Quote:
Originally Posted by Behind_Phips
Where to start Brian:
1. Did you grow up physically abused?
2. Have you ever been sexually abused?
3. Did your mother smoke crack while you were unborn?
4. Did your family not have enough money to put food on the table?
5. Do you have any mental problems and are uninsured?
6. Have you ever served in the military and seen things that destroy ever bit of your human fiber and come home from war to a government that could give two craps about you?
7. Did you grow up with one or no parents?
These are the worthless human beings you talk about. You couldn't walk one damn day in their shoes. These people are not trash. You can't just throw them out like yesterdays trash. People like you disgust me. You are pathetic to write that crap.
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I actually think this is a discussion worth having, and that both of you (Behind_Phipps and briantech) should be a little bit more open to the other's point of view. Both of them are valid, and for either of you just to discount the other is silly if you ask me.
Yes, many homeless people have had terrible pasts - ones that I am blessed to not have experienced. I think many of us take for granted growing up in good homes, receiving an education, and having access to segments of society that many others do not. Many of them struggle just to sustain themselves. Many of them are even working hard every day just to stay where they are - after all, a minimum wage job can't exactly fund a place to live in the city. And you're right: they are people, after all.
Yet for both the poor that have lost hope and don't care, and those that are willing to work for a second chance, there must be a better solution than the shelters the city has established for them. MarketsWork, you may have a suggestion (if you're reading this), because clearly the government has failed in many respects. Should we simply let the market take care of this? Is this something that can be reconciled with market forces, or is it the obligation of the city to take these people in and offer them food, shelter, and jobs?
I for one despise the fact that many of them roam our city's most notable address. There must be a better place - and better means - to handle the poor and homeless than what we have conceived to date. If addressing this problem means shipping them off somewhere, then so be it. They certainly have the right to live where they want, but that doesn't mean that the city or taxpayers owe them the right to live on Peachtree Street. The way I see it is that the people of this city who are working every day, who are giving up years of their lives struggling through commutes and 40+ hour weeks, have to leverage where they live based on their incomes in relation to other expenses. Many people who work all the time still cannot afford to live in a condo in Midtown. Why is the city giving a free ride to homeless in one of the nicest parts of town? If these people are unwilling to or cannot work, let them live somewhere, but have it be somewhere that the market dictates. The "highest and best use," as they say, of that land is certainly not a homeless shelter. The people living there deserve it no more than anyone else, and the fact remains that these shelters are blights on the neighborhoods.
Where can they be moved? I don't have a good answer to that. I just know that it's unfair to ignore these people, but also unfair for them to continue to bring down what could be an excellent area of town. Hopefully we have some visionary leaders in the near future that can address the problem with solutions that have to this point not been realized.
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