Capitalism, The Best Solution to Poverty

[pErvinalia]

It really is greed, isn't it? No matter how much the neoliberals try to explain it away as trickle down.

[Scot Dutchy]

Inequality is America's biggest problem. Trump just keeps on making it worse. How do they know that unemployment is falling? By unemployment claims? A great way of collecting data. Like health no one really knows.
The trouble with wealth it produces hard data which the rich dont like. It is very visible.

[Joe]

Inequality is America's biggest problem. Trump just keeps on making it worse. How do they know that unemployment is falling? By unemployment claims? A great way of collecting data. Like health no one really knows.
The trouble with wealth it produces hard data which the rich dont like. It is very visible.

Exactly! If your unemployment runs out and you don't find work, or you quit looking, you aren't counted.

I pay no mind when the cheerleaders tout low unemployment. I can see the truth in my daily life.

[Scot Dutchy]

I doubt if the American authorities really know much about their population. You dont have registration like we have in Europe (except for the UK of course) so how can you have hard data?
How many camps are there like the one shown in the photo? How is policy made?

[Joe]

I have no idea, and the government can only guess, but I can take an hour ride around town on my bicycle and see from 3 to 10, depending on my route.

The thing is, the compassionate leaders of my city have made camping illegal, so the camps shift location regularly.

[Scot Dutchy]

Nice of them. No want a garbage belt.

[laklak]

Bring back the workhouse.

[Sean Hayden]

A lot of the counting of homeless is actually done by volunteers. There are several organizations that take part. For numbers in Houston you can check out sites like this one: http://www.homelesshouston.org/local-data-and-research/ which puts the number of homeless in this area at ~4,100 on any given night.

At the federal level the USCIOH United States Interagency Council on Homelessness has developed a plan for addressing youth homelessness. Their first criteria is the identification of all homeless youths:

The community identifies all unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness.

The community uses coordinated outreach, in-reach, multiple data sources, and other methods to identify
and enumerate all unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness, spanning the community’s entire
geographical area. Specifically, while recognizing that youth experiencing homelessness may move among a
variety of settings:

a. The community literally identifies every unaccompanied youth who is unsheltered, in shelter, or in
transitional housing settings or other residential programs for youth experiencing homelessness; and,

b. The community coordinates a comprehensive set of strategies, spanning schools, the child welfare
system, including child protective services, the justice system, drop-in centers, hotlines and 2-1-1, and
other youth-serving agencies and programs to identify unaccompanied youth who
are doubled up or couch-surfing and considered homeless under any
federal definition.

The community’s efforts are tailored to the unique needs of particularly vulnerable youth.

For more about policy regarding the homeless check them out.

[Sean Hayden]

Supposedly a big part of our homeless problem is the result of closing down institutions. Apparently tax payers don't like the homeless and don't want to chip in to get them the help they need. --who'd a thunk it eh?

[Rum]

You seem to have a big shambling mess of a country and I like that. My daughter drove from somewhere near New York all the way to Southern California a couple of years ago with her boyfriend and she was struck by the number of people who just seemed to have pulled up at the roadside and set up home off the grid. You can’t do that pretty much anywhere in Europe.

[Scot Dutchy]

Thank goodness we dont. That is pure poverty. Something to be proud of? Really? No health care. No nothing. If they die who bothers?

[Rum]

Thank goodness we dont. That is pure poverty. Something to be proud of? Really? No health care. No nothing. If they die who bothers?

I'm sure a great deal of it is about poverty, but I also think it is hard for us Europeans to appreciate how deeply ingrained the desire for the gubmit to stay out of people's lives is over there. They put up with a great deal for that 'right'.

[Sean Hayden]

Well, we do have really bad governments in a lot of respects. Would you want Indiana in your business? --be honest

[Sean Hayden]

Until we as a people get better, keeping a bit of the fuck off Uncle Sam attitude is necessary.

[Sean Hayden]

How about Oklahoma? Have you ever been to Oklahoma? It's the only place I've ever been denied a hotel room. I get sick just thinking about dealing with Oklahoma.