The Cost Of Empire ??

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The Cost Of Empire ??

Post by Atheist-Lite » Mon Feb 13, 2012 4:16 am

http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front ... 694094.stm

America's homeless resort to tent cities

Panorama's Hilary Andersson comes face to face with the reality of poverty in America and finds that, for some, the last resort has become life in a tented encampment.

Just off the side of a motorway on the fringes of the picturesque town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a mismatched collection of 30 tents tucked in the woods has become home - home to those who are either unemployed, or whose wages are so low that they can no longer afford to pay rent.

Conditions are unhygienic. There are no toilets and electricity is only available in the one communal tent where the campers huddle around a wood stove for warmth in the heart of winter.

Ice weighs down the roofs of tents, and rain regularly drips onto the sleeping campers' faces as they sleep.

Tent cities have sprung up in and around at least 55 American cities - they represent the bleak reality of America's poverty crisis.

(continued)

Neglecting your own people whilst looting the treasury to keep pointless wars going just to keep the dying empire looking strong - been there done that. :smoke:
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Re: The Cost Of Empire ??

Post by Thumpalumpacus » Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:26 am

Well, we don't give handouts out very much anyway.
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Re: The Cost Of Empire ??

Post by Atheist-Lite » Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:31 am

Thumpalumpacus wrote:Well, we don't give handouts out very much anyway.
It isn't a hand-out when it prevents a outbreak of cholerea....it is a investment. :tup:
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Re: The Cost Of Empire ??

Post by Thumpalumpacus » Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:38 am

That's a pretty small parasol you're opening there to cover your point.
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Re: The Cost Of Empire ??

Post by Atheist-Lite » Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:47 am

Thumpalumpacus wrote:That's a pretty small parasol you're opening there to cover your point.
The air-bag of overwhelming societal collapse will cover my bases once things land home with the Republican hard-brake doctrine? :smoke:
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Re: The Cost Of Empire ??

Post by Thumpalumpacus » Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:26 am

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Re: The Cost Of Empire ??

Post by Audley Strange » Mon Feb 13, 2012 3:25 pm

Well I've noticed that Empires seem to start to fall apart after some guy turns up who some of their unwilling subjects consider kind of holy, rails against the empire and is executed, assassinated, killed. Soon after that they start to crumble.

Cheesy. Rasputin. Gandhi. Osama Bin Laden. I'm sure there are others that I can't recall, from the Big Black Book of Bullshit and various historical propaganda, but who really cares?
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Re: The Cost Of Empire ??

Post by Coito ergo sum » Mon Feb 13, 2012 4:18 pm

The Ann Arbor tent "city" (30 tents) is part of an organized protest movement, apparently. Camp Take Notice.

Maybe that is why they're not utilizing the government assistance that is available: Food Stamp cards -- Section 8 Housing - Medicaid for medical care.


Free and nearly free housing:
http://www.michigan.gov/mshda/0,4641,7- ... --,00.html - If one has no income, then one can get free housing. No need to live in a tent in the cold.

Food assistance: http://www.michigan.gov/dhs/0,1607,7-12 ... --,00.html - A person with no income and one child can easily get something like $375 a month just for food.

Free health care: http://www.michigan.gov/dhs/0,4562,7-12 ... --,00.html - No income? Medicaid - free - no deductibles.

So - free housing, free food, and free health care are available, and yet the article paints a picture of a nation that doesn't care about its poor by giving as Exhibit A example a tent city of 30 tents organized by an activist.

Add to the State benefits available in Michigan, and you have Washtenaw County and Ann Arbor benefits as well: http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/de ... Coverage-W and http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/de ... rogrampage

And, http://arborweb.com/cg/t0114.html listing dozens of assistance sources.

University of Michigan emergency hardship program: http://emergencyhardship.umich.edu/comm ... urces.html

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Re: The Cost Of Empire ??

Post by Audley Strange » Mon Feb 13, 2012 4:26 pm

Occupy the Woods? They'ree taking that Rosseau dreamery a bit too far.
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Re: The Cost Of Empire ??

Post by Atheist-Lite » Mon Feb 13, 2012 4:54 pm

Coito ergo sum wrote:The Ann Arbor tent "city" (30 tents) is part of an organized protest movement, apparently. Camp Take Notice.

Maybe that is why they're not utilizing the government assistance that is available: Food Stamp cards -- Section 8 Housing - Medicaid for medical care.


Free and nearly free housing:
http://www.michigan.gov/mshda/0,4641,7- ... --,00.html - If one has no income, then one can get free housing. No need to live in a tent in the cold.

Food assistance: http://www.michigan.gov/dhs/0,1607,7-12 ... --,00.html - A person with no income and one child can easily get something like $375 a month just for food.

Free health care: http://www.michigan.gov/dhs/0,4562,7-12 ... --,00.html - No income? Medicaid - free - no deductibles.

So - free housing, free food, and free health care are available, and yet the article paints a picture of a nation that doesn't care about its poor by giving as Exhibit A example a tent city of 30 tents organized by an activist.

Add to the State benefits available in Michigan, and you have Washtenaw County and Ann Arbor benefits as well: http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/de ... Coverage-W and http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/de ... rogrampage

And, http://arborweb.com/cg/t0114.html listing dozens of assistance sources.

University of Michigan emergency hardship program: http://emergencyhardship.umich.edu/comm ... urces.html
Just makes people feel better when things are worse someplace else I guess? Truth is negotiable? :smoke:
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Re: The Cost Of Empire ??

Post by eXcommunicate » Tue Feb 14, 2012 5:12 pm

Coito ergo sum wrote:The Ann Arbor tent "city" (30 tents) is part of an organized protest movement, apparently. Camp Take Notice.

Maybe that is why they're not utilizing the government assistance that is available: Food Stamp cards -- Section 8 Housing - Medicaid for medical care.


Free and nearly free housing:
http://www.michigan.gov/mshda/0,4641,7- ... --,00.html - If one has no income, then one can get free housing. No need to live in a tent in the cold.

Food assistance: http://www.michigan.gov/dhs/0,1607,7-12 ... --,00.html - A person with no income and one child can easily get something like $375 a month just for food.

Free health care: http://www.michigan.gov/dhs/0,4562,7-12 ... --,00.html - No income? Medicaid - free - no deductibles.

So - free housing, free food, and free health care are available, and yet the article paints a picture of a nation that doesn't care about its poor by giving as Exhibit A example a tent city of 30 tents organized by an activist.

Add to the State benefits available in Michigan, and you have Washtenaw County and Ann Arbor benefits as well: http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/de ... Coverage-W and http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/de ... rogrampage

And, http://arborweb.com/cg/t0114.html listing dozens of assistance sources.

University of Michigan emergency hardship program: http://emergencyhardship.umich.edu/comm ... urces.html
So, what do you think about these aid programs?
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Re: The Cost Of Empire ??

Post by Coito ergo sum » Tue Feb 14, 2012 5:24 pm

eXcommunicate wrote:
Coito ergo sum wrote:The Ann Arbor tent "city" (30 tents) is part of an organized protest movement, apparently. Camp Take Notice.

Maybe that is why they're not utilizing the government assistance that is available: Food Stamp cards -- Section 8 Housing - Medicaid for medical care.


Free and nearly free housing:
http://www.michigan.gov/mshda/0,4641,7- ... --,00.html - If one has no income, then one can get free housing. No need to live in a tent in the cold.

Food assistance: http://www.michigan.gov/dhs/0,1607,7-12 ... --,00.html - A person with no income and one child can easily get something like $375 a month just for food.

Free health care: http://www.michigan.gov/dhs/0,4562,7-12 ... --,00.html - No income? Medicaid - free - no deductibles.

So - free housing, free food, and free health care are available, and yet the article paints a picture of a nation that doesn't care about its poor by giving as Exhibit A example a tent city of 30 tents organized by an activist.

Add to the State benefits available in Michigan, and you have Washtenaw County and Ann Arbor benefits as well: http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/de ... Coverage-W and http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/de ... rogrampage

And, http://arborweb.com/cg/t0114.html listing dozens of assistance sources.

University of Michigan emergency hardship program: http://emergencyhardship.umich.edu/comm ... urces.html
So, what do you think about these aid programs?
I think that helping the poor and the down on their luck is a laudable purpose and necessary function of governmental institutions.

Why? What do you think about them?

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Re: The Cost Of Empire ??

Post by Thumpalumpacus » Tue Feb 14, 2012 5:33 pm

eXcommunicate wrote:So, what do you think about these aid programs?
They're uncomfortable facts for some people, whose narrative they don't quite support.
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Re: The Cost Of Empire ??

Post by Bella Fortuna » Tue Feb 14, 2012 5:37 pm

We had a tent city on the riverside here... not sure if vestiges of it are still there; I suspect so.
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Re: The Cost Of Empire ??

Post by Thumpalumpacus » Wed Feb 15, 2012 3:12 am

Bella Fortuna wrote:We had a tent city on the riverside here... not sure if vestiges of it are still there; I suspect so.
When I lived on the other end of Ventura, my neighborhood was close to the Ventura River, which is were a number of our city's homeless pitched camp. It was certainly an educational thing for me to see homeless folk every day, to speak with them every day.
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