[ExI] Homelessness (was Re: Social right to have a living)

Jeff Davis jrd1415 at gmail.com
Wed Jun 29 09:40:35 UTC 2011


On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 8:15 PM, Jeff Medina
<analyticphilosophy at gmail.com> wrote:
> Jeff Davis,
>
> (Note prior to reading: I do not have a side. I'm just playing devil's
> advocate to try to work one out, eventually.)
>
> So we should give houses to the homeless, but I have to pay rent?

If there was a free-housing program -- which there wasn't, one of
several accuracy "problems" in the "Singapore housing" story -- then
yes, you would most certainly be required to stay right where you are
and pay rent, absolutely.  Mandated by law.  In fact your rent would
be doubled. And a large neon sign placed over your domicile with a big
flashing arrow pointing to you and a sign that says, "This idiot still
pays rent!!!!   Ha, ha ha, ha!" So that passers by could heap ridicule
upon you.

> How do I get to sign up for the nifty Singapore-type free housing once you  make it the law in the U.S.?

Take a day off from work. Get in line.  Fill out the form.  Etc.  Just
like everybody else.  Either that, or move to Singapore.


> There are houses a mile or two from where I live, where people who
> make less than me have houses bigger than they or I need, because of
> federal housing aid that I don't qualify for.

And whose fault is your failure to qualify?  You chose to work when
you could have been slacking off.  That had consequences down the
line.  You need to step up to the plate and take personal
responsibility for the disadvantaged position you currently find
yourself in..

> Those people can afford
> to rent, but not to own.

Apparently they CAN afford to own.  At least for a little while longer, anyway.

> Why should our taxes subsidize McMansions like that?

Your implication is that they shouldn't.  And I agree.  But political
and economic power doesn't care about "shouldn't", it cares about its
piece of the action.  Cynical and disheartening, I know, but it's the
law of the jungle out there.  Sheep are to be shorn.

>(Sorry, I know this is a separate issue from the Singapore
> thing, just curious for your thoughts on this separate issue, too.)
>
> Half-spic, half-kyke here*, so I doubt I'm playing too much of the
> racist role. Although I do seem to look "white enough" that I seem to
> get the societal benefits of being a white male in the U.S., so you
> never know.
>
> * (Puerto Rican, Mexican, Russian/Ukrainian, Hungarian, English,
> French, German, Dutch, if we want to be picky about it.)
>
> My current intuition on this sort of thing: Resources are limited.
> It's not assured that I will have enough money to fund my wife and my care in our old age,

Join the crowd.  The old prosperity is gone, and now it's a war of all
against all.  Not as much as there used to be is unpleasant.  Not
enough to go around,...well that's gonna be ugly.


> nor assured that I'll be able to help out our
> relatives who need help.

Circle the wagons.  Take care of those closest to you.  Endeavor to persevere.

> I'm not trying to avoid taxes to buy yachts
> and throw coke parties.

Of course not, you pay rent.  The guys with the yachts and coke
parties,... they COLLECT rent.  (And have attorneys and accountants to
help minimize their tax liabilities.)

> I want to fortify the safety of my loved ones
> -- that's a higher priority for me than sheltering homeless folks.

Yes, of course.  But realistically, that is, setting anyone's humanity
aside as irrelevant, but exclusively from an accountant's cost-benefit
analysis point of view, we do want to minimize the cost we have to
bear, yes?  That means if the poor homeless bastards are out there
cluttering our streets, and coughing and puking, and urinating, and
pawing at us for a handout, our quality of life is severely impacted,
no?  So like it or not we have decisions to make, decisions which, in
the final analysis are usually economic:  What is the cheapest way to
go?  A govt supplied box with a toilet and running water?  A govt
supplied hospital bed?  A govt supplied prison cell?  Carve them up
for organs, pet food, and fertilizer?

> Does that make me a heartless bastard?

Not at all.  We're all trying to figure this out, and none too happy about it.

>
> Best,
> --
> Jeff Medina
>
> "Do you want to live forever?"
> "Dunno. Ask me again in five hundred years."
> (_Guards! Guards!_, Terry Pratchett)
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