Equality - here because an original post was cleaned out by the men in black

[K-Dog]

RE's posts on homelessness caused me to research (surf de web) about poverty, the causes of homelessness and stuff.  The stark contradictions of the profit motive. 

Causes of poverty are not generally researched.  There is no need for research or scientific study as social opinion and bullshit are sufficiently strong to provide all the easy answers anyone needs.  Why is it that people have to be homeless in a sea of affluence?  What do we really know about the homeless?  Honest answers to these questions push a lot of buttons.

I'm not happy the deep state threw a bomb into our database and took my post away, I wanted to look at what I had found  a reek ago today.  The bibliography I posted is the only thing that remains.  Good I have a place to start from.  But.

Times are changing.  the boot comes down.

And we be fucked.

*****************************

A cause of contemporary homelessness is a drift towards destitution by people who do not ask for help.  People keep their problems to themselves until they are on the street.  When that happens people are trapped.  The root causes of homelessness are not so different than they were a hundred years ago, and that the common reasons people think it happens are as deluded as they were a hundred years ago.

On my way to work yesterday I had enough time to get a 20 Oz cup of 'High Voltage' coffee at an AM-PM gas station.  A minute from work.  I have been getting my high voltage for a while.  Black, no sugar, but I had not been in for a a few weeks.

The clerk recognized me and picked up an energy drink he had behind the counter.  "This is my coffee.  A buddy of mine dropped by and gave it to me."

"Is it working for you?

"I have three jobs and I'll have over 170 hours in two weeks.  I want to buy a new car this summer.

I paused to do some quick mental math, saying before it could be noticed.

"Three jobs, they can't all be full time.

"No, this is my regular job, the others are in other gas stations.

"How do you sleep?

"One of the jobs is very late, I can get a little there.

At this the clerk showed me how he did it.  He put on some dark sunglasses and leaned back on a stool.  I had not been aware he was on a stool.  His pose showed he could sleep behind the store counter.  Without it being apparent.  His head slightly tilted back. Then in a fluid motion the manner changed and his head tilted forward.

"Can I help you sir? 

He had it down.  I can't imagine a boss could possibly be pissed.  He can wake up at the bell on the door and do the work.  And get a few Z's at 4 AM.  Good for him.  I was impressed, but the bags under his eyes showed he has not had good sleep in weeks.  A customer came in to give him twenty for gas.  We seamlessly continued our conversation.  I left saying I don't know how you do it.

170 hours at 22 an hour is $3,740.  That works out to $97,240 a year.  After taxes and thousands in rent and livings expenses it is not a small fortune.  What used to buy a house now buys a room.  I am guessing about the 22.

If my friend keeps it up for a year, he will kill himself.  He was tired.

The lesson I left with is that it is a lot harder to get by in life than it used to be.  All that so you can get a new car in the summertime?  Is it worth it is not the question.  The point is things are getting harder and more people who do what they think and have been told they should be doing are not getting by so well.

Lack of good paying jobs is one of the reasons people become homeless.  As time goes by jobs become less good paying.  It seems to be a fact of life.

[RE]

Lack of good paying jobs is one of the reasons people become homeless.  As time goes by jobs become less good paying.  It seems to be a fact of life.

I lived this experience myself right after my divorce, almost.

When my ex-wife and I split, it was mutually agreeable and uncontested,  I did all the paperwork myself and filed the papers at the courthouse.  This meant no lawyers, no huge legal bills neither of us could afford.  In the late 1980s when even an uncontested divorce would run you a couple $1000s dollars in lawyer bills each, I did ours for $250 in filing fees.

Because we shared the condo and the van we had bought new (the only new car I ever bought with payments) we agreed she would keep the condo because it was close to her job and I would keep the van.  I agreed to pay my share of the condo for a year, or until she could get rid of it because on her salary she couldn't afford to keep it.  I was paying most of it because I made twice what she did, I worked 2 jobs she only had one.  So, I could not afford an apartment.   I also decided at that time I needed to change my life, I wasn't happy in my job as a clinical chemist either. It was one of the causes of the divorce.  So I enrolled to get my Masters in Education.  So I had 2 jobs and doing my masters full time.

My schedule was Midnight-8am at the hospital in Manhattan, drive out to SUNY Westbury on Long Island, 2 PM drive back to Queens where I took a job at a new gym coaching because I couldn't stand working with my ex-wife anymore 4pm-9pm, then back to the hospital at midnight to run blood tests, rinse and repeat.

I had no apartment, I slept in the van for an hour or 2 between jobs, slept through my classes and took catnaps between blood tests.  I was, needless to say, exhausted by the end of the 1st semester.

So, I backed off my school schedule 1 class,  and moved back in with my mom and was able to sleep in a bed for 3 straight hours before heading to the gym to coach after my morning classes.  That added enough real sleep to keep me going long enough to finish the program, get my certification to teach and change my life.  Sadly as it turned out I hated teaching in the public schools also, and quit teaching after 2 years.

Anyhow, the need to do this kind of thing to get ahead in life or change careers if you are poor is nothing new.  It's been the case since at least the 1980s, and I'm sure before that.  Withot my mom's house to fall back on, I would have been homeless living out of my van for 2 years.  I never would have made it.  Somewhere along the way, I would have died in a wreck falling asleep at the wheel.

RE

[K-Dog]

American policy is not determined by any rational approach to governance.  American policy is decided from a singular and narrow point of view.  A view which serves the exploiting class.  The class who knows their interests are in opposition to the greater mass of humanity. 

The religion of American money demands its acolytes embrace human exploitation as the natural order of the universe.  American dissent is all reduced to argument about how much exploitation is acceptable.  Politics reduced to two sides of a duopoly coin.  With many devout disciple of legal tender considering any limit on the activity of exploitation tantamount to denying a personal right.  In America the idea that some people have rights, but others deserve none is common and normal.  Social acceptance of this bizarre dichotomy makes the contradiction of some people not having rights while others have none altogether go away.

When social acceptance meets logic.  Acceptance wins.