Lets redefine “charity”. I tried to think of one but I’m having a hard time coming up with a good replacement. It needs to be larger and more positive. Hopeful. Constructive. The concept “charity” seems hopeless and unending. An infinite loop of pity that makes “rich dudes” feel better about themselves when giving a dollar and then writing it off on their taxes. If they could see a return using a “charitable” or comfortable chair instead…
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I don’t see how the “had to” follows from the “because”.
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I can’t even believe this is a debate. Under which ethical system is the acceptable, exactly?
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And they would be being scorned instead of him.
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Here’s a good piece on the subject that was on Quartz Media in March, 2015:
“Although problems of concentrated social disadvantage are more complex than any theory of space can account for, many policy makers, city councils and urban management have distilled Newman’s words into one idea: that certain activities can be ”designed out” of public (and private) spaces. And so can certain people.”
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No, that isn’t you opening your wallet. Taxpayer money doesn’t belong to you, it belongs to all of us. You’re doing exactly the thing I was pointing out; trying to spend someone else’s money on the problem.
Chasing away the homeless does solve the immediate problem. That’s exactly why it’s so popular a response.
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I think it has to do with lack of comfort or adequate shelter.
I made a trek halfway across the U.S. on bicycle with many situations where I just had to pitch a tent off the highway. Still, I was prepared.
One time, when I locked myself out of my apartment one night, I had to “sleep rough” on my patio with nothing to rest my head or arms on but cold concrete. This is how I would define it. Simply unprepared.
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In my experience, upper-middle class and professional white men don’t support Trump per se, but rather assert that things aren’t as bad as people claim things are.
Personally, I find this kind of blasé attitude far more dangerous that outright support for Trump.
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If I was ever homeless I’d probably die from lack of sleep. I can barely sleep on a fancy bed.
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I was just going to mention Austin. At least our new benches are, generally, quite comfortable for sitting if not for sleeping. On the other hand, I did hear God mention on Colbert last night that He wouldn’t mind showing up in a laid back city like Austin, so maybe there’s some hope for us.
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Trust me. You’d be surprised at what you can learn to do when homeless.
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One only has so much scorn to give. Direct it where it counts!
Of course! Why hasn’t anyone thought of this yet? “The homeless” can read books right into the job market. Have you tried sharing this wisdom yet with anyone who actually sleeps on the street? You really ought to…
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Well he’s not wrong. He’s just not wrong for the wrong reason.
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Hey, no true Scotsman has ever objected to my social engineering proposals; so what grounds do you have for whining?
(Snark aside, appeals to, possibly even sincere belief in, poorly specified but allegedly ubiquitous groups that embody the speaker’s preferred use cases seem to be quite common among bad ideas. Sometimes the group is explicitly invoked “the silent majority” “real Americans”, sometimes it’s implicit, “common sense” would be meaningless without a group to which it is common; sometimes it hides behind the word used for a well-specified group but is actually a poorly specified one: as in the ‘proletariat’ in ‘dictatorship of’ vs. the one made up of interchangeably low-skill workers who had nothing but their labor power in a capitalist context…)
One wonders how often it is sincere; it’s certainly hardly uncommon for people to fail to imagine what they have not experienced; and how often it’s just a cynical appeal to being on the side of the majority, without the inconvenience of actually needing that majority.
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You can complain about these benches all you want. As long as there is no rational place for anyone to go to the bathroom or bathe – anyone at all – we will be confronted with public spaces that chase everyone away.
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To support your point
Around one in three of the people bedding down here are in work. The night I went, the charity’s co-founder, Sheila Scott, looked down the list of guests and identified their employers. It was a roll call of Britain’s consumer economy: Starbucks, Eat, Pret. A woman who travelled three hours to work at a Co-op grocery. Pubs, McDonald’s, a courier for Deliveroo.
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Also a problem here in Seattle. People can work a full-time job here and still not be able to afford rent.
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Bastards:
https://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/03/19/3635964/what-would-jesus-do-definitely-not-this/
Solutions:
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