Microsoft Co-founder Pledges $30 Million To House Seattle's Homeless (cnn.com) 179
Paul Allen, a founder of Microsoft has pledged $30 million to house Seattle's homeless. From a report: Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said Wednesday the city was partnering with Paul G. Allen's family foundation to build a facility to house homeless families with children. Allen's foundation will provide $30 million toward the development of the facility, while the city of Seattle has pledged $5 million for its maintenance and operation. It will be owned and operated by Mercy Housing Northwest, a nonprofit housing organization. Seattle is in King County, which has 1,684 families that are homeless, according to the mayor's announcement. More than 3,000 homeless children were enrolled in Seattle's public schools during the 2015-2016 year, it said.
There's a fine line between helping and enabling (Score:2, Insightful)
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You're right. This is enablement. They're being enabled to sleep through the night without being attacked, or freezing to death. They're being enabled to get clean and get to a job interview, if they can even find an opening. They're being enabled to live like human beings.
How terrible.
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To liberals everything is great if someone else is paying for it.
We already know that it's a lot cheaper to just give them a house than deal with the fallout of not caring about other humans. Why don't you want to take the cost-effective option?
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[Citation needed.]
In this population of chronically homeless individuals with high service use and costs, a Housing First program was associated with a relative decrease in costs after 6 months. These benefits increased to the extent that participants were retained in housing longer.
http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/183666
Thanks AC (Score:2, Informative)
Thanks for that, AC. You would think that on a site supposedly for nerds that the residents would know how to use google by now, but apparently that's a little too complicated for some of these right-wing cucks. (Yes, I'm planning to use that word on them until they're tired of hearing it. All others are encouraged to join in. And that's precisely what someone is when they repeat bullshit talking points which were old when the Puritans picked them up and ran with them.)
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That first sentence is code for: 'For the _crazy_ homeless who split their time between parks, ERs and jails...'
Note the mention of 'retained in housing'. That's someone who's batshit, a problem with no good solutions. Give the government the ability to lock up loonies and they have historically used it to lock up dissidents.
This discussion is about families with kids though, usually much shorter term housing. A group of homeless that are actually fairly motivated (as such populations go, they do need
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Try comparing your average "socialist" European country with the US and take a look at various social aspects. I'm not even talking about soft mushy things like "quality of life", just look at the expense for things like social security, internal security (i.e. police), along with factors like crime statistics, suicide rates and educational standard.
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Give those criminal blacks and Mexicans a reason not to be criminal (i,e. something to lose) and watch your crime statistics plummet.
You think we don't have our share of poor people? We do. Ours just have food+shelter. Are they happy? Far from it. But they don't want to endanger what little they have and go to prison over nothing.
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Crime among African-Americans is a cultural thing, nothing to do with how rich they are, as a matter of fact rich blacks are even more likely to commit crimes than poor whites.
Re: There's a fine line between helping and enabli (Score:2)
It's a statistical fact supported by both research and law enforcement reporting. The fact you don't like it because your politico-religious viewpoint hasn't caught up doesn't matter.
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To liberals everything is great if someone else is paying for it. Why don't you house them and feed them and pay for their medical bills and children when they have them.
No abortions though, so we let them kids loose in the inner cities, with no job programs. And because its a moral failing on their parents part, they should suffer too. Cause "Jebus" and "righteousness" and "i got mine." Try thinking about someone other than yourself all the time.
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Either put up your own money for letting people live for free or be quiet about it
I've given food, money and syringes to the homeless from my own stocks because they needed it. I encouraged them to think about their choices, impulses, and long term effects. Others run programs and shelters for jebus, or so they can profit(or engorge their powers) for themselves and theirs. I am not on this planet to profit on the backs of the poor, how about you and those you support?
Re:There's a fine line between helping and enablin (Score:5, Informative)
This is not just free stuff. This is a program to combat homelessness. From TFA this money is going to Mercy Housing Northwest [mercyhousing.org] It is the organization that appears to have a great track record. Like most modern homeless shelters, it's about getting people on their feet, it at all possible. Better than spending money on prisons/healthcare costs/crime that comes with homelessness.
From their website Mercy Housing Northwest:
Impact on our residents
Providing a home that families and individuals can afford is a valuable service. Some households need more. And we provide it. We call this coordination of housing and services “Service-Enriched Housing.”
What does Resident Services or Service-Enriched housing mean?
After school tutoring & homework club for students
Exercise, health and wellness opportunities
Nutrition workshops and healthy cooking classes
Tax prep and EITC assistance
Emergency food assistance
ESL & employment coaching
The goal of Service-Enriched Housing is to help families achieve stability and then to enhance that stability. It is stability that can be the greatest preventative measure to help families avoid homelessness. We accomplish this through dedicated and highly-motivated staff, extensive community partnerships, and a focus on programs that contribute to resident success and outcomes that can be measured.
We not only believe that affordable housing and supportive programs improve the economic status of residents, transform neighborhoods and stabilize lives—the evidence shows that it does.
74% of our residents in Washington have consistently paid their rent on time.
91% of our residents in Washington have maintained their housing for 1+ year.
72% of our residents in Washington have maintained their housing for 2+ years.
84% of our residents in Washington have accessed 5 or more basic and enhanced skill-building services.
This is not just free stuff. This is a program to combat homelessness. From TFA this money is going to Mercy Housing Northwest [mercyhousing.org] It is the organization that appears to have a great track record. Like most modern homeless shelters, it's about getting people on their feet, it at all possible. Better than spending money on prisons/healthcare costs/crime that comes with homelessness.
From their website Mercy Housing Northwest:
Impact on our residents
Providing a home that families and individuals can afford is a valuable service. Some households need more. And we provide it. We call this coordination of housing and services “Service-Enriched Housing.”
What does Resident Services or Service-Enriched housing mean?
After school tutoring & homework club for students
Exercise, health and wellness opportunities
Nutrition workshops and healthy cooking classes
Tax prep and EITC assistance
Emergency food assistance
ESL & employment coaching
The goal of Service-Enriched Housing is to help families achieve stability and then to enhance that stability. It is stability that can be the greatest preventative measure to help families avoid homelessness. We accomplish this through dedicated and highly-motivated staff, extensive community partnerships, and a focus on programs that contribute to resident success and outcomes that can be measured.
We not only believe that affordable housing and supportive programs improve the economic status of residents, transform neighborhoods and stabilize lives—the evidence shows that it does.
74% of our residents in Washington have consistently paid their rent on time.
91% of our residents in Washington have maintained their housing for 1+ year.
72% of our residents in Washington have maintained their housing for 2+ years.
84% of our residents in Washington have accessed 5 or more basic and enhanced skill-building services.
Does that not sound better than just letting them be on the street?
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Does that not sound better than just letting them be on the street?
They'd be fine if we'd just spend the money on bootstraps for them. But no, we instead insist on entitlement handouts like this....
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Why don't you pay for your own prison-industrial complex and pay for your interventionist foreign policy and military-industrial complex when you have it?
To conservatives everything is great if somebody else is paying for it.
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To liberals everything is great if someone else is paying for it. Why don't you house them and feed them and pay for their medical bills and children when they have them.
I've often thought this about sanctuary cities, lets start deporting all the criminals there. Give them what they want. Let Sacramento be over run by the Mexican mafia and the like until they see the light.
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And how are conservatives different? red states are net takes of federal money, blue states are net givers. So conservatives are literally living off other people's money.
If you are for reduced government, return all the excess federal money that you didnt pay for.
I have seen this said many times but wonder where it comes from and how they come up with such numbers. If a state has a heavier military presence, does all that money skew it toward being a taker? What about programs like Social Security and Medicare? A lot of people love to retire to southern, warmer climates so does that skew the numbers too?
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liar
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One would expect it to attract homeless from other cities to relocate to Seattle.
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Absolutely it will increase and increase and increase.
The Homeless Wars (can I trademark that?) will be amusing, to say the least.
Paul Allen seems to be a decent guy (Score:2)
From what I've read about him so far. Unlike Bill Gates.
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WTF is wrong with making money while helping someone? Win-win, right? You sound more like you think lose-lose is a winning proposition.
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Pay your fucking taxes instead (Score:4, Insightful)
If the rich didn't get more ways to weasel out of paying their due, we wouldn't need the pittance they pay as charity. We'd have the money to provide for our people ourselves.
Fuck you Paul Allen. The only reason you could create that "charity" is because you evaded paying what you owe.
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Re:Pay your fucking taxes instead (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Pay your fucking taxes instead (Score:5, Insightful)
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>almost always are perennial whiners who have no interest in playing the game correctly
The rich have no interest in playing the game correctly *either* but they get a pass while the rest of us have people like you bitching at us for wanting to the rich to play by the rules *also*
Because at heart, you are just another celebrity worshiper and "temporarily embarrassed millionaire."
>students threatening to lawyer up fastest
Who the fuck do you think are the ones who do that /first/?
It's not the middle-clas
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So you wouldn't want half a million because you'd have to pay 200k and instead are happy with 50k because that way you can get away with only paying 20k?
I ... don't know if I can follow your logic.
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Less money for ebil gubbermint, natch.
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You're proposing a flat tax, which is a tax rate that is the same regardless of income. People who talk about the rich paying their "fair share" are not talking about a flat tax. They generally want an extremely progressive tax rate structure. So maybe the 50k earner pays 5k in taxes (or maybe even no taxes) while the 500k earner pays 400k (or more) in taxes. Sure, the "rich" guy ends up taking home more (100k vs. 45k), but it's no longer quite as much. If earning 500k over 50k takes 10 times the effor
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The proportional amount of work requires increases as you increase your income relative to your starting assets
Now that's comedy gold, do you have more jokes like this? Since when is the amount of money you make in any relation to your workload? How much more work do you think Allen did compared to, say, a single mother working 3 jobs to make ends meet?
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I would gladly pay a 70% tax rate on $20 million/year than to pay a 40% tax rate on $100,000/year. So, yes, feel free to pass up that extra money because you're "hammered" with marginally less returns* on every dollar of income you earn**.
* From the law of diminishing marginal utility, you're not going to get much value after that first $100,000/year anyways, which is a major reason why it's less and less of a point to a person, except the "prestige" of it, to make so much income.
** Odds are good if you ma
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He's paid more taxes in a year than you will your entire life.
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I probably pay way more taxes than you do, does that entitle me to tax fraud?
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Yeah, because the $4 Trillion federal budget and $37.6 Billion state budget just aren't high enough. If only we paid more taxes and increased government spending, there would be no more homelessness. How much does government need before they can solve all of our problems for us? Can you put a number on it?
Fuck big government.
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If the rich didn't get more ways to weasel out of paying their due...
Looks like the rich weaseled their way into paying 47% of income taxes in the US [cnbc.com]. So, how much did you pay in taxes?
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So... if we hang them and cash in their money we could essentially eliminate the foreign debt.
Hmm...
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Way to take the moral high ground.
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If the rich didn't get more ways to weasel out of paying their due, we wouldn't need the pittance they pay as charity. We'd have the money to provide for our people ourselves.
And what is "their" due? If all the money and property from all the billionaires in the U.S. were 100% confiscated it wouldn't pay for one year's average deficit, not expenditures, deficit under the recent administration's budgets.
"Screw rich people"
OK you get to have that opinion but seriously, what amount of "rich people tax" is going to make ANY difference?
CUT GOVERNMENT SPENDING drastically the only useful answer.
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"3 clicks later and no clue HOW MANY people they are expecting this 'facility' to help"
Yeah, was wondering myself. How much does it take to build, say a 100 room hotel? 1000 room? I'm guessing it's somewhere between the two numbers.
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Why? Because I think that paying taxes ain't just a poor man's hobby?
The kindness of strangers (Score:1)
Broadband? (Score:2)
How about $30 mil to stop the anti-broadband nonsense run by other Microsofties? That would help the economy far more.
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Build a facility (Score:2)
Where? They've tried this on a smaller level, with tent camps and RV lots set up to give homeless a safe 'community' rather than living under the freeway. But most communities don't want to put up with the burglaries, car prowls and drug needles strewn around. So pretty soon, they close the camp and move them on. How will this work with a fixed facility? Which neighborhood will volunteer to host the opium den? So they'll institute some rules for residents. And that's when the addicts will just pack up and m
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Once they have the families out of the camps they will be able to round up the remainder with few repercussions.
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This was tried in a local community here. A lot was given for tenting, with dumpsters for garbage, portable toilets and showers put at the site.
So just to be clear, you gave them just barely enough to survive, and are surprised they didn't better their situations?
in unrelated news, Paul Allen buys Soylent (Score:4, Funny)
in unrelated news, Paul Allen buys Soylent and plans to expand production facilities into a number of Seattle Housing Authority buildings.
Very very charitable act, but needs an asterisk (Score:2)
Call me old-fashioned, but I believe
A "facility" for the homeless? (Score:2)
Where I come from, we call that a "ghetto".
Yeppers, get them out of sight (and therefore out of mind) with the minimum effort and cost possible....
Note, by the by, that the $30M is going to buy housing units (of whatever type) for about $15K per homeless family. Good luck with that....
God Dammit (Score:2)
I understand why this happens, and kids certainly need help. As a disabled person who has spent time on the streets myself, it's good to see people, especially rich people, doing something concrete for the poor where they live. I'd love to see lots more charity and social programs, provided they're structured correctly. Which this one isn't.
STOP TELLING POOR PEOPLE TO BREED TO GET FREE SHIT. At the very least, you need to help the people who are
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STOP TELLING POOR PEOPLE TO BREED TO GET FREE SHIT.
A much smaller way to write this is "improve education"
Unfortunately, in the USA, you really do have to write it long: "Stop destroying education in order to create easily tractable low-information voters." Because that's what the federal government does, apparently, with policies like "No Child Left Behind" which at the implementation end, literally leaves educators without enough hours in the day to achieve the mandatory goals laid out in the program which may or may not correspond to students' needs (and
Seattle gets 1000/week in new people (Score:1)
Most people don't realize that over 1000 people move to Seattle every week.
Yet we build far fewer rental or owner-occupied properties than that.
Most homeless are actually from here. Literally the same county. Most immigration is from our own state, then from California and Oregon and BC.
Homelessness is occurring in all cities nationwide - Red Blue Purple doesn't matter.
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Most people don't realize that over 1000 people move to Seattle every week.
$15/hour. Legal pot. Cheap heroin and Fentanyl and a police force instructed to look the other way.
Most homeless are actually from here.
Some is. Seattle is where you go when you aren't earning squat out in the sticks and Seattle advertises $15/hour for everyone. But a sizable amount is from out of state. The local TV station did a human interest bit on homelessness a few months back. They went to the tent camps and asked people whet their biggest problem was. Quite a few complained that they didn't realize Washington State was going to be so c
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That's a myth. We did studies. It's actually local people.
And so the wheel turns.... (Score:2)
I can only speak to Alabama, but I'll for lack of better information conclude that the rest of the USA is the same. If it isn't my apologies.
At one time in Alabama we had a "mental institution" called Bryce Hospital. I'm sure it wasn't pretty inside. The nature of the beast.
But, it did put a roof over our mentally ill folks' head. It gave them three square meals a day.
In the name of political correctness that facility was shut down. Those who might have found themselves there were "enabled." As best I
Lots of ignorance going around here. (Score:2)
It would seem that there is a lot of ignorance floating around on this topic. This kind of assistance is exactly what various states and the Fed have been implementing for years now to address the problem of the chronically homeless. And contrary to what many would like to think it seems to have a high success rate. However that doesn't mean it's some kind of magic bullet that instantly fixes everything as there are constantly new people becoming chronically homeless and more resources can obviously help. H
Section 8 housing (Score:2)
Yeah (Score:2)
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Or at least not a house where they'd have to take a bus to get into the center of town so they can beg.
Give them a room in the town center so they only have to walk 3 blocks for prime begging position and they'll never leave.
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Obviously you don't understand.
This is a race. The name of this race is : "The race to the bottom".
The super rich are only too happy to get tax breaks for helping drive the standard of
living lower so they can continue to have a supply of cheap labor.
Seattle is a shithole, and hasn't been a good place to live for at least 25 years. The politics of Seattle are
an example of how to bleed the producers and give handouts to the lazy and non-productive. Only a fool
would choose to live there.
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"It's actually cheaper in the long run to house homeless people than to leave them on the streets. And seriously, the rich are always going to find tax loopholes or tax breaks. Why shouldn't they do something that helps other people instead of just using some loophole that other benefits them?"
I can't speak to the rest of the country but I can about Los Angeles. If someone is homeless and doesn't WANT to be homeless they WONT be homeless for long. There are numerous opportunities to get them in to housing
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Take a look at Europe. People who have something to lose are WAY less likely to break the law for petty shit.
I have no home, no money, no perspective. You have maybe 20 bucks in your pocket, and I will kill you to get them. Either I have 20 bucks or at least I have a place to stay for the foreseeable future.
I have a home, maybe some money from social services, I don't give a shit about the 20 bucks in your pocket. Sure, I'd like them, but then I'd go to prison. And I already have a warm place and food, and
Europe is the WORST example you could have used! (Score:1, Insightful)
You just chose the worst example possible.
Europe is currently suffering from a severe influx of third-world illegal aliens [wikipedia.org]. Most are coming to Europe solely to abuse generous European social assistance programs, with the remaining coming to engage in terrorism.
Europe has seen a huge spike in crime and terrorism within just a few years. Sweden now suffers grenade attacks every couple of weeks. [wikipedia.org] What used to be peaceful New Year's Eve celebrations in Germany turned into massive sexual ass [wikipedia.org]
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I didn't say to let every kind of garbage cross the border, I said you should use their model. Lock the borders, shoot anyone trying to get in.
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Yes, because there aren't any homeless people in Paris playing horrible accordion music on the RER and shouting what I can only assume is a desperate plea for money...
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Prove it, or shut the fuck up.
There is no such thing as "proof" except in mathematics, but there is plenty of evidence [wikipedia.org] that housing people is cheaper than the police and emergency services needed to deal with street people.
Homelessness is a deeply intractable problem. Most homeless people have many other problems, including mental illness, substance abuse, joblessness, etc. But there is evidence that dealing with "housing first", and getting them into permanent shelter, makes dealing with the other issues easier.
I am skeptical that th
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The US will turn blue, give it thirty years. Those 'pesky minorities' have a habit of voting democrat.
The media has done a great job of convincing minorities that only white people vote Republican. Thus many successful Asians vote for the very party that holds them back for the less successful minorities. It's almost funny. However when you let in millions of immigrants from countries with problems you eventually realize that they take these problems with them. Notice how vast portions of California now resemble Mexico in the worst sense of it. Remind me how the M13 criminal gang happened again? Oh y
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The US will turn blue, give it thirty years. Those 'pesky minorities' have a habit of voting democrat.
I think you should take a hard look at the Cuban population in Florida. Also consider the values of most Mexican Americans and Mexican migrants. The democrats may be a little surprised in the next few decades what side of the fence they fall on.
Anyway, I would hope that over the next 10-20 years we'd continue with change if only in small increments to the current 2 party system. I hate to imagine the Democrat and Republican parties looking as they do now or even being the major powers in 30 years.
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You should not make claims on other people's property with the goal of 'doing good'.
Re:What's the immigration status of these families (Score:4, Insightful)
The risk of accidentally helping some homeless children that also don't have the right papers is an especially dumb reason to not help homeless children.
You misspelled "evil" as "dumb" there. Because we all know what this is really about: finding excuses not to help anyone else under any circumstances which are avoidable. This attitude was ingrained during the great depression, in which people mostly told everyone else to fuck off while they were trying to take care of their own shit, and it was hammer home during the baby boom, when everyone felt like they were the shit and didn't need help from anyone in spite of the fact that American prosperity post-WWII is the result of the rest of the world getting the shit bombed out of it.
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Not disagreeing with "evil" here as far as excuses not to help others.
But I understand the Great Depression led to the largest rise in membership and influence in the Communist Party (when they were ignorant of and/or ignoring Stalin) and other lefty organizing in the US since the first Red Scare in the 1910's. Economic hardship led directly to the New Deal, a response from the powers trying to forestall wider unrest. I don't think people were more selfish, they were pissed and ready for change. Kinda like
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Yes, Capitalism was a big question mark in the 30's. Some socialistic actions were allowed to prevent rebellion.
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And we have the Administration to do it!
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Just because these resources could potentially be used by illegal immigrants does not mean that they shouldn't be built. All 3 of your points essentially boils down to "I would rather not have a resource available at all, lest it potentially be used by someone who I feel is undeserving of it."
You can make that argument for nearly anything and it's just as much a straw man as it is what you've pointed out.
1. We should have no minimum wage because a minimum wage only serves as a crutch for those who aren't wi
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That's what you say.
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Illegal immigrants are just regular people, so you may know some of them without realizing.
NO, illegal immigrants are people who have NO LEGAL RIGHT to be in the country.
You are a simple-minded naive child. Keep your mouth shut when you know nothing, which in this case
is obvious.
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llegal immigrants are just regular people, so you may know some of them without realizing.
NO, illegal immigrants are people who have NO LEGAL RIGHT to be in the country.
Yes, but I believe most people think "bad hombres", not "my neighbors". Case in point woman who voted for Trump thinking only illegal immigrants with criminal records will be deported [cnn.com].
Maybe you think everyone should go, but many people assume a more nuanced definition will apply.
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'Yes, but I believe most people think "bad hombres", not "my neighbors"'
I think of identity theft and/or tax fraud among other things. Those could easily be committed by my neighbors, too. However, if my neighbors are citizens or are in the country legally and can WORK legally then they are far less likely to do so.
People in the country illegally AND working are committing identity left and/or tax fraud.
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"So legal residents never commit tax fraud or identify theft?"
Ever consider reading as a career? Probably a bad idea if you have. If I were you I would work on another skill. This isn't one you seem to posses.
Me: " Those could easily be committed by my neighbors, too. However, if my neighbors are citizens or are in the country legally and can WORK legally then they are far less likely to do so."
And then, me: "People in the country illegally AND working are committing identity left and/or tax fraud."
To
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llegal immigrants are just regular people, so you may know some of them without realizing.
NO, illegal immigrants are people who have NO LEGAL RIGHT to be in the country.
Yes, but I believe most people think "bad hombres", not "my neighbors".
Case in point woman who voted for Trump thinking only illegal immigrants with criminal records will be deported [cnn.com].
Maybe you think everyone should go, but many people assume a more nuanced definition will apply.
If they came here illegally then they by definition have a criminal record. This isn't fucking rocket surgery
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What? How are you modded insightful?
A criminal record is documentation that you committed a crime. If you broke the law sneaking across the border, you do not have a criminal record. Have you committed a crime? Yes. Is it documented? No. Not until a LEA picks you up and charges you with committing that crime.
This isn't fucking rocket surgery
Apparently to you it is...
Re:What's the immigration status of these families (Score:5, Informative)
Most immigration status infractions are civil offenses, not crimes.
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Wrong, they are crimes, hence the word "illegal" before immigrant. Granted they are misdemeanors but they sure as fuck aren't civil matters.
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That is begging the question: the proposition was that it was correct to call the entire category illegal immigrants because their immigration status was inherently criminal. You cannot then prove that their status was was inherently criminal by your use of the phrase "illegal immigrants".
Illegal entry is a crime and a civil offense 8USC1325 (http://codes.findlaw.com/us/title-8-aliens-and-nationality/8-usc-sect-1325.html), but entering legally and then being unlawfully present is only a civil offense,e.g. b
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NO, illegal immigrants are people who have NO LEGAL RIGHT to be in the country.
Sadly, the people who are really fucking up the country have every legal right to be here. Illegal immigrants don't even make the needle twitch compared to, say, Republican voters. Unless they are also voters, but when we go looking for voter fraud, we generally just find Republicans.
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What's the immigration status of these families? Are any of them in the country illegally?
Lets start by checking your friends and relatives, Anonymous Coward. Illegal immigrants are just regular people, so you may know some of them without realizing.
Are any of them cases where the parents are here illegally, but the child is an "anchor baby"?
Are we talking about children who were born here and are legal residents of the country? Or some bizarre cult that tattoos anchors on their children's forehead?
Is this one more of those 'You are here illegally b'cos your ancestors didn't get visas from the Red Indians, er, Native Americans?
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"When you give it all away, you have nothing left." - Sitting Bull
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Problem is that the birds don't go away, and what angry, hungry birds with nowhere to go and nothing to lose can do ... well, watch the old Hitchcock movie.
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Ha! The telephone booth (what are those?) scene immediately flashed to my mind.
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It was broken. First, it was clear and second, it was very obviously not bigger on the inside.
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No, but it's a solution to the problem they cause.
People are lazy bastards. And they will take the way of least resistance. Sadly, the least resistance may well go through your chest to reach for your money. I'd rather pay them to stay on the couch and waste their life on afternoon talk shows than pay them at gunpoint.
Because in the end that's the only choices you have. People don't simply stay calm and die when they notice that they have no home, no food and no perspective. All it takes for a riot is some
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People don't simply stay calm and die when they notice that they have no home, no food and no perspective. All it takes for a riot is some asshole shouting "follow me!"
I'm going to start a metal band which covers armored saint which is called asshole messiah.
Seriously though, that asshole is sorely needed right now in 'merica
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Some people seem to believe you already found one. Don't know for sure, but so far he comes across as an asshole all right...
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My guess would be because it keeps them in the city. The organizers might point out that if you export them to a random suburb or rural area (with enough available space for those homes and spread them out decently), they no longer have available the city's transportation and logistics infrastructure. Furthermore, though they might not point this one out, homeless folks are probably not trusted to take proper care of a $250K home- the long term maintenance for 100 such homes to keep them in decent shape may
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Thanks. I've often idly wondered about it and chalked it up to waste and overhead and skimming. I should have thought about it deeper. I think you make pretty good points.