...the final solution to the homeless problem

I thought at first the title of this thread was inappropriate. The term Final Solution should be used with care. When I got the intent of the information, I realized we're not far off the fascist track...

The term "final solution" makes me very nervous. It's been used by various countries in the past. The people at the pointy end of the stick didn't fare very well, if you know what I mean. Millions dead.

first they came for...

if we don't speak up for those they come for..

we are next.

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: wasaka

Well that sounds just like a magic trick,a slide of hand and voila..out of sight out of mind......

This is such a broken system,these band aid fixes only have a short shelf life.....no doubt these people will end up in slave labor.....

Interesting how they call this a civilization because there is nothing civil about it

I guess the next question is then what? What do you do a year later with a homeless person, or 5 years later... this is what they should be thinking about.

For me, I'm not smart enough to figure out what do we do with the homeless population that is just fine being homeless. This does present many issues, safety, health etc, so what do we do? I live near Portland OR, a very homeless friendly city, but like all other cities, one with no long term plan.

Here in Portland it is an issue. I can't walk 100 feet without a bunch of homeless asking for money, and quite aggressively. Is it OK for a common practice of people to piss and crap in doorways? Is it OK for people to build makeshift tents filled with all kinds of stuff on the sidewalks? Like I said, I have no answer to any of this, but it is a serious issue.

a reply to: Xtrozero

Well, what Utah did is a good start. Give them a roof and a social worker. The next step would be mental health care but we don't have much of that in this country. That would fix a lot of issues but not all of them.

Getting some upward mobility back so that people could work and improve their lot in life would also help, currently once you're homeless and unemployed it's nearly impossible to get a job and become productive again. Perhaps we could fix that with some reform to how we approach college educations. Other than that the question is what about people that don't want to improve? The only solution I can come up with that is establishing a minimum income for all like they do in some of the Scandinavian countries.

I don't think the US has the political will for that though, as a people we like seeing another group in the country that we're doing better than as a way of justifying ones own self worth. With those on the bottom already having so little it requires there to be an underclass that has nothing and will never have anything.

a reply to: Xtrozero

I really wish i had a solution.....and you are right it is a serious situation,there are many homeless all over the world....in the area i live there are an incredible amount of homeless,they live in tents by the creeks,some have vehicles and live in them,there are many communes in the area and they live pretty rough...

The homeless problem is growing and just pulling them off the streets into a centralized location will just be a massive fail,there needs to be a solution formed at the base level,change that will address why so many are ending up in the situation

a reply to: wasaka

Have you ever studied much about Depression Era life? They used to do things to the hobos that would make you think this is positively sublime.

There was this thing called a hobo chair. It was basically a chair like an electric chair in overall structure and it was designed to have someone strapped into it. It had big, blunt metal nubs all over the seat and back of the chair.

They would take the hobo (or undesirable accused of loitering) and strap them in overnight. You could be forced to sit on and against those blunt metal nubs. They wouldn't kill you, but you couldn't shift you position and you'd wish you were dead by the time you got out of that thing.

I speak from the voice of experience in that I got stuck on an MRI table with one of the metal track nubs sticking up into my shoulder blade. By the time I'd been on it for only 12 or 13 minutes, I had tears running down my face. I couldn't get off of it though or I'd have had to repeat the whole test.

I did it voluntarily, and only for about 30 or 40 minutes. Hobos were tied to it and had to do it all night.

a reply to: ketsuko

Wow. What a story.

The word "mid-evil" comes to mind.
That was a word a woman at work
used with me. It's not a word that
comes up in conversation often.

She was making reference to the
reported killing of Christians but
Muslims. She called it "mid-evil."

I thought to myself, that word mid-evil
sounds like one is only half-way, or
midpoint. That more evil is to come.

Perhaps we're always mid-way toward
understanding evil when we only see
the enemy as barbaric. What we often
fail to see is the barbaric nature in us,
the mirror image of the evil we detest
can be found within our own being.

War is pure insanity, and those who
rush to war do so because insanity is
something they are comfortable with.
Those who inflict pain on others out
of their own sense of righteousness
are doing evil. They see themselves
one way, but have become insane.

Only, to be sane in an insane world
is the biggest torture of all.

Thanks for sharing your story.

originally posted by: Aazadan
The only solution I can come up with that is establishing a minimum income for all like they do in some of the Scandinavian countries.

One thing that doesn't work very well is to use a model that may work in another country and apply it here. We do have something like that, and it is called Alaska. The only reason why that model works in both those places is that the population is small and the return to the State or country is large enough to do it. If 1/2 of America decided to live on the minimum wage provided we are talking 4 trillion dollars per year cost based on 15 dollar per hour living wage, and somehow the other 50% would need to pay taxes to cover it...

When we look at the Scandinavian countries their population only equals a large city in the US and 50% of the population is in the work force with 30% of that workforce Government,so what might work for them would not so well work for us.

With those on the bottom already having so little it requires there to be an underclass that has nothing and will never have anything.

Not sure I agree.

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
The homeless problem is growing and just pulling them off the streets into a centralized location will just be a massive fail,there needs to be a solution formed at the base level,change that will address why so many are ending up in the situation

Need to house them somewhere or it is a bigger failure. Typically a person on the street would need at a minimum a safe place to sleep and eat, a place to wash themselves and their clothes, a place where they can have an address, and a place with free transportation.

This would be at least a foundation for them to work from to actually be able to get a job, but there is so many issues with this from both ends. First money... second, what if the person doesn't want to do it, as would be in many many cases.

"the final solution to the homeless problem"

Build more houses ... Utilise empty buildings
Allow those who wish to be Nomadic their freedom to do so