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Homelessness: What's a Few Billion More For Social Justice?

maxparrish said:
— only a desire to control small matters in the lives of weak people who are either unable or unwilling to control their own lives.
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There's that sociopathy again.
You're supposed to outgrow Rand in junior high school.
 
Checkerboard Strangler said:
There's that sociopathy again.
You're supposed to outgrow Rand in junior high school.
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Ayn Rand was one of the great libertarian touchstones; I will always treasure her insights (just as you saw value in quoting one of them).
 
JasperL said:
If at least half the homeless population is mentally ill, and they can't find treatment because there are no places to treat people without funds, then of course money is part of the problem. You might not think it's well spent, but I can tell you with 100% certainty that lack of treatment for mentally ill homeless contributes to the problem.

Thank goodness for the VA for veterans. They do provide mental health treatment, and in our little center, the veterans have much better outcomes because of it. It's an ongoing battle for many, with some doing OK for a year or three or whatever, then they come back. But that's what it takes. Hard to get and keep a job if you're mentally ill, go off the meds because they make some feel bad or 'drugged' all the time, which they are, but the alternative is full blown mental illness. Etc.

There is no easy answer and there are lots of barriers to addressing the problem long term - reliable funding for needed programs a big one but obviously not the only one.

What we do see frequently around us are places that get funding from state or local or the feds and they operate as flop houses for the mentally ill, and pocket the money intended for mental health treatment or whatever. So guys come in, stay till funding runs out, then are kicked out to the streets. More of those places won't change a thing for most.
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There are plenty of funds for treatment. That the govts choose to spend it on bike paths instead isnt due to lack of funding.
 
jonny5 said:
There are plenty of funds for treatment. That the govts choose to spend it on bike paths instead isnt due to lack of funding.
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Bike paths are one example of infrastructure spending. We also spend lots on roads for your car, the military, border enforcement, prisons to lock up pot dealers and other low level drug offenses. So what?

In a theoretical alternative reality, there are sufficient funds for, well, everything - universal healthcare and a minimum income for everyone, for example. Zero out the Pentagon budget and you can pay for all kinds of goodies! But if you say that lack of funds is a problem, it means lack of funds dedicated in this reality we inhabit to the problem in question, and there are not funds in my reality for mental health treatment for the homeless, or the poor in general.
 
JasperL said:
Bike paths are one example of infrastructure spending. We also spend lots on roads for your car, the military, border enforcement, prisons to lock up pot dealers and other low level drug offenses. So what?

In a theoretical alternative reality, there are sufficient funds for, well, everything - universal healthcare and a minimum income for everyone, for example. Zero out the Pentagon budget and you can pay for all kinds of goodies! But if you say that lack of funds is a problem, it means lack of funds dedicated in this reality we inhabit to the problem in question, and there are not funds in my reality for mental health treatment for the homeless, or the poor in general.
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Because they spend the funds on less important things. There are not suffcient funds for, well, everything. You just listed two priorities and a cut to something else, which proves it. If there were funds for well, everything, then we could double the pentagon budget and buy mansions for all the homeless. Lack of funding is not the issue. Lack of priorities is. Would you rather have bike paths or treatment mental health?
 
jonny5 said:
Because they spend the funds on less important things. There are not suffcient funds for, well, everything. You just listed two priorities and a cut to something else, which proves it. If there were funds for well, everything, then we could double the pentagon budget and buy mansions for all the homeless. Lack of funding is not the issue. Lack of priorities is. Would you rather have bike paths or treatment mental health?
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we don't need alleged wars on crime, drugs, and terror; especially if the right wing refuses to pay wartime tax rates for them.
 
jonny5 said:
Because they spend the funds on less important things. There are not suffcient funds for, well, everything. You just listed two priorities and a cut to something else, which proves it. If there were funds for well, everything, then we could double the pentagon budget and buy mansions for all the homeless. Lack of funding is not the issue. Lack of priorities is. Would you rather have bike paths or treatment mental health?
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I don't have a clue why you're singling out bike paths, and my point was clear enough. In my reality, for whatever reason, funds for mental health for poor people are not available, so funding for treatment is indeed a huge problem.
 
JasperL said:
I don't have a clue why you're singling out bike paths, and my point was clear enough. In my reality, for whatever reason, funds for mental health for poor people are not available, so funding for treatment is indeed a huge problem.
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Bike paths are symbol of lower priorities. And Im adressing this:

We also spend lots on roads for your car, the military, border enforcement, prisons to lock up pot dealers and other low level drug offenses. So what?
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The answer to your mental health treatment is right there. We spend lots on roads, pot dealers and other low level drug offenses. When we should be spending that on mental health treatment.
 
jonny5 said:
Bike paths are symbol of lower priorities. And Im adressing this:



The answer to your mental health treatment is right there. We spend lots on roads, pot dealers and other low level drug offenses. When we should be spending that on mental health treatment.
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we just waste money on a useless drug war.
 
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