RE: The Beginning of the Depression : Americans now living in tent cities

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RE: The Beginning of the Depression : Americans now liv... - 2/6/2008 7:02:30 PM

Gwynvyd

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The Homeless has been an ongoing problem for years. Not too long ago I had written a thread on homeless Vets. Now with the War, the new on going issues with our economy, the sub-prime bust, unemployment rates getting worse, and more layoffs and corporate cut backs it is only getting worse. As some one put it many many people are only one paycheck away from the streets. Most live on thier credit cards and pray it is enough to get by. I have worked with the homeless since I was young beside my mother then on my own. I just moved from a county that shipped out any homeless or poor (Collier county ~Naples FL.) to St. Petersburg. I read some articles in this all.. and the place where I drive by to get to my church down town was "raided" *sighs* Yes there are other tent cities. http://www.stpeteforpeace.org/tentcity.html http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/22/Tampabay/The_Great_St_Pete_Hom.shtml

I do not believe in helping those who do not help themselves.. or who refuse to try to do things. But a lot of the system is stacked against them at times. Not to mention the mental health system is a joke. Most of the homeless have either health issues, mental health issues, or documetation issues. I help when and where I can with my church currently.

I sat in the ER triage the other day listening to a man and I assume his girl friend. The man was there due to a tooth needing to be pulled, and it was too infected. A friend had driven them there, and was going to loan him the money to get the meds he needed. The nurses were all very polite, even gave him food, and drinks. He was an utter ass. Bitching to high heaven that they of course were going to expect him to pay for the visit, and for meds. How dare they. I wanted to get up, and punch the rest of what ever remaining teeth he had left in his head out. Why in the hell should he feel "intitled" just because he is white, and poor? He sat there muttering and bitching the whole time. I just stewed. I knew the friend who was helping him with the meds was poor as well... if he had been a half way decent human being I would have payed for his meds myself. But no way in hell was I about to help an ass like that. He even bitched about how she was helping him.. because she was doing it her way.. not just handing him the money.. but by taking him, and buying them for him. I see this so many times that people feel intitled and get pissy. It makes me sick.

We have to balance out with helping needy people, and not intitling the assholes out to milk the system.

Gwyn

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RE: The Beginning of the Depression : Americans now liv... - 2/6/2008 7:11:53 PM

MzMia

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quote:

ORIGINAL: libbiez

just a side note, we do have health insurance and as i said most of the rednecks i know hold a job, meaning that they have worked at the same place for more than a year (my ex has been employed by the same company for 23 years) yes i can get a place for about $600 a month but i will have to drive 45 minutes to get to work and again to get home... at my waitress pay of $4.60 an hour and gas at $3.91 a gal. how far will my check go? i am looking at a 20 mile radius for housing. i would think a reasonable distance to have to be outside of the "city" minimum rents are $900 avg. are closer to the above stated $1200 including nothing.
yes i would love to move away, but i dont need to be arrested for kidnapping my own children.

Thank you for sharing your candid story libbiez.
I appreciate it.
Many don't realize that most of the people struggling to make it these days,
are good people that are just trying to make a living.
I hope things work out for you.

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RE: The Beginning of the Depression : Americans now liv... - 2/6/2008 9:08:03 PM

SugarMyChurro

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Gwynvyd
I do not believe in helping those who do not help themselves.. or who refuse to try to do things. But a lot of the system is stacked against them at times. Not to mention the mental health system is a joke. Most of the homeless have either health issues, mental health issues, or documetation issues. I help when and where I can with my church currently.

It shouldn't be left to churches to deal with it. I prefer the ethic of a society being judged by how it treats the least of its members.

To my mind, this all started during the Reagan era. That guy was a total asshole and put many people onto the streets of our nation. That travesty of social justice had a domino effect with the states quickly doing likewise. In the main these were people that were previously considered wards of the state - for a variety of reasons unable to care for themselves.

All these years later, some of you younger folks think this is normal - but it wasn't normal before. At some point this nation lost all of its heart and started giving away all of its wealth to the already extravagantly wealthy. I call it "reverse Robin Hood" in which we take from the poor and middle-class and give it all to the rich.

Most of what Bipolarber said is correct in my view. But I admit I didn't understand the movie reference.

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RE: The Beginning of the Depression : Americans now liv... - 2/6/2008 9:28:24 PM

FangsNfeet

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Belive it or not, most Tent Cities are made by choice. Some people form groups and decide to isolate themselves from the majority of society by camping out in BFE. Game Wardens visit them from time to time to say "Hi, how's it going? Any medical service or supplies needed?" The GW's then go on there way staying out of the groups polictical and justice policies.

You'll usually find such groups in rural forest and swamp areas of the South and Far East in the USA. For the most part, they aren't bad people as long as you don't go looking for them and start trying to take over the place.

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RE: The Beginning of the Depression : Americans now liv... - 2/11/2008 12:33:34 AM

UtopianRanger

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A few very good articles here. I offer a sincere apology in advance to anyone here who's invested in the Las Vegas metro area real-estate complex.

http://money.cnn.com/real_estate/zip_code_foreclosures/

This one is fucking amazing. Even with all the attention I give to studying this subject, I had no idea Las Vegas was that far in the toilet.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8033

This one is a ''read between '' the lines. It's basic message is that many banks are on the verge of imploding {I've wrote about this quite a few times here}and that you might lose your funds if they are over and above the FDIC cap.

Also....it's interesting to note that during the banking panic/run of 1929-33, the banks kept taking depositors cash until the morning before many of them closed their doors.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/30/news/international/okeefe_rogers.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008013103

Another read between the lines. This is the father of the modern day hedge fund, whispering in the dark.....

Ok.... that's enough... I had a great weekend - I'll take my act back over to the ''General Discussion'' part of the boards and add to the discussion about '' No limit slaves '' or ''Tips for online domination''

- R

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RE: The Beginning of the Depression : Americans now liv... - 2/11/2008 12:46:19 AM

MissMorrigan

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I read a report a couple of years ago which stated, among other things, that the highest rate of homelessness was among ex military, which is especially sad.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Aneirin
I do believe it is not so dissimilar here, those that lose everything end up living on the streets.The only thing that prevents 'tent cities' is our laws, which the police seem all to keen to enforce, especially when wealthy and influential nimby's start flapping their lips.

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RE: The Beginning of the Depression : Americans now liv... - 2/11/2008 2:06:04 AM

deliciousmorsel

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It's not just the sub prime hitting home- but credit card debt is about to explode as well. People use cards to cover necessaries, like food and clothing and wind up with 29% interest! In the meantime, the news is all about Britney Spears as a distraction... Why is Congress letting banks destroy the economy with credit cards? Because somebody wants a company Gulfstream?
If you look at the math just from sub prime and credit card debt- there's a huge crash looming. There are, and will be, tent cities and shacks.
I'm from New Orleans, where almost every freeway has a tent city under it. Most of the inhabitants are working people who have to strike camp and keep their stuff in the car so it won't get stolen. Now there's some Bush bungling for you- call in the trailers so people can sleep in tents. These are the working poor to a great extent who can't find affordable housing, but don't think oh, there was a disaster... Affordable rental housing is a problem all over. In our situation, a small cabin like structure could have been put up for a fraction of the cost of one of those nasty trailers but Congress refused to act. In the sub prime situation, there has to be an easy fix, like chopping off the interest bump, but Congress refuses to act. They really are corporate whores, every one of them.
Wait until gas goes up more.

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