Wolves are the solution to homeless people

[reddishrecue]

If the us was so rich then how come there still are trillions of dollars in debt? I saw somewhere that us was debt and now i see here that us is rich.

 

[Crackerbox]

Pass it on to the next American or the next homeless person, "Hey don't be downcast, read civfanatics and learn you're really wealthy!" What a dopey idea plus the lunacy of mockery in this Juvenal manner.

 

[sophie]

If the us was so rich then how come there still are trillions of dollars in debt? I saw somewhere that us was debt and now i see here that us is rich.

Because even though we rack up a lot of debt, the amount of goods and services we produce, in US dollars is astronomically high. Even when accounting for the size of our population it's quite enormous.

Plus debt doesn't matter all that much when you have an ad hoc paper currency that is the international standard for business transactions.

 

[Borachio]

On September 30, 2014, public debt held by the public had reached $12.8 trillion or about 74% of FY 2014 GDP[5][6][7] Intragovernmental holdings stood at $5.0 trillion, giving a combined total public debt of $17.8 trillion or about 103% of FY 2014 GDP.[6] $6.1 trillion or approximately 47% of the debt held by the public was owned by foreign investors, the largest of which were the People's Republic of China and Japan at about $1.3 trillion and $1.2 trillion respectively

Even by this scale, it's not actually that bad. Plenty of other countries have much higher levels of debt.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Pass it on to the next American or the next homeless person, "Hey don't be downcast, read civfanatics and learn you're really wealthy!" What a dopey idea plus the lunacy of mockery in this Juvenal manner.

Okay. As the local homeless person consider me told. I am well aware that my lifestyle would not work anywhere but America.

Only in America, I suspect, would I find people who can, for a reasonable service, provide me a room since they live in a house with far more rooms than they actually have a use for. There are places in the world where multi-generational families don't have a thousand square feet; my girlfriend, who is single, considers her 1400 square foot house to be small.

Only in America, I suspect, can a person who can overcome the "this is shameful" mindset honestly make a very good living as a panhandler. A recent 'experiment' by a guy working for a TV station demonstrated that the guy, who had no experience at it whatsoever so probably was not in a prime location or using a really effective pitch, netted well over ten bucks an hour over the course of a day. And that is just straight panhandling; I know a guy who put two kids through college playing guitar on the sidewalk.

Only in America, I suspect, can a normal healthy person draw so much 'you are so skinny' sympathy that they can actually get fat on donations if they are so inclined, because for sure only in America is a mildly obese person looked at as skinny. Helping clean up in restaurants at closing time will positively make one fat if one does not apply discipline.

Are there homeless people living in misery? Sure. There are people with McMansions who are miserable too. I suspect your concern is driven more by disapproval (ie there should not be homeless people, they need to get 'on their feet') than by genuine concern...but I am perhaps too cynical.

 

[Crackerbox]

Okay. As the local homeless person consider me told. I am well aware that my lifestyle would not work anywhere but America.

Only in America, I suspect, would I find people who can, for a reasonable service, provide me a room since they live in a house with far more rooms than they actually have a use for. There are places in the world where multi-generational families don't have a thousand square feet; my girlfriend, who is single, considers her 1400 square foot house to be small.

Only in America, I suspect, can a person who can overcome the "this is shameful" mindset honestly make a very good living as a panhandler. A recent 'experiment' by a guy working for a TV station demonstrated that the guy, who had no experience at it whatsoever so probably was not in a prime location or using a really effective pitch, netted well over ten bucks an hour over the course of a day. And that is just straight panhandling; I know a guy who put two kids through college playing guitar on the sidewalk.

Only in America, I suspect, can a normal healthy person draw so much 'you are so skinny' sympathy that they can actually get fat on donations if they are so inclined, because for sure only in America is a mildly obese person looked at as skinny. Helping clean up in restaurants at closing time will positively make one fat if one does not apply discipline.

Are there homeless people living in misery? Sure. There are people with McMansions who are miserable too. I suspect your concern is driven more by disapproval (ie there should not be homeless people, they need to get 'on their feet') than by genuine concern...but I am perhaps too cynical.

Yes, you said it, cynical. I'm quite aware of crushing poverty elsewhere like in refugee camps among the poorest of the poor who don't have even a bed they can claim to be their own, only lent them in a refugee tent. I know about abandoned children with AIDS who had only broken bits of glass to amuse them, who would die immediately to exposure without assistence, and who tragically enough would end up dying due to their weakness.

No, I don't just disapprove of them, but have come to love them. They are our Brothers and Sisters, and we should be caring for them. I mentored an impoverished alcoholic drug addicted homeless man and I was the better for it for helping him. He made understand how blessed I was and how it was so easy to be broken. No, helping him helped save my life. He gave me more.

Or helping a group of Sudanese Dinka, who arrived with but flipflops, a change of clothing, and a Bible, and yet they were filled to the brim with optimism and joy. They had nothing, and yet they had everything because of Jesus.

Why be so cynical? Is there a remote possibility that in service to others, not to make them clones of our materialism, but in helping them and learning from them, that we make the world a better place...and save our souls?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

No, I don't just disapprove of them, but have come to love them. They are our Brothers and Sisters, and we should be caring for them.

I notice you use 'they' and 'them' in referring to us. Has it occurred to you that your patronizing 'we should be caring for them' may not sit any better than any other form of disapproval?

If you want to help someone you run into, great. If they appreciate it, even better. If you want to sit back and talk about 'the poor downtrodden that we are so much better/luckier/more blessed than' I'm not your guy.

 

[Crackerbox]

I notice you use 'they' and 'them' in referring to us. Has it occurred to you that your patronizing 'we should be caring for them' may not sit any better than any other form of disapproval?

If you want to help someone you run into, great. If they appreciate it, even better. If you want to sit back and talk about 'the poor downtrodden that we are so much better/luckier/more blessed than' I'm not your guy.

I am part of that "we". It's not me versus them. When I say something like "we" failed them, it means me as well, even though I've been so active with homeless ministry. I've said "We're" failing young people when I've done around 35 years of youth ministry. We're all culpable (me in that "we).

Gosh, what assumptions people jump to. I hope you're not a young person because to see such cynicism in someone young is tragic. The world can be a dark place, but not everyone is bad in it, nor asserting their dominance over another.

We are not better than the homeless. We're the very ones who at any moment can be the homeless. That's been one of my talking points in this topic. The smallest thing can pull us in. Most of the economic folks who became homeless happened because of circumstances like job loss. Anyone can lose their job.

Any soldier can get severely injured, return to America, and then can't work due to disability and become homeless.

We're all fragile and that's me too. You have dark thoughts but everyone is not one way. Have you formed a mental image of Christians or Republicans or group X and thought they are all one way? Come on! Are even your closest friends all one way and robots who say the same things? NO! We're individuals.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I am part of that "we". It's not me versus them. When I say something like "we" failed them, it means me as well, even though I've been so active with homeless ministry. I've said "We're" failing young people when I've done around 35 years of youth ministry. We're all culpable (me in that "we).

Gosh, what assumptions people jump to. I hope you're not a young person because to see such cynicism in someone young is tragic. The world can be a dark place, but not everyone is bad in it, nor asserting their dominance over another.

We are not better than the homeless. We're the very ones who at any moment can be the homeless. That's been one of my talking points in this topic. The smallest thing can pull us in. Most of the economic folks who became homeless happened because of circumstances like job loss. Anyone can lose their job.

Any soldier can get severely injured, return to America, and then can't work due to disability and become homeless.

We're all fragile and that's me too. You have dark thoughts but everyone is not one way. Have you formed a mental image of Christians or Republicans or group X and thought they are all one way? Come on! Are even your closest friends all one way and robots who say the same things? NO! We're individuals.

Perhaps your talking points are outweighing your listening points. This half of we is certainly not better than the homeless.

Okay. As the local homeless person consider me told.

While being "pulled in" to the terrible nightmare you apparently think my life must be may be a concern for you, please stop ascribing some sort of trapped helpless fragility to me in order to scare yourself straight, or whatever it is you are trying to accomplish.

 

[Sommerswerd]

No one is mocking the situation. We're all mocking the asshat who made the statement as presented in the OP.

This.

 

[cav scout]

No one is mocking the situation. We're all mocking the asshat who made the statement as presented in the OP.

Dude, I think it's against CFC rules to call Archbob an asshat like that.

 

[gay_Aleks]

I'm quite sure he meant Don Young and not Archbob.

 

[cav scout]

I'm quite sure he meant Don Young and not Archbob.

But Archbob was the one who "made the statement as presented in the OP," not Don Young.

 

[gay_Aleks]

I believe he was merely sarcastic, as nobody remotely sane can say that letting hounds of wolves after the homeless as a solution to the problem.

 

[cav scout]

I believe he was merely sarcastic, as nobody remotely sane can say that letting hounds of wolves after the homeless as a solution to the problem.

Then why is everyone in the thread acting like Don Young even remotely suggested wolves as a solution to the homeless?

 

[gay_Aleks]

Because he did? I mean, Archbob was sarcastic. Don Young was serious. Which is why he's mocked.

 

[cav scout]

Because he did? I mean, Archbob was sarcastic. Don Young was serious. Which is why he's mocked.

Don Young was serious about what? Wolves being the solution for homeless people?

 

[gay_Aleks]

Well, we wouldn't have gathered around to mock him, if he wasn't.

 

[cav scout]

Well, we wouldn't have gathered around to mock him, if he wasn't.

Well he wasn't but you all did... and in rather mindlessly smug and embarassingly masturbatorial fashion.

Show me where he suggested that wolves were the solution to the homeless problem.

 

[sophie]

Well he wasn't but you all did... and in rather mindlessly smug and embarassingly masturbatorial fashion.

Show me where he suggested that wolves were the solution to the homeless problem.

“I’d like to introduce them in your district. If I introduced them in your district, you wouldn’t have a homeless problem anymore.”

I don't think he genuinely thinks that wolves would solve the "homeless problem". It seems more like he was trying to make an argument against wolf conservationism, because wolves pose a threat to farmers and the homeless (which is to say they don't), but in typical small-time-politician-who-doesn't-have-to-deal-regularly-with-national-press fashion, he went about it in just about the dumbest way possible.