Life in the Age of Dumb, part 2: A vengeful tide.

[gnimbley]

Gary, Indiana?

Ive been there

GODS it was smelly and had smokes stacks that where on fire!!!

That's on a good day.

[sakredchao]

call it bullshit if you like.  that's you're deal.

personally i've been homeless.  i've lived with the homeless.  there were a few..  very few.  who were mentally or physically ill and unable to do something useful (in our presentday society).

90%+ of the people i was living with on the street chose that lifestyle, cause its easy.  cause they wanted to bump tweak or whatever else they could get their noses on.

as to being able to leave town..  people feel it's so very hard cause they don't want to give up their precious possessions.

of course, it's much easier to say that humans are weak and powerless to do anything for themselves, than it is to actually get up and do it.

my ex and i argued about this regularly.  she said that not everyone had my "protestant, pull yourself up by your bootstraps work ethic" and because they didn't have that they were helpless.

you can eat in any town for free.  people living in poor countries would be bewildered by what is thrown away.  from grocery stores.  from restraunts.  the food is there, without the money.  although it does come with a social stigma of eating "garbage".  but, that garbage is perfectly good food.  i ate 40$ of sushi one day with a friend that was made the same day, for free.  i have other friends who -never- buy food.  they get what they need from the native plants and dumpsters.

have you lived on the streets before roger?  those are the people with the least of everything, and they know what the rest of society seems to have missed.  they have nothing and realize that they are surrounded by abundance.  occasionally someone decides they want to play the game and they get a job.  sometimes they keep playing and sometimes they go back.

you can yell at me if you want.  i still like you, and respect your opinion.  i just don't agree.

kim

[gnimbley]

Some people are on the street by choice. Some are not.

When they had a scandal at the state mental hospital here, instead of fixing the problem, the governor (the current Democratic Senator from Indiana) just closed the place. Made them someone else's problem, but not his. Some of them ended up on the street.

I also read an incredible book I picked up at a library sale called "Raised by Wolves." It is about runaways in Los Angeles. You could say they are on the street by choice. But for some that is only because they are running away from hell. Yeah, most of them are tweakers. I am not sure I can say that was exactly by choice either.

Then I know people who just work the system. It's like any economic system, supply and demand. The government creates supply by giving away money, and our culture creates supply by disposing of so much. The result is a demand arises to consume the supply. Classic capitalist economics. Adam Smith would be proud. Or not.

I can't speak to the proportions, which group dominates. Haven't been there. Don't expect to be. Don't think it really matters which group somebody belongs to. I still put money in their cups when I walk past.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

as to being able to leave town..  people feel it's so very hard cause they don't want to give up their precious possessions.

No job, no money, probably no car.

Move a family of 4 to another state.

Explain how it's done.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I still put money in their cups when I walk past.

Damn liberals.

[gnimbley]

I still put money in their cups when I walk past.

Damn liberals.

Damn neo-con fascists.    

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I still put money in their cups when I walk past.

Damn liberals.

Damn neo-con fascists.    

You'll pay for that, come the revolution.

God tells me these things, you know.

[gnimbley]

I still put money in their cups when I walk past.

Damn liberals.

Damn neo-con fascists.    

You'll pay for that, come the revolution.

God tells me these things, you know.

Oooh. When you see him next. Can you ask him for that recipe for
double chocolate cookies with blue and white sprinkles?

Thanks, Rog. You de mechanic.

[sakredchao]

what did people do for food during the great depression.  in that time in our history people were in much worse straights than folk are now, and far more of them were in that position..  i recall hearing stories from my grandparents about people going door to door, asking for work.  refusing handouts, but desperate for work..  but back then we still knew how to work and didn't operate under a mentality of entitlement.

if i had to move a family of 4 to another city, i'd gather up what little i had (or what little i needed) and go to the interstate which was going where i was.  and you know what, i'd get picked up.  just like poeple got picked up in the dust bowl era heading from the midwest to cali.  granted things weren't much better there in cali, but they got where they were going.  i'd get picked up.  probably faster with kids than with just myself.  and i'd get picked up by some poor person with just enough themselves.  not someone with money to spare.  why is it that the people with nothing are ready to share half of what they have with someone, and the person with everything is unwilling to part with what they have?

now, don't get me wrong, i don't mind helping people.  i just don't like being forced to.  i am an anarchist.  i oppose all functions of goverment, and that includes welfare.  that includes police.  and if i get shot by vigilantes while starving to death, so be it.

as for money in the cup.  i have never panhandled for money in my life.  and when i'm asked for money i offer them food.  i usually get "i'm not looking for that."  to me that's homeless for "i'm trying to get drunk."  cause i've seen it.  i've seen people ask for money for food.  get it.  and walk directly from that spot to the liquour store.  i'd say one out of every 5 people accept food rather than money.  it's easy to make 50$ a day panhandling..  i've made less than that working a job.  sorry, if you can stand there for 6 hours with a sign you can go to work.

crazies on the street.  i met a guy once..  "met"..  he had 2 green army duffle bags.  i always saw him sitting in a park, staring ahead of him.  i tried several times to talk to him, but he just kept string off into the air.  i asked about him.  and people told me about the institution one town away that closed down, like gnimbley said, and let everyone go on the street.  now, this guy didn't need much..  he had all his clothes and such, 2 duffle bags full of whatever it was..  he just needed food, and that's not a big deal..  hell, if you want to make it equitable for the city taxpayers, have the price for a meal be a bag full of trash..  city gets clean, people get fed.  and -work is done-..

i don't know..  i'm not saying that i have all the answers for social reform, however i feel that the present system simply causes dependance on the system, which is the opposite of freedom.

kim

[Chef]

THIS COW DUDE IS RIGHT.  THE POOR SHOULD EAT GARBAGE.

169% OWNED!

[sakredchao]

if the people throwing it away were paying attention then it wouldn't be "garbage".  a local natural food store puts its' old vegetables out in a box beside the dumpster so people can take them home.  they're perfectly good, they're just not perfectly pretty.