Homeless in America

[Sierra]

For all the other yanks out there, you can watch the BBC program on Youtube

 

The chick narrarating the program has the strangest accent. A weird mixture of British and American.

 

The only problem I have with shows like these is that they need to show everything. They really leave out the parts that would make these stories make sense.

 

The mom in the motel who was crying she couldn't afford to get her child's hair cut? Take him down to the local beauty college. My sister in law always took her son and my son down there and the students buzzed their little heads into Bart Simpson type haircuts for free every summer. The students were thrilled to have someone to practice on and the haircuts were so short, virtually nothing could go wrong.

[spooky3]

...

The only problem I have with shows like these is that they need to show everything. They really leave out the parts that would make these stories make sense.

...

 

There has been numerous similar programmes showing different aspects aver the last few months.

 

 

I think sometimes they just bang out these reports to stimulate others to think and act.

 

 

 

P.S. I agree with your earlier statement about those two in the gutter in Vegas, straight away I thought that they were junkies.

[Sierra]

Cracking post Sierra.

When it comes to poor kids how many of the mothers are single? How many of them get off their backsides and go to a county clinic where they can get information on birth control?

It really all comes down to ignorance, irresponisbility and stupidity.

 

I blame the church for the stupidity part. Didn't Obama try to get them involved in female birth control?

What happened. The next thing that they started to squeal about was violation of separation of church and state and the self serving Evangelical Republicans joined in the loud donkey like brays of protest

"Oh if it's Obama that did it ... it must be illegal"

 

Well at least something good came out of it. While the church won their victory in not having to issue birth control pills to their employees, the insurance companies who cover the employees will have to offer those pills in future

 

Harley, I have a LOT of questions for the parents of the hungry children.

 

Planned Parenthood gives out contraceptives for FREE. It seems a lot of them are single, sometimes by choice, sometimes not. Being a parent is hard. Being a single parent is really hard. But generally speaking, I agree. If you're in a hole, stop digging. Be more responsible, put your kids first, don't have more kids until you're back on your feet. Don't get involved with men who are losers and bring them around your kids. Ditch the drugs and alcohol, take advantage of every/low cost free program to better yourself.

 

When my kids were younger, I regularly went to school with them in the mornings and stood in line to pre-pay for their hot lunches. I heard excuses and attitude from belligerent parents as to why they shouldn't have to pay even a token amount to feed their kids. In some cases, they owed the school hundreds before they were reluctantly cut off. Unbelievable.

 

Also, if you listen to BBC, Detroit is a hellhole.

gives you a better idea about what's going on.

[Harleyman]

Harleyman, I must be the last person to realise that you are an American living in America! Apologies.

 

But I think that makes your point of view all the more important. It would be really interesting if you could watch this programme on bbciplayer - can you get that over there? And let us know your views having seen the programme.

 

I was pretty dismayed at the politicians refusal to accept there was a problem. I don't personally think the problem was drugs but lack of jobs, same as here.

 

My cousin lives in Boston, America with her husband who is a surgeon with his own group medical practice.

He does a lot of work with the poor and works at a free hospital. Last time he was over he was saying they are over run and are barely coping. The numbers have increased massively and they are having to turn sick people away.

He is a good man, a commited Catholic, and finds it very distressing. He's a sick man himself having had a serious run in with cancer, and really should have retired ages ago, but says he can't while there are so many people in dire need with no one else to turn to.

 

I know TV programmes can sometimes be biased but the figures sounded pretty alarming. When work can be outsourced overseas at a much cheaper pay rate I don't really see how you can be immune. If America has found a way to combat it I wish you'd share it with our government.

 

Here's what I think happened and it's pretty basic stuff. At the end of WW2 America was the most industrially and economically powerful country in the world. It's factories turned out a massive amount of consumer goods that Americans who were flush with money were desperate for. After 3-1/2 years of war and full employemt the average American had managed to save up quite a bundle since other than food and other necessities there was really nothing else to spend it on. Factories had all been geared to war production. Cars, washing machines, fridges.... you name it.... that had been bought prewar were either wearing out or had become out of date and functionally obsolete so there was a huge demand dor spanking new products right off the factory floor.

Dont forget too that Europe had been almost destroyed as had Japan and there was no other country that could come anywhere near to competing with American manufactured goods or for that matter even capable of producing them.

Then came Japan in the late 50s/early 60s. Their products were cheaper to buy but cheap and nasty also in the beginning but as the years went by the standards improved dramatically and people started to take a second look at Japanese cars, radios and TVs.

The second stage was the introduction of free trade in the Reagan era. President Nixon had already opened the door to trade with Communist China and other Asian countries and they too started to manufacture products that were cheaper than their American counterparts.

 

It was only a matter of time before American manufactureres said

"Holy Joe. First Japan.. now China are selling and exporting much more than we are and worse... they cost much less. What do we do to compete guys"?

 

"Our labour costs are killing us for a start. We cannot hope to compete if we're paying a guy 15 bucks an hour, plus benefits plus a lifetime pension.

We'll have to shut the doors for good if this keeps up"

 

"Okay lets go for that cheap labour. If we cant lick em we'll join em. Contact the Chinese government and lets get some acreage to build a factory. If we pay them 2 bucks an hour instead of 15 we'll be seriously competative in no time"

 

Anyway to cut a long story short, goodbye factories and goodbye good paying jobs.

 

The moral to this story is that America had to become industrially competative with the rest of the world if it was to survive as a major manufacturing nation.

 

I read somewhere that in the future the average person will more than likely work in three different occupations before retiring. Its a rapidly changing world in every aspect especially technology. New technologies appear and existing technologies disappear and people need to be prepared for that.

 

The important thing above all though is to study and train for the professions that are in the greatest demand.

[Sierra]

There has been numerous similar programmes showing different aspects aver the last few months.

 

 

I think sometimes they just bang out these reports to stimulate others to think and act.

 

 

 

P.S. I agree with your earlier statement about those two in the gutter in Vegas, straight away I thought that they were junkies.

 

Oh thank god someone else sees the truth! If you want to work in Las Vegas, the casinos are literally always hiring. They need armies to run those places, day and night. But, you gotta stay OFF drugs. They won't hire substance abusers.

[spooky3]

Oh thank god someone else sees the truth! If you want to work in Las Vegas, the casinos are literally always hiring. They need armies to run those places, day and night. But, you gotta stay OFF drugs. They won't hire substance abusers.

 

Most of those jobs will have responsibility for money and trust, so...

[Harleyman]

Harley, I have a LOT of questions for the parents of the hungry children.

 

Planned Parenthood gives out contraceptives for FREE. It seems a lot of them are single, sometimes by choice, sometimes not. Being a parent is hard. Being a single parent is really hard. But generally speaking, I agree. If you're in a hole, stop digging. Be more responsible, put your kids first, don't have more kids until you're back on your feet. Ditch the drugs and alcohol, take advantage of every/low cost free program to better yourself.

 

When my kids were younger, I regularly went to school with them in the mornings and stood in line to pre-pay for their hot lunches. I heard excuses and attitude from belligerent parents as to why they shouldn't have to pay even a token amount to feed their kids. In some cases, they owed the school hundreds before they were reluctantly cut off. Unbelievable.

 

Also, if you listen to BBC, Detroit is a hellhole.

gives you a better idea about what's going on.

 

 

Our two sons would have been lucky if they had wanted to go on to college after finishing high school. We could have paid most of their costs. Neither was interested though. The eldest signed up for the Air Force for six years.

He lucked out ! He was trained to repair hospital and medical equipment and when he came out he soon got a job with a plush office and a secretary to go with it. There was an acute shortage of people in his profession.

 

The youngest followed me into the construction trade and learned all the skills. Did great until the housing market fell flat on it's face and I was about to retire anyway at that time. He thought about applying to join the police or the fire department but that never happened. Now he's in his second year studying to be a pharmacist and there are plenty of jobs in that line of work.

 

As for drugs we may have been lucky... so many of their peers were in to it. We kept them very busy playing football, basketball and baseball in their student days. Vacataions were spent hiking, skiing and boating so all that may have had something to do with them never messing with drugs.

Oh sure, like all young men they drank a bit now and again but didnt bother with it any longer after they both matured and later married.

[Anna B]

Oh thank god someone else sees the truth! If you want to work in Las Vegas, the casinos are literally always hiring. They need armies to run those places, day and night. But, you gotta stay OFF drugs. They won't hire substance abusers.

 

I thought the couple living in the storm drain were working for the casino handing out flyers. They were shown giving them out and the narrator said they did it every evening. I wouldn't have thought a casino would have wanted the punters first impression of their brand to be via a couple of druggies so maybe they were clean after all.

[Rupert_Baehr]

Cracking post Sierra.

When it comes to poor kids how many of the mothers are single? How many of them get off their backsides and go to a county clinic where they can get information on birth control?

It really all comes down to ignorance, irresponisbility and stupidity.

 

I blame the church for the stupidity part. Didn't Obama try to get them involved in female birth control?

What happened. The next thing that they started to squeal about was violation of separation of church and state and the self serving Evangelical Republicans joined in the loud donkey like brays of protest

"Oh if it's Obama that did it ... it must be illegal"

 

Well at least something good came out of it. While the church won their victory in not having to issue birth control pills to their employees, the insurance companies who cover the employees will have to offer those pills in future

 

AFAIK, the Catholic church is the church which does not permit Birth Control - A rule which is (apparently) ignored by 70% of its members.

 

Are you seriously suggesting that the high rate of teenage pregnancies and births amongst unmarried mothers is attributable to the Catholic church?

 

In Jan 2010, "New Mexico had the highest teenage pregnancy rate (93 per 1,000), followed by Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Mississippi.

 

There are plenty of Catholics in NM (though the number of Baptists is increasing and the number of Catholics is declining.) There are few Catholics in Mississippi (MB Baptists are the most prevalent sect.) The statistics suggest that something other than religion is the major cause.

 

The lowest rates were in New Hampshire (33), Vermont, Maine, Minnesota and North Dakota."

 

As for the insurance companies who cover the employees having to issue contraceptive pills - as it stands, that may well be the case (though it could mean a reduction in employer-provided insurance) and it could also backfire badly against Obama. Romney has (predictably) jumped on the bandwagon, saying "The State should not be interfering with religious beliefs" and I heard one Newscaster (on a local channel) talking about 'Obama's declaration of war against the Catholic church.'

 

I would prefer to see the church - any church stay out of politics, but if politicians are going to interfere in church affairs, then it's likely that the churches will respond. That, however, is another matter and not really a part of this thread.

 

I suspect a number of the homeless who are living in tent cities and storm drains over-stretched themselves when they were working (big house, big car, latest hi-tech gadgets - all on credit.) When the jobs failed or credit became tight, things were repossessed.

 

You would never see people living in storm drains in the UK - because there are no storm drains. (When it rains, there are floods and people wonder why.) There are plenty of homeless people in the UK, however.

 

Health insurance through work is a good thing - if you've got a job - but if you lose your job and you lose your health insurance with it, that's a double whammy.

 

There can be little doubt that some sort of 'health service for all' would be a good thing in the US, but there are plenty of remote parts of the country where it is simply impossible to provide it.

 

New Mexico (my wife's home state) has a population of 2,000,000 people and an area of 121598sq miles. 16.5 people per square mile.

 

But the population isn't spread out evenly. Harding County has 0.3 people per sq mile.

 

England has a land area of 50352 sq miles and a population of 50.8 million people. About 1010 people per square mile.

 

It's not too difficult to find a doctor in England, but if you live in rural New Mexico then even if medical treatment was totally free, you'd be hard pushed to find a doctor.

[Sierra]

I thought the couple living in the storm drain were working for the casino handing out flyers. They were shown giving them out and the narrator said they did it every evening. I wouldn't have thought a casino would have wanted the punters first impression of their brand to be via a couple of druggies so maybe they were clean after all.

 

They were working handing out flyers for nightclubs. Most casinos don't hand out flyers, they don't need to. In actual fact, I'll bet this couple also hand out flyers for strip clubs and escort services, too. It's easy work that can be done in a couple hours in the evening. Those two were drug addicts.