self up in hard times. And you know who your friends are really fucking quick when your in need.
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Phml
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Post by Phml on Dec 1, 2016 5:04:15 GMT -5
I live in France. There's so many structures designed to help you if you're homeless. We've got food banks, we've got shelters, we've got free health care, you name it. Problem is the popular and self-defeating belief we are all equal.
The point 40oz makes about money is very relevant. A couple months ago, I saw an article in a French newspaper detailing the life of a 60 years old homeless man. The guy was a pensioner, and interviewed he says "I get 1000 euros from my pension at the beginning of the month. Between the hotel, the food, the horse races, it lasts one week... And then I have to make do."
Hello? 1000 euros (~1200 dollars) A WEEK? Most first-worlders live a month on that. It was obvious this man had a gambling problem, yet the "journalist" left it unspoken, and instead chose to harp over the struggles homeless people face in their life.
So, yes, when men like this are used as an example, there is definitely a problem of responsibility. Not only from the man himself, but from the journalist who refuses to see a problem, from the commenters who refuse to discuss it either, from the whole society.
This applies to welfare at large. We give the greatest freedoms to the dumbest and weakest amongst us on moral grounds, which only encourage them to stay dumb and weak, and reproduce and drag the population mean intelligence down. Mass-scale negative eugenics at work, for the sake of importing voters and making better-off folks comfortable.
Human lives don't have equal worth. It's something we implicitely accept, for example when the American press comments on a plane crash and says "out of the 180 passengers, 6 Americans were on board", or when a celebrity is mourned. There are hierarchies of value. Yet try to apply this to public policies, and everyone screams bloody murder.
It's a frustrating mess, and few are interested in tackling the root causes of the problem. Some people can be empowered by freedom, others are meant to be guided.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2016 19:42:20 GMT -5
Hello? 1000 euros (~1200 dollars) A WEEK? Damn. If I made $1200 a week I'd be jumping with joy. My savings account would grow like a weed. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2016 5:43:36 GMT -5
I always feel kinda bad/guilty when I walk past a beggar. It just looks so wrong when there is someone in need but hundreds and hundreds of people simply ignore them. I find myself looking away from them and trying to erase them from my mind because the sight makes me uncomfortable. But I never give. Main reason is that at least in Russia the begging industry is known for being very organized, the police is usually involved in it, etc. Like, only beggars that have a deal with the local police are allowed to "work" at their territory. And of course they don't keep most of the money to themselves. I really don't want to support these sick schemes.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2016 18:54:58 GMT -5
Part of me wants to give some money to help these homeless people out. But I know for a fact they're just going to piss it away on drugs or booze. And most of the time they aren't even broke. They're just professional beggars. One guy recently asked me for change and we started casually talking... and he took his hands out of his hoodie pocket during the conversation. Guess what? FULL of money! He must have had at least $100+ worth of change in there. Loonies, bills, everything. I was like what the fuck are you begging for? These people wear grubby clothes to look like they're on the verge of death, but in reality they're just getting baked with your hard earned cash. They can afford better.
And so it's mostly all an act to purposely pull on heart strings and suck away as much money as possible from people. All without a shred of guilt. I'm from Canada. There is help for homeless people here if they are willing to find and accept it. But they love the homeless lifestyle, because it supports their addictive habits. Nobody to tell them what to do. To get clean, etc. So the downward spiral continues.
I waste my money enough as it is. I don't need to see other people waste it too.
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40oz
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Post by 40oz on Dec 4, 2016 13:58:19 GMT -5
Ive been seeing more and more people carrying around cardboard signs with a brief excerpt explaining their situation. They wait around at traffic lights with buckets asking for any money you're willing to give. They catch you while you're in your car waiting, so you kinda have to feel like shit the whole time, and the two or three minutes you're waiting feels like an eternity if you don't want to give up anything.
That shit should be illegal.
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Inferno
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Post by Inferno on Dec 4, 2016 15:14:54 GMT -5
I've seen very few homeless people in my area. It may or may not be your expectation if you're in Florida.
Of course, my dad has a story about looking at a homeless man coast down the highway in a (presumably) unfueled truck, get out, and then my dad notices that he had completely shit his pants. He biked right past him.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2016 15:54:15 GMT -5
That shit should be illegal. Agreed. |
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Clone
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Post by Clone on Dec 10, 2016 15:55:36 GMT -5
My cousin lived out of his van for a few months in California. Apparently came close to cutting his throat for some reason. Despite that I'm not entirely sure why he did either of those things, as all he talked about during that time was about he liked being free and how he got to rock climb a bunch. I'm guessing there was a deeper issue he avoided addressing.
Despite being more or less homeless he managed to make his money by substitute teaching at schools. However, for the more general population of homeless people, well, I imagined that similar things could be done, even if they live in an alley they could get some kind of part time work. But I imagine part of the homeless routine is not get a job or they don't think they can handle it, especially if they're out dealing with drug or alcohol problems. But I guess the whole thing is confusing for me, anyways. Nothing I ever thought too deeply about. I did serve lunch at a homeless shelter once. The place was somewhat extensive and had school like facilities and some sort of program to get people jobs, if they were willing enough.
I always wondered where homeless vets fall into the spectrum, and why there seems to be so many. I imagine the majority suffer ptsd, though.
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Post by Outrageous Videos on Jan 23, 2017 22:34:33 GMT -5
Fucking homeless bastards are all on drugs or retarded and most of them make more money than me
They should all be thrown into an oven as far as I'm concerned
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Xeep-Eep
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Post by Xeep-Eep on Jan 24, 2017 11:57:32 GMT -5
Fucking homeless bastards are all on drugs or retarded and most of them make more money than me They should all be thrown into an oven as far as I'm concerned You sure do know your trolling, Adolf. Besides, AFAIK you're not 18 so you can't have a job and can't make moolah. |
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