I was more trying to offer the perspective of an immigrant from a poor country (that grew up there and came back to live for a few years) in regard to the issue of homelessness, and how much the work ethic of a person seemingly plays a role in it. If you ask immigrants that came from poor countries, I think you’d find many to be unempathetic to homeless people.
I know among many Vietnamese immigrants, they have an attitude that if you are homeless in America, then it’s your own choosing. To them if you’re willing to work hard and don’t get into trouble, America should offer you with enough opportunity to earn a decent living to provide for yourself. They think the issue with mental health is mostly an excuse to be lazy. As far as being a drug addict to the point of not being able/unwilling to work, then the person is no longer of any value to society, and s/he should somehow be discarded. That actually happened to the dude I mentioned in my previous post. He hung out with the wrong crowd and became a drug addict in his 20’s. His family just straight up disowned him. Pretended he was dead. He was/is a good dude, just has a problem with drug addiction.
As a person with a strong work ethic, it’s hard for me to understand or sympathize with people that don’t try their best to better themselves. But I don’t really look at this issue from a moral standpoint (that we should help people because they’re in need even if they chose to put themselves in that situation), but from a rather practical standpoint of what we can do to mitigate the problem without crossing the line of being immoral/unethical by violating people’s rights. So while I have a lot of reservations in helping lazy/unmotivated people, I believe we should find a solution (again, without violating their rights) to help them simply because it would in turn help us.
I’d definitely support
@Phatguysrule's idea of giving them free housing if it indeed proves to save money over cleaning up their mess while they’re on the streets. Deserving/fairness has nothing to do with this. Just plain attacking the problem with good old analytical data (again, if the data proves to be accurate).
Its indeed hard to fathom, having a good work ethic myself.
my only point of contention, of which it was noted that there arent numbers for the X factors, i believe will make housing them more expensive in the long run.
I suppose the question is, is the additional cost worth removing them from the streets?
Im in full disagreement that putting a roof over their head will improve their recovery of being a drug addict, of which almost half in portland are. It will help others and im open to that via some employment type program thst ifnds them a livable working wage and then weens them off the support.
I am for putting the addicts in rehab centers.
But the argument to that is its against the law to force them.
Well my answer to that is laws change all the time. We cant develop a system and incorporate new laws that provides a path to recovery and if they don't do it, and they continue to loiter and trash the streets, then they go to jail?
This is the same concept as mom giving the tantrum child candy to shut up.
very poor parenting and yes it may be harder but we find a better solution than paying for thier behavior even more so than we currently do.
That may sound callous but i don't care. After having exhausted all other options to provide help aNd having it denied to live the simpler, easier, addict life, my sympathy is removed and if they don't want to be a contributing part of society when offered help to do so, then They can go away.
Why would i stress over some stranger addict on the streets when im having to do the same thing to a loved one?
we cannot help these people until they decide they want to help themselves. It really does come down to that.
Ive wasted too much of my life trying to help those who dont give enough effort to help themselves.
Selfish? Oh well. Its my time now. Lol.
Im all about helping those who want it.
But they gotta want it.
my Uncle lives on a remote island in the philipines imo. Ill find the link to his drone video.
probably better for another discussion but ive been thinking about visiting him to see how the cukture is up close. He gives extremely high oraise to the level of importance family is etc.
When my grandmother who i moved near me and took over power of attorney on was on her last days, he came up and took her home over there and she was pampered night and day until the end. And when she passed all the natives camp out and mourn the loss for 30 days.
In an increasingly disconnected society, it sounds more and more pleasant to me.