[bzbarsky]

Last time I was in France (Lyon, a few years ago), there was quite a number of homeless people camping out in the parks. Is France also a third-world country?

I agree that the homeless situation is bad. I don't think blanket claims that other "first world" countries handle it much better are necessarily true, unfortunately.

[raverbashing]

One (or a couple of) cities don't represent the whole country, naturally.

These were probably either recent migrants ("refugees" for lack of a better term) or Roma camps (which are not today's problem). They could as well just be homeless, sure (depends on the park, location, etc). Mostly, they are the result of progressive policies gone unchecked as well.

But are these in the same quantity/concentration and causing as much trouble and being as aggressive as the ones in SF?

[bzbarsky]

> One (or a couple of) cities don't represent the whole country, naturally.

Very true. Neither does San Francisco, of course.

> But are these in the same quantity/concentration and causing as much trouble and being as aggressive as the ones in SF?

Absolutely not. My point was that San Francisco's problem is not obviously that it's in a "third-world country".

[Apocryphon]

How bad are the banlieues?

[raverbashing]

They have several problems but not necessarily homelessness.

[asdff]

Those homeless in France have better healthcare and mental health treatment opportunities than I do working full time.

[bzbarsky]

There are many people (both in the US and in the world in general) who could quite honestly say the same thing about the homeless in San Francisco... This does not make their situation particularly wonderful, in either case.