I was going to say the exact same thing about washer/dryers.
To be honest, there are homeless people, and there are bums.
Iâm willing to bet that the number of bums (as a percentage) is relatively constant across cultures and history. Even a medieval village had the town drunk. I donât want to sound callous, but you canât save someone from themselves.
Homeless people, however, are a reflection of larger economic factors. You would be horrified to know how many of them in this country right now are kids. A lot of them live in campgrounds, stay with friends, live in their cars- If they keep a cellphone and PO box, take showers at a gym, and hold down a job (more common than youâd think) you might never realize they canât afford a place to live⌠But itâs an incredibly taxing way to live.
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Well, they work in limited ways. They keep people from freezing to death in the winter and dying of heatstroke in the summer. They also provide a point of contact so when someone on the streets wants help with addiction or mental illness, they can talk to someone who knows what programs are available.
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So Rider, are you saying that these people PREFER to sleep on the sidewalk with a piece of cardboard around them, which I have seen many times? are you saying that they will not go home and sleep in the spare bedroom of a loved one, if it was offered?
Iâm wondering how much you really know about all this, but Iâm willing to give you a chance. You might really be an expert and I might learn something here. Are you saying that if a bus was provided at dusk to take people to a shelter, the MAJORITY of people sleeping on the street would not accept the ride? When you say that shelters do not work for homeless, that doesnât jibe with what Iâve heard, that they are always full.
This is huge.
A while back, I had a friend living in my truck for six months, and hygiene was by far her biggest issue. (Finding a bathroom is often nearly impossible in San Francisco, but I usually parked near a 24-hour Safeway.) When it comes to public showers, though, youâre pretty much screwed. She finally found a womanâs shelter that allowed walk-in use of their shower, but it was first-come, first-serve, and only available during limited hours. (According to another friend who lived rough for a while, thereâs nothing similar available for guys.)
Iâd heard this had been proposed; glad to see itâs made it this far.
So if the first sentence doesnât dispel your biases, itâs game on.
Star Trek is striving for the technology where want of resources are a thing of the past (which of course makes treating everyone well much easier). It isnât the same thing as âliv[ing[ off the taxpayersâ which isnât a sustainable model if too many people decide to go that route.
Youâve got so many ideas - are you actually doing anything to make them a reality? Or do you just spend your time knocking someone who is having a go?
This is a really practical idea, and itâs real. Iâm sure if you contact Lava Mae, and explain that youâd like to copy what theyâre doing, theyâd be happy to help.
Actually solving one problem for homeless people is far better than dreaming about solving all their troubles.
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Actually, given productivity growth throughout the latter half of the 20th century, the common wealth could easily sustain everyone whoâs inclined to bludge, if we all werenât getting bled dry by an elite whoâve made the concept of progressive taxation verboten.
Most folks are intrinsically motivated to add value to the collective human enterprise, and as automation continues to raise productivity, weâre going to have to start regarding that as a lucky privilege rather than a moral obligation.
The question is whatâs to become of the 30% or more for whom thereâll be no job.
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Yes that is exactly what Iâm saying. Rather then deal with rules or deal with their own mental issues many of them chose to live on the street.
Homeless people hate shelters. Just look at all the work NYC has to do every year forcing people into them when it drops below freezing.
http://today.ttu.edu/2010/01/on-the-streets-why-homeless-people-refuse-shelter/
http://www.npr.org/2012/12/06/166666265/why-some-homeless-choose-the-streets-over-shelters
[quote]Haley Phelps, manager of the Oklahoma City Day Shelter, said a recent survey of the roughly 225 to 250 people who use the shelter daily found that 53 percent of them do not stay in an overnight shelter.
Straughan said that even though shelters expand the number of people they will take in and relax their occupancy requirements during inclement weather, it isnât uncommon to see at least one or two freezing deaths during the winter months.[/quote]
The reason it sounds a bit like Spanish is because itâs (almost) Latin. Lava me is Latin for âwash meâ. Itâs usually pronounced (in an ecclesiastical context at least) equivalent to âLava mayâ or âLava maeâ, which is probably why theyâve gone for the non-standard spelling.
Thatâs nice. I can assuare you, that even if we had replicator technolgy, certain stakeholders would move heaven to make sure that everyone is either busy for 40 hours a week or gets marginalized.
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In Costa Rica, where we speak Spanish, âMaeâ means âdudeâ, âpalâ or âbroâ, so the name here renders as something like âDude washâ.
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Ironically, showers use actual lava, which clears up the homeless problem.
Thatâs satire before someone gets their undies in a wad.
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Cool, didnât know that!
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