What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[DGuller]

But ultimately the result of our economic and political policies that put all these people on the streets will ultimately just be to outlaw poverty. Class warfare. Not look at ourselves and think about how we got here. But to be fair, for a city government class warfare is probably the best it can do.

I think stating as incontrovertible truth that homelessness is a problem created by economic policies is not helping matters.  In my personal experience, based on the posture of homeless people I encounter, the main economic problem seems to be the cost of fentanyl.  In NYC at least, there are plenty of efforts to take the homeless into shelters, but they either don't want to be taken, or can't abide by the rules to stay there.

[Razgovory]

From my experience MAGA really hates the homeless, they are not keen on policies of blue cities that cater to the homeless. 

MAGA is very good about tapping into fears that span political lines, and the ones you're not supposed to talk about.  In my experience fear of homeless is a bipartisan issue, even if a lot of people on the left publicly recite the platitudes about "unhoused" and cost of living.  Privately everyone is scared when they're harassed by an apparently deranged and possibly drugged out person, and privately everyone thinks they have a right to not be scared.

That may be, but MAGA are the only ones publicly state they want to give the homeless lethal injections.  I think that MAGA is bothered by the homeless in ways that other people are not.  MAGA has a strong Christian component, and so they weekly hear about giving to the poor.  However, they aren't keen on actually giving to the poor, and the homeless are a visible reminder of their failure to live up to their faith.  This causes cognitive dissonance.  This discomfort leads to hatred.

[Tonitrus]

Random procedural question for the US law-talkers...

Assuming one thinks that the USSC ruling on Presidential immunity is garbage...how would one go about trying to get it overturned in the future?  Keep charging a hypothetical former criminal President with a crime(es)?

[crazy canuck]

What economic and political policies caused the increase in homelessness?

IMO the biggest driver of homelessness was the ending of involuntary commitment.

This is a good reason why the US is quickly becoming a failed state. 

[Zoupa]

What economic and political policies caused the increase in homelessness?

IMO the biggest driver of homelessness was the ending of involuntary commitment.

The biggest drivers are:

• Income inequality cause distortions in the housing market that push rent burdens higher, making housing unaffordable.
• Lack of jobs that pay living wages, lack of affordable housing, and lack of health and social services lead to poverty and homelessness.

[Razgovory]

Most of the homeless I see do not have a job so a living wage would probably not help them much.

[HVC]

I think Yi is conflating two types of homelessness. The crazy/and or drug addled homeless and the less visible homeless like those living in shelters or out of their cars. While involuntary confinement might be of some help to the former it does nothing to help the latter. And the later group is still a significant number, but less memorable because they're not pissing on the subway or yelling at display mannequins. It's also a right wing tactic to rail against the first group to draw attention away from the second, although I don't think that's what Yi is doing in this particular case.

[Zoupa]

Most of the homeless I see do not have a job so a living wage would probably not help them much.

You don't think a living wage could have prevented them from being homeless?

[Norgy]

Most of the homeless I see do not have a job so a living wage would probably not help them much.

You don't think a living wage could have prevented them from being homeless?

What came first, homelessness or the lack of a living wage?
If you can't pay rent, own a home, then you are on the streets. I suppose there is some romanticism surrounding hobos, nobody writes a country song about a mid-level manager in a grocery store.

[DGuller]

Most of the homeless I see do not have a job so a living wage would probably not help them much.

You don't think a living wage could have prevented them from being homeless?

I don't think it's a given that it would prevented much of homelessness, especially among the "visible homeless" according to HVC's definition.  Once your brain is destroyed by drug use and/or mental illness, living independently will prove to be challenging, as would holding down jobs with living wages.

[Norgy]

People don't become addicts by choice.  And mental conditions and drug use are closely linked. Even some bloke from Canada called Jordan Peterson says so. People have a social heritage and genes, and some are born unfortunate in that respect.

Do they belong in an institution, or should should they be given a fair shake at a job and a home? I would prefer the latter, even if my taxes increase.

I know charities do a lot of good in the United States. But what if these charities do not conform to the new normal? Will there be a crackdown on them as well? I dunno.

[HVC]

Depends what you think the split is. If you think it's 99% crazies then maybe not, but I don't feel that's true. If the invisible homeless is a significant amount (my view) then a living wage would help a great deal. I have no evidence either way so I can't say for sure what the split is.

Even with the crazy cohort you can break that down into those with a genetic predisposition (schizophrenics for example) and those that fried themselves on drugs. Many, but not all, who crash down that path do so for economic reasons. When everything is shit drugs make life better... until they don't. A living wage too would help in that case.

[Jacob]

I think the opioid crisis is another significant contributor to homelessness.

[Valmy]

Most of the homeless I see do not have a job so a living wage would probably not help them much.

You don't think a living wage could have prevented them from being homeless?

I don't think it's a given that it would prevented much of homelessness, especially among the "visible homeless" according to HVC's definition.  Once your brain is destroyed by drug use and/or mental illness, living independently will prove to be challenging, as would holding down jobs with living wages.

First of all tons of homeless people have jobs. They tend to live out of their cars or whatever they can find.

Second of all in the past we had infrastructure to deal with mental illness, we just got rid of it. Which is what I was referring to. In the past we believed in making a public coordinated to make society better and address social problems, then we decided stop doing that. And here we are. Send them all to prison is the best we can come up with.

[crazy canuck]

I think the opioid crisis is another significant contributor to homelessness.

I'm not so sure.  A lot of people with an opioid addiction are high functioning and able to hold down a job.

The surge in homelessness, while correlated with the opioid addiction crisis, is I think more causally related to the increase in housing prices rents.

Combine that with the failure of wages to increase with the cost of living and it becomes pretty obvious why there are so many homeless people now.

The other problem with linking the opioid crisis with homelessness, is it fuels the baseless argument that if only people didn't do drugs, there would not be a homelessness crisis.