Poverty is a criminal offense in America.

[Brian37]

I walk through Harvard square once a week. There are so many bums there for some reason. A lot of them are young. I'm wondering if many of them (particularly the young ones) are faking being homeless for money.

Someone's been watching FOX News.

No, fakers are the minority, not a majority.

[houseofcantor]

I walk through Harvard square once a week. There are so many bums there for some reason.

Because it's Harvard Square, silly.

A lot of them are young. I'm wondering if many of them (particularly the young ones) are faking being homeless for money.

I don't know about those in that particular area, but I've seen it happen. Heck, I'd go on a bender, stumble out of my apartment and end up sitting on curb somewhere, and have people insist I take their money. People are weird.

[Minimalist]

Of course, many of those homeless are veterans that we pretend to honor...as long as it doesn't cost us anything.

http://nchv.org/index.php/news/media/bac...tatistics/

Although flawless counts are impossible to come by – the transient nature of homeless populations presents a major difficulty – the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates that 62,619 veterans are homeless on any given night. Over the course of a year, approximately twice that many experience homelessness. Only 7% of the general population can claim veteran status, but nearly 13% of the homeless adult population are veterans.

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

I walk through Harvard square once a week. There are so many bums there for some reason. A lot of them are young. I'm wondering if many of them (particularly the young ones) are faking being homeless for money.

Someone's been watching FOX News.

No, fakers are the minority, not a majority.

Overall a minority, but maybe there's a lot of fakers concentrated in this one area. The young ones have a bit of a punk look about them (odd hair styles and clothing) and they have an overly sarcastic demeanor. Not at all like the plain looking middle aged bums I'm used to seeing. Maybe they're actors and this is their way to get experience in acting?

[CapnAwesome]

People outside America are by comparison much more sane about this topic on average.

I wonder if you've actually been outside of America. There is more to the world than Europe and the United States. In past conversations about this you've always screamed and ranted that it's unfair to compare the poor in America to the poor in the third world and then said something crazy about Somalia or some country. This is despite the fact that the third world is the majority of the world, not some crazy place that is an unfair comparison.

Here is a hint: There are almost no poor people in America by world standards. Not even close. If you spent a year in even relatively well off countries in Latin America (Where I live almost half the year) then I think it would benefit your world perspective and you'd realize how pampered and spoiled you are.

The homeless are entirely a different issue and I think it's dishonest to mix the two issues. Most are drug abusers and/or mentally disabled. Society has an obligation to take care of them if they can and aside from our remarkable lack of mental health services we do a fairly good job at it. Have you ever been to a soup kitchen? You don't see starving people there and almost always there is left over food. In fact I've seen many overweight homeless people and those in poverty are more likely to be overweight than any other economic class. The portrait that paint of both the homeless and the poor in America just doesn't jive with reality and maybe you should take a step back and think if you've fallen victim to a propaganda industry rather than what is actually happening.

[Brian37]

People outside America are by comparison much more sane about this topic on average.

I wonder if you've actually been outside of America. There is more to the world than Europe and the United States. In past conversations about this you've always screamed and ranted that it's unfair to compare the poor in America to the poor in the third world and then said something crazy about Somalia or some country. This is despite the fact that the third world is the majority of the world, not some crazy place that is an unfair comparison.

Here is a hint: There are almost no poor people in America by world standards. Not even close. If you spent a year in even relatively well off countries in Latin America (Where I live almost half the year) then I think it would benefit your world perspective and you'd realize how pampered and spoiled you are.

And maybe you should take a step back and think if you've fallen victim to a propaganda industry rather than what is actually happening.

Again saying I have it better is a cop out. You are not going to get away with scapegoating our poor. You are pointing to their poor to justify making it even worse here. That doesn't make our standards better nor does it serve as an example to worse off countries

All you are fucking advocating is a slave labor society and a race to the bottom.

Spoiled? GO FUCK YOURSELF ASSHOLE! You are the fucking problem. I have one co worker who is 78 years old, been at where I work for 15 years, and is now because of the gutting of his hours having to dip into his savings and will have to work until he dies. I have another co worker who has to live in a tiny house with 6 or 7 other people with his 3 kids and has NOTHING left over after paying his car payment and car insurance. These people ARE NOT lazy or mooches.

Other people have it worse? That is your argument? Lame and pathetic.

[CapnAwesome]

Again saying I have it better is a cop out. You are not going to get away with scapegoating our poor. You are pointing to their poor to justify making it even worse here. That doesn't make our standards better nor does it serve as an example to worse off countries

All you are fucking advocating is a slave labor society and a race to the bottom.

Spoiled? GO FUCK YOURSELF ASSHOLE! You are the fucking problem. I have one co worker who is 78 years old, been at where I work for 15 years, and is now because of the gutting of his hours having to dip into his savings and will have to work until he dies. I have another co worker who has to live in a tiny house with 6 or 7 other people with his 3 kids and has NOTHING left over after paying his car payment and car insurance. These people ARE NOT lazy or mooches.

Other people have it worse? That is your argument? Lame and pathetic.

It's not my argument, it is the only argument that you are capable of addressing, those and all the other ridiculous things that I didn't say. I also think it's cute when you refer to the poor at they. Way to be a spoiled condescending ass. Also I live on 3000 dollars a year, so I seriously doubt that I'm part of the problem.

[Brian37]

Again saying I have it better is a cop out. You are not going to get away with scapegoating our poor. You are pointing to their poor to justify making it even worse here. That doesn't make our standards better nor does it serve as an example to worse off countries

All you are fucking advocating is a slave labor society and a race to the bottom.

Spoiled? GO FUCK YOURSELF ASSHOLE! You are the fucking problem. I have one co worker who is 78 years old, been at where I work for 15 years, and is now because of the gutting of his hours having to dip into his savings and will have to work until he dies. I have another co worker who has to live in a tiny house with 6 or 7 other people with his 3 kids and has NOTHING left over after paying his car payment and car insurance. These people ARE NOT lazy or mooches.

Other people have it worse? That is your argument? Lame and pathetic.

It's not my argument, it is the only argument that you are capable of addressing, those and all the other ridiculous things that I didn't say. I also think it's cute when you refer to the poor at they. Way to be a spoiled condescending ass. Also I live on 3000 dollars a year, so I seriously doubt that I'm part of the problem.

3,000 a year or 30,000 a year? Um 30k where I live would put me in the middle class but I don't even make that I make maybe 11 or 12k at best, I was doing better before my boss gutted my hours. 30k in say NYC however wouldn't be shit. And certainly not 11k.

[pineapplebunnybounce]

Certainly other people have it worse, but that's not something that's relevant to the discussion is it? Is there a point in bringing that up except to suggest that nothing needs to be done to bridge the inequality until things get as worse as it is in third world countries?

We're not talking about which country it's happening in, all countries that have an obligation to their citizens. And the reason the poor are more likely to be fat is because they spend more time working (no time exercising) and they spend their money on fast food because it's more calories per dollar compared to fresh foods. Plus they don't have time to cook. Time is precious when you're poor, most work more than one job and have children. And then they get sick more often too, poverty is directly correlated with health. Getting sick in america is pretty expensive, no?

[CapnAwesome]

It's not my argument, it is the only argument that you are capable of addressing, those and all the other ridiculous things that I didn't say. I also think it's cute when you refer to the poor at they. Way to be a spoiled condescending ass. Also I live on 3000 dollars a year, so I seriously doubt that I'm part of the problem.

3,000 a year or 30,000 a year? Um 30k where I live would put me in the middle class but I don't even make that I make maybe 11 or 12k at best, I was doing better before my boss gutted my hours. 30k in say NYC however wouldn't be shit. And certainly not 11k.

No, 3000 dollars a year. as in three zeros. So I don't really haven't developed a ton of sympathy for people who claim they can't get by in the United States.