this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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Most of them fucked up their life with drugs, it's their own fault
Nice try, but that's a material condition resulting from living under late stage capitalism.
Surface level understanding of theory is surface level.
i hit you with real world examples and you give me buzzwords
"A 2021 study from the University of Chicago estimates that 53% of people living in homeless shelters and 40% of unsheltered people were employed." Most homeless folks have jobs and lose them due to worsening Material Conditions. Facts dont care about yohr feelings. source
so more than half of them are unemployed, and others are prioritising other things to spend their money on. You cant tell me 7.25 bucks per hour isn't enough for a home and food.
Are you being a contrarian to help me prove my point? if so thanks. Full-time minimum wage workers can't afford rent anywhere in the US, according to a new report
Why do you think people go to drugs, most of the time it's because their life was already bad and the drugs just made it worse. Yes, there is a percentage of people that are lazy but it is only a small margin of homeless people. There is enough well researched material on youtube about these topics on youtube. If the system doesn't help homeless people at all it will not get better even for the people that aren't lazy and their life just didn't go the right way or they were exploited at their workplace to a point that they couldn't afford living anymore.
Just because the concept of capitalism says it is possible to "work" your way to the top doesnt mean it is happening, almost every single rich person got their wealth by some means of exploitation of other people
A third of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. On average people spend a third of their paycheck on housing. That's not a lot of room for any kind of bad situations before they become homeless. It can be something completely out of their control like a car running a light and killing their mother which sends then into depression.
Try to indulge me, as I try to humanize the people you are talking about in a way that might resonate with you.
Imagine you work 40hrs a week, getting paid minimum wage or next to minimum wage, the housing market continues to worsen around you as rent continues to increase but wages don't. If you have a place already and are just barely scraping by living paycheck to paycheck, which a lot of people are these days. One small bad financial day from an emergency or unexpected cost and you're screwed. You miss your rent payment and you get evicted. Now, if you don't have a safety net of people, which we can't guarantee everyone does have living family or friends that will take you in for a month while you get back on your feet, you become homeless. You get fired from work because you've taken too many unpaid days off to try and get your life sorted so you don't have to sleep on the streets. Now you can't get another job because most places won't hire you without an address, and collecting unemployment becomes difficult because if you have no address and no direct deposit you can't get it mailed to you to claim.
As for the drugs that you say they have chosen to ruin their lives with, a pack of cigarettes, a small bag of weed, some opiates, or alcohol costs a whole lot less than rent for a month or even a motel room for the night.
The financial and housing situation for a lot of people out there in the world is really fragile, and if you add on other issues that I didn't list such as mental health issues, lack of education or job experience with any education you have, or existing addiction, it can really add up and make it so your going from sleeping in a small bachelor's apartment one night to sleeping on a park bench the next.
I don't fully ascribe to the concept of communism myself (it's a good label for most folks but I'm too picky about nitty gritty stuff so say I like it when I would want to adjust a few things about it), but I definitely think social housing is how you fix homelessness. Cities and states / provinces waste more money dealing with homelessness the way they do now then just building them socialized housing.
Their own fault? That's the dumbest thing I've read today. Yeah because most home less people are in that situation ONLY because of their own choices, not bad circumstances, right?
Like people affected by natural disasters... 🌧 🌧 🔥 🌳🔥 who had their homes destroyed and couldn't afford to rebuild - welp- MUST BE DRUG ADDICTION
Aside, even if it is addiction, why are those people undeserving of help now? Just because there are callus jerrks who don't care about other humans generally, doesn't mean we're all like that. Grow some compassion, eh?