I know it’s a joke, but this really rubs me the wrong way, as it plays off the idea that homeless people are homeless because they’re deviants somehow, not just unlucky individuals who fell through the cracks.
Fact is that giving homeless people a sizeable cash injection and a place to live often has very good outcomes in them being able to turn their lives around.
Good work by the author on punching down.
Actually, both are true. There’s not just one type of homeless person, which is a large part of why it’s such a complex issue to address.
There are a lot of homeless who are severely mentally ill, addicted to drugs, or both (self medication). These people are a significant portion of the homeless (~1/3 mentally ill, ~1/3 alcohol, ~1/4 drugs).
There are also a lot of homeless people who had some bad luck and need help getting back on their feet.
There’s no one size fits all fix here, but the idea of giving someone a stack of cash and expecting it to be used responsibly is absurd. There need to be guardrails in place.
I’m not disparaging the people who can’t spend a stack of cash responsibly either. They need help in the form of social services, not money.
Relationships are a basic necessity for most people, and you have to start by meeting people.
Did you know a good portion, like 50%, of homeless people are foster kids who aged out?
Ok but it also highlights one of the sources for that preconception. A single influx of cash won’t get an unhoused person back on their feet. They can’t take $100 to the bank and get a car loan or a mortgage. They could rent a room for a day or two at most, OR they could get some drugs and/or alcohol and enjoy life for a few hours. Might even get laid, or make a friend.
Do you expect them to maximize the value of that opportunity? To go buy some bulk rice and beans and start meal prepping, or invest in a bus pass and a collared shirt? When you’re down, a day of fun can be the memory that sustains you through some hard times. There’s logic in choosing the short-term when things are that bleak.
The real problem is that we confuse handouts for safety nets and investments in our society. Every study on the subject of aid shows us that poor people need money. Not food stamps, not shelters, not some tightly-controlled stipend with strings and requirements and monitoring. Straight cash is the best remedy, and it’s not even close. Some people will buy drugs or alcohol or lobsters or whatever else people are afraid of.
The lesson here is that it’s OK if a welfare recipient spends some of that money enjoying themselves. Addiction treatment should be available to all, but there isn’t a vice in the history of human civilization that has been eliminated or even reduced by making people poorer. If we had UBI, then people would have a reason to stay sober and rejoin society as a functioning adult. If we simply gave out the money we already spend fighting homelessness and addiction, it would provide more help to more people, even if some of them spiral down further.
it plays off the idea that homeless people are homeless because they’re deviants somehow,
The only problem here is your interpretation of the comic.
Instead of looking at how it humanizes homeless people and shows that they are
just like everyone else you decided to interpret the guy going clubbing and being
interested in the opposite sex as the artist depicting “deviants”. WTF?Fact is that giving homeless people a sizeable cash injection and a place to live often has very good outcomes in them being able to turn their lives around.
Not always - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruitt–Igoe
Maybe it’s a joke about this definition of basic?
Glad I’m not the only.
Sure it’s just a joke, but it does feed into this distorted rhetoric that giving money to homeless people will just lead to the money being misused rather than survival, which is absurd.
Ah yes because most homeless people are perfectly rational and would not spend it on drugs etc.?
I know someone who feel through the cracks etc. and got back on his feet. But clearly drugs and mental illnesses etc. are a massive problem where a lot of money can easily end deadly.
So you’re saying you’d rather leave all homeless people to starve than risk a few of them using some money on drugs?
No.
I was in Vegas a few years ago, jogging the strip early in the morning before another day of tech conference hell. At one of the intersections a scrawny dude in unkempt clothes sat on the ground giggling and holding a sign that said “why lie? I wanna get high” (he clearly was). There was more money in his bucket than any of the other panhandlers I saw.
Kinda interesting to see an English language political comic with an English mistake that no native speaker would ever make.
edit: No? You guys don’t find it interesting that people are influencing the politics of cultures whose language they don’t even speak proficiently? That’s interesting too.
“take them” instead of “take it”? Yeah, jumped out at me too.
take on me (take on me) take me on (take on me)
i’ll be gone in a day or two
so, needless to say, i’m odds and ends
but I’ll be stumblin’ away
