[sevenless]

I've never seen any city with a homeless population like San Francisco's and I've been to much poorer places. Side by side with the artists and web developers is a parallel tent city, and it seems to have a lot of mentally ill, people with drug problems, and traumatized military veterans. People who in any other nation would be taken care of.

Simply put Americans don't seem to care very much about other Americans.

[rconti]

Portland's homeless problem is supposedly vastly, vastly worse than San Francisco.

What does it mean to "take care of" our homeless? House them? Who is willing to pay $3k/mo rent per homeless person?

In a third world nation, the "homeless" in San Francisco would be allowed to build a shantytown and would not be considered homeless. I'm not trying to minimize the real issues of poverty, but you can't avoid the fact that part of the problem is that regulation/civilization/whatever you want to call it has disallowed poor housing.

[ktRolster]

   >Who is willing to pay $3k/mo rent per homeless person?

If someone is willing, I just because homeless.

[Applejinx]

I know, right? I've been running a entrepreneurial business for nearly ten years, and lost my payment processor (still owes me for two months of sales) because they went out of business. I'm trying to get a Patreon to bring me in $800 a month and failing, even though I'm now giving away the products for free to try and scare up quantities of people who can spare a dollar a month.

I consider myself pre-homeless at this point.

[wyclif]

Simply put Americans don't seem to care very much about other Americans

Now there's a vast oversimplification if there ever was one. Using SF, which is highly anomalous economically and socially, to extrapolate out and project it on "Americans" and their attitudes toward poverty is a lot like saying the City of London's particularities are the same as the rest of England.

[sevenless]

It's kind of true, though. Compared to other developed nations, the US is a country that doesn't care if you get sick or die. It's about as social-Darwinist as it gets. SF is even much more liberal than the rest of the country, so it's a best-case.

Don't mean to be inflammatory, just how I see it having traveled a lot. It's wonderful to be rich in the US, you can get anything you want, but there's no sympathy for the poor or unfortunate or social underclasses (immigrant labor, etc) at all.

[dnautics]

Having lived in chicago, DC, San Diego, and visited NY, philly, LA, honolulu and baltimore, extensively, and volunteered among the homeless in SF, SD, DC, and Fargo - SF is much worse than the rest of the country.... Except maybe Baltimore. I think the US had a long tradition of taking care of the downtrodden outside of state-run institutions. This tradition was slowly dismantled starting at the beginning of the progressive movement (1920s-1930s through FDR) in favor of having the state run things. The net result now is that the state runs things poorly, and people now think that there is no longer any need for private charitable action, because government will deal with it.

[nojvek]

You make a point about SF/America being Darwinist. Compared to the European socialist countries, Canada, Australia, it's a stark difference.

Is America too big of a country to be able to fix this?

[sevenless]

It'd take a dictator to fix the USA. I think I could do it, but it wouldn't be peaceful.

[wyclif]

Simply not true. City of SF spends a lot of money on social services specifically for homeless people. So it's not that they don't care if people get sick or die. In fact, it seems like they care a lot, based on dollars spent to try and alleviate a problem that is very tough to mitigate.

[santaclaus]

> I've never seen any city with a homeless population like San Francisco's

The other west coast cities have massive homeless populations, too. LA has largely cleared the homeless encampments out of areas they are trying to spruce up (the revival of downtown LA and all that), but I've seen camps in LA rivaling those in SF. Portland and Seattle also get pretty large homeless populations during the spring and summer, although the homeless population drops precipitously during the rainy season up there.

[aminok]

"People who in any other nation would be taken care of."

The US actually spends far more than almost any other country in the world on programs for the poor. In many of the countries with less homelessness/drug-addiction, there is very little social welfare spending, and drug addicts are enrolled into compulsory treatment programs, something that has been deemed a human rights violation in the US.

Government in Thailand for example spends FAR less on social welfare programs than government in the US, but it has compulsory treatment.

[joesmo]

"Simply put Americans don't seem to care very much about other Americans."

You hit the nail on the head. What else do you expect from a society that won't even provide the option of healthcare to its citizens, that has massive industries whose sole purpose is to profit off the sickness and death of others, and that incarcerates over two million people at any given time, many for ordinary, everyday activities or mental health problems? It's a reflection of the people and many of the people are stupid, cruel, hateful, and puritanical to the point that they will do anything within their power to stop others from enjoying life. For example, the next time you hear someone talking about something they don't want their tax dollars going to, listen carefully to what they're saying. Rarely will it be the unjust wars we fight or other horrors like that, and often it will be others' well being and health. Or just talk to any Trump supporter (or almost any Republican at this point).

[apsec112]

Please don't post angry political boilerplate to HN. It turns every thread into a generic shouting match.

[joesmo]

So which part should I censor again?

[apsec112]

Moderation is not censorship: http://www.wizzu.com/corrs/moderation.html

(I am not a moderator, of HN or of anywhere else, but it's the same principle)