2y ago

US homelessness up 12% to highest reported level as rents soar and coronavirus pandemic aid lapses

apnews.com US homelessness up 12% to highest reported level as rents soar and coronavirus pandemic aid lapses

The United States has experienced a 12% increase in homelessness, to its highest reported level. Federal officials Friday said soaring rents and a winding down of coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for more Americans.

Benjamin, Get The Musket @lemmy.cafe

apnews.com /article/homelessness-increase-rent-hud-covid-60bd88687e1aef1b02d25425798bd3b1

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proof again that the government could severely curtail homelessness if they wanted to-- they just don't.
- Something something bootstraps.
  
  That's it I'm cutting any and all bootstraps I see. Menacingly approaches old riding boots
  
  The disparity in wealth should grow instead of shrink.
  As long as most people believe this, then that's what's going to happen.
  
  Wealth disparity is not relevant to this discussion. It doesn't say anything about where the bottom tier is.
  If we had full UBI, free homes, free food, free healthcare, etc and some small portion of the country were quadrillionaires, we'd have massive wealth disparity and no loss of quality of life.
  Wealth is not zero-sum, and the high and low do not necessarily have anything to do with one another.
  
  Bruh, not to shit out an old conservative adage, but that money has to come from somewhere. You’re missing the entire nuances of how the monetary system works, and the whole argument of where the money should come from for these things. A country where wealth disparity is increased because the tax comes from the middle class looks very different from one where it comes from the upper classes and massive corporations.
  
  A country where wealth disparity is increased because the tax comes from the middle class
  This also has nothing to do with the money disparity.
  Like, I agree with you regarding taxation in broad terms. But the objective reality is the wealth disparity does not have any impact, on its own, on anyone's individual well-being, the same way me acknowledging that it doesn't has no bearing on whether or not wealthy people should pay more taxes.
  If we cannot discuss things in a real world framework, were basically just writing fan-fiction of reality. That is a MAGA way to create policy, not a real world methodology.
  
  The way you’re trying to frame this is magical thinking where wealth disparity within our society doesn’t come with sets of nuanced issues that don’t directly effect the wellbeing of society as a whole. After a certain rate of wealth disparity, for instance, those with the most can directly control those with the least with any number of creative ways that mostly amount to “I have money so I can buy people.”
  From controlling government officials, to controlling individual level situations like law enforcement and judiciary measures so that they can essentially do whatever they want, which is never used for the betterment of others and always to the detriment of the masses. To leave these things out of a conversation about wealth disparity and quality of life is just disingenuous man.
  
  The way you’re trying to frame this is magical thinking where wealth disparity within our society doesn’t come with sets of nuanced issues that don’t directly effect the wellbeing of society as a whole.
  This isn't magical thinking, it's simply understanding that wealth is not zero-sum.
  https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/seven-deadly-economic-sins/wealth-is-positivesum/78D2A23B03BB245AF40C45B5C1F6C9FF
  From controlling government officials, to controlling individual level situations like law enforcement and judiciary measures so that they can essentially do whatever they want, which is never used for the betterment of others and always to the detriment of the masses.
  This is indeed bad, but is a measure of the strength of institutions, not wealth disparity. Wealth doesnt win elections on its own - 2012, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 all featured out-spent candidates who won. Trump famously won despite being outspent handily in 2016
  I'm genuinely flabbergasted that some people perceive this as some sort of hot take and not just acknowledging the reality at play here.
  
  Another awful take courtesy of you.
  
  It's not a take. This is just correct information that you don't like. There is 0 opinion in the above.
  
  You would be delusional enough to believe that.
  It's okay, I'm going to put you on my ignore list now. You're not worth arguing with because every post you make is asinine.
  Goodbye.
  
  Have a good one!
  
  The rich people who go on TV and say "people don't want to work for me anymore, that's why we need to cut benefits" certainly see wealth as zero-sum. They know if we had all those things you listed their business would stop working.
  
  Or they're lying for their own gain
  Also this is a question of incentives, not wealth. They believe people who get benefits are incentivized not to work. This has been proven soundly false in recent tests of UBI.
  
  What are they seeking to gain if not wealth?
  
  Elected office.
  
  They get elected to office to do what exactly? I hear they have the wildest orgies.
  But seriously, politicians serve money to make money. So I don't see how this dodges the point.
  
  Politicians serve their constituents - they consistently vote in the way their constituents want, and in the last 6 years the Republican Party has been turned inside out by those constituents.
  It's impossible to argue otherwise in the face of the very real power people wield, from primarying their representatives to taking over local school boards.
- We can invent billions of dollars to give away during the pandemic, and billions more to give Israel to continue its genocide against Palestinians, but solving student debt or homelessness or universal health care? We don't have enough money for that!
  
  Because interest payments make profit, and reducing people’s ability to not live paycheck to paycheck increases the workers dependency on the system.
  
  universal health care? We don’t have enough money for that!
  Universal healthcare would, ironically, save the government, businesses, and consumers money all at the same time.
  
  Is Hamas/IDF genocide against each other some kind of meme that must be mentioned in every comment section now or is this just propaganda?
  
  Hamas isn't in the West Bank. And yet Israel is demolishing houses right now so that settlers can move in. Only one side is perpetrating a genocide.
  
  Sweet, what's that have to do about US homelessness?
  
  Nothing. It has everything to do with your comment. This isn't a "both sides" moment. It may have been in the past but Israel is commiting war crimes at a breathtaking pace now.
- Proof that the military needs more money, you say? That’s correct!! 😅
  
  How else are they going to keep all those homeless people in check
  
  Or accurately place a missle within 5 meters of Amhed and his little sister as they walk home from school.
- No Democrats or Republicans actually get voted out for voting for shitty things, so where's the motivation?
  
  What did you do the last four years that should make us vote for you again Biden?
  "I'm not Trump"
  Democrat voters cream their pants and run to the voting booth so Genocide Joe can have another 4 years
  
  Well considering Trump ( by his own words) literally wants to become a dictator and destroy any democracy in this country.
  I mean unless someone wants to live in the second coming of Nazi Germany... But hey they'll have "shown those libs!" when being drug off to camps.
  
  I gotta keep voting for the people I don't want to vote for else I won't be able to vote anymore!
  
  This but unironically
  
  The Build Back Better plan is basically a progressive wish list. Biden has done some great things that make him worth voting for.
  https://www.whitehouse.gov/build-back-better/
- What's the point of thinking of our government as "the government"? Or changing "We could solve this." to "They could solve this."?
  
  Considering the military budget is now up to 1.2 trillion a year and we pay for other country's wars, the government clearly exists to make warmongers wealthier.
  
  Because the government has on multiple occasions during my lifetime refused to consider measures with over 90% popular support.
  Because they do not serve us as it is written in the Constitution. They serve the wealthy, they bend and scrape and lick their boots, never hold them accountable to the law, and never. Ever. Act against their best interest in any scenario. And the wealthy benefit from the social safety net having a big hole above a pit trap their workers are afraid to fall into.
  
  Our leaders serve the people making noise at the bargaining table. We the people have the most power. We just leave after the first victory. We don't become educated voters and choose to instead focus on exciting narratives. Elite interests try to affect change and so focus on reality. We the people seem to be after catharsis and so focus on symbolic victories.
  But what can you expect from people who constantly tell themselves they have no power? No agency? They don't conceptualize themselves as being able to affect change and it colors everything they do.
  
  You're judging the majority of the population without questioning why we feel powerless. The vast majority of news, media, and education we encounter support our oppression.
  Just because you've been lucky enough to hear the truth and been in the right place emotionally to hear it doesn't mean you should write everyone who is ignorant as morally inferior.
  
  I'm not judging, I'm curious about why people say this stuff. The way we talk is intimately tied with results. Changing rhetoric is a big step in getting girls to conceptualize themselves as capable of "boy" things. "Chess is for boys." isn't just a phrase, it's like a spell that alters reality. If people can understand how words have power when it comes to women's opportunites, or minorities taking interest in voting, then they'll eventually understand that it affects our agency too.
  
  Oy. Arguing with nihilists is about as useful as pissing into a black hole. You'll just get your dick turned into spaghetti for the effort, so why bother?
  
  All I care about is that people can see what kind of mentality pairs with rhetoric like, "They control us!" It's not a productive, insightful perspective that speaks helplessness into themselves and others.
  
  except nobody said that
- proof again that the ~~government~~ people could severely curtail homelessness if they wanted to-- they just don’t.
  
  That’s why we formed a government, to handle shit like this. A government of the people by the people for the people. it’s their fucking job.
  
  The government is just doing what its people want.
  If the people want something different, then they should do something different.
  Haven't you heard how good the economy is doing?
  
  you dropped this: /s
  
  I think you're just trying to agree with the downvoters.
  
  don’t sprain something with those mental gymnastics
  
  Homeowners pulling the ladder up after them is the single largest driver of our housing crisis. You literally cannot build more housing in the areas we most need it, due to regulations pushed for, and at times written by, local homeowners.
  
  Would we need more homes if private companies didn't buy so many single family homes?
  
  Yes. They didn't even start doing that until the investment became worth it.
  NIMBYism is the cause of this problem. We need to build for density, change property tax laws where they've been rigged, and encourage building wherever possible.

141 comments