Exclusive: America Has Now Become a Nation of “Tent Cities”

beezzer
reply to post by Cuervo

 

Cuervo, I'm not special. I was a REMF for most of my career. My work ethic is no different than someone who wants to make it and works at Hardees.

But that's just it! You just said you aren't special and then said "My work ethic is no different than someone who _______" which sets you apart from some other people.

That drive and initiative and ability to keep pushing forward in the face of depression and setbacks is not a trait that everybody possesses any more than I possess the ability to draw a perfect circle.

You take that for granted. I'm not a dead beat but I sure don't have your drive. I make it fine and I help others make it as well as I can but, if I were faced with their scenarios, I can't say with any degree of certainty that I'd do better than many of them. Most people who are comfortable in their homes are like me who have so far avoided many of the pitfalls that plagued a large portion Americans that caused them to lose homes and livelihoods.

Most people would fall into that same downward spiral if faced with terrible losses and misfortune. A trait is a trait is a trait. There's a lot of wiggle room between your drive and laziness. Most people are somewhere in between and that's not enough to get out of every poverty-stricken situation.

I'm not saying they can't do something about it but I know many who do what they can and still can't get anywhere. They quit drinking, smoking, drugs, get a second job, and still face the same problems because poverty is a cycle and it takes intervention to break it most of the time. Intervention is rarely something a person can bring upon themselves.

Being from one of the mentioned areas in these posts, Greenville SC, I can give a first-hand account of what is going on.

After the textile mills left, the upstate of South Carolina the foothills of the North Carolina mountains to the north have been slowly dying. There are some counties in that area that saw 20-25% official unemployment rates at the height of the recession, and a lot of those jobs haven't come back. What has come back is an upcropping of hundreds of jobs and Walmart and dollar stores, families living together, and a lot of drug money and welfare as people do what they have to in order to survive.

Even in a cheap environment like those, it's extremely hard to find a job where you can make enough money in order to support yourself. I can guarantee that a good many of those people in those tent cities have jobs and were former home owners, but they can't afford to keep a roof over their heads now, nor can they find jobs that pay more than 50 cents over the minimum wage and provide 25 hours a week. Even two jobs won't get you a place because you have to have 2.5 or 3 times the price of the apartment in order to get considered for rental.

The social safety net is basically non-existent, and you can't just take somebody that has been doing one line of work for twenty or thirty years and expect them to be able to jump into another line of work, especially when the decent jobs have vanished. I mean, 40k is middle class there, and that sounds like a pittance to most people from up north or out west, but it's the truth, but you can't find anything that pays over maybe 8 an hour. Skilled labor like tech support gets 10-12 an hour.

Nor do these people have the option to move because, let me tell you, there is nothing unless they move hours upon hours in another direction. A lot of those people are probably there trying to get a leg up again because it's one of the few spots of bright on the 85 corridor between Charlotte and Atlanta. Most of the people that I know from back home have been living where they are at for the past four or five generations, and they graduated from the high school that their grandparents went to. That's what most of my friends and a good bit of my family did. Most of my cousins literally graduated from the high school that my grandma went to as a kid.

That there are tent cities cropping up in that area does not surprise me on bit. Not one bit at all.

reply to post by Cabin


I don't have all the answers.

I can only do what I am capable of doing.

reply to post by soficrow


No I didn't, I should have specified better. That's why I added second part that was aimed at you.

Wanna put some people to work?
Take some money from the budget,(maybe some of that billions apon billions sent all over the world) hire some carpenters, and these people as hands and let them build houses to live in.

tear down the old houses and replace them.
work for your home program

reply to post by beezzer


I understand one should do what he is capable of doing.

But what about situations where the capabilities of a person are very low due to issues concerning health, which are out of one´s control. What should these people do, considering their capabilities do not leave any other options than either a very low paying job, with certain conditions the people are not able to work at all or just part-time. And that is for the rest of their life.

I see there only two options in such cases.

1) They take the full responsibility and suffer for the rest of their lives, often having to starve, maybe even become homeless due to not being able to pay rent from low salary of the low-paying job, getting not enough sleep, often pain from the disease etc.

2) Government programs and certain employee rights (minimum salary enough to be able to survive without any trouble). Ideally social benefits should be the value of minimum required to live and minimum salary, so a person can live modestly (no trouble eating nutritious foods (no luxuries-exotic- basic organic vegetables etc) , getting healthcare/required drugs for health/ paying rent for small apartment/ transportation to workplace and being able to afford lower-end technology)

Either they are helped out by the lucky ones (who still can live extremely well), or they have to suffer for the rest of their lifes from . Two options.

beezzer

fenian8
Beezer, i have seen your posts on ATS a lot and have always read them and come to the conclusion that you are a well balanced, understanding, compassionate and knowledgeable human being. Until this thread.

I'm the same person that I've always been.

Well fair enough and Merry Christmas from someone who can`t get work, can`t afford running hot water in my own home let alone heating, will not be having a turkey dinner this xmas day and can`t afford to go and spend time with relatives this coming festive season, nor them with me.

If only i had your spirit and good fortune hey.

Maybe if a few million other people had your spirit, good fortune and attitude we could accomplish an idealistic world with decent paid jobs for everyone, no matter what their circumstance or disabilities may be and we could pretend that poverty and the reasons for it don`t exsist anymore????

Brilliant. Again, Merry Christmas.

reply to post by OrphanApology


Well said and in agreement %100

justreleased
reply to post by nighthawk1954

 

I think people are just lazy. They want a home, a car they want to go on vacation but they don't want to work.

For most of us it's a fact that if you want a paycheck you need to work for somebody else . Don't tell me there's no work available because that's bs. It may not be the job you want but I'm sure it's better than living in a "tent city".

No kidding. You'd be amazed at the sloppy work ethic I encounter with some of my employees in Dallas and Houston. Even at $15-20/hr I have a very high turn-over rate and the job couldn't be any more enjoyable or easy. I've been doing this for years and I usually hire college students as the high-pay, flexible schedule, and part-time hours works best with their school schedules...but many don't want to really work, so when I ask for simple reports to be filed, it's as if I'm asking them to dig a hole in the tundra. For some reason employees in Austin and San Antonio are quite a bit better, and I do have one exception in Houston who's been with me for a number of years and has always gone above and beyond.

As for the homeless, I give to the homeless when I can, especially when they don't look strung out or drunk. If they have meat on their bones, I'll hand them a few bucks and maybe a warm coffee if I happen to have one in the car. Otherwise, when it's 110 degrees out my wife and I will buy cases of bottled water and drive around to pass it out to them.

That being said, Austin's considered one of the most generous cities in the country and has the largest homeless shelter in the state...it's now packed to the rafters as it is every winter with migrant homeless who flock to Austin for all the same reasons most employed people pursue as they move here. Now Austin's local businesses are starting to take notice and become 'second chance' employers, employing ex-cons and homeless alike. It behoves our community to lift one another up, rather than just hand out change on the corner. If there are jobs available and the workforce is motivated, it'll work. However, local statistics estimate that the average hourly income for homeless people in Austin is $18/hr or more...so if that's the case, no wonder I'm having issues with turn-over.

Edit: Please only move to Texas if you already have a job here, or are bringing a job-creating business with you.

The homeless problem is such a sad one. We are all equally human, and we should all be able to get basic food and shelter in a civilization as advanced as ours.

I spent a good year as a homeless person, off and on. One time, I was living far from "home", and my wallet was stolen, with my ID. I couldn't get another ID without proof of who I was. No bank account. I struggled to find a job that would pay me cash. I slept where I could, and got hassled by the police to "move along". It's a tough gig and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

I think the solutions are kind of easy in some ways. The money spent on food stamps should go to more shelters, and to food banks, so that the needy can get what they need. All these food stamp cards, and people are out buying Doritos and Pepsi with them. How about giving them a source of food instead of just giving them money to spend. Then the homeless can get in on it too.

Regarding the tent cities, it's a shame what the police have been doing. Having said that, we've got a group of homeless men camped out next to one of my bosses shops. The break into the lot all the time and steal batteries, steal gas & diesel, steal copper & aluminum for scrap - I can see what people don't want the homeless around. I think we need to cure it by providing them with some very basic, bare level options for survival. We as a species need more empathy towards our fellow humans, whatever state they're in, rich or poor.

TwoTonTommy
The homeless problem is such a sad one. We are all equally human, and we should all be able to get basic food and shelter in a civilization as advanced as ours.

I think the solutions are kind of easy in some ways. The money spent on food stamps should go to more shelters, and to food banks, so that the needy can get what they need. All these food stamp cards, and people are out buying Doritos and Pepsi with them. How about giving them a source of food instead of just giving them money to spend. Then the homeless can get in on it too.

Regarding the tent cities, it's a shame what the police have been doing. Having said that, we've got a group of homeless men camped out next to one of my bosses shops. The break into the lot all the time and steal batteries, steal gas & diesel, steal copper & aluminum for scrap - I can see what people don't want the homeless around. I think we need to cure it by providing them with some very basic, bare level options for survival. We as a species need more empathy towards our fellow humans, whatever state they're in, rich or poor.

I call this the cause to the 'Pigeon Mentality': Throw enough seed out in one place and soon enough the whole flock will rely on your handouts and nothing else.

However, on the other hand I completely agree with you about us as a species needing more empathy. However, that empathy must be possessed by both sides of the equation and neither can take advantage of the other for any reason for the ideology to work effectively.

justreleased
reply to post by nighthawk1954

 

I think people are just lazy. They want a home, a car they want to go on vacation but they don't want to work.

For most of us it's a fact that if you want a paycheck you need to work for somebody else . Don't tell me there's no work available because that's bs. It may not be the job you want but I'm sure it's better than living in a "tent city".

Sweet square dancing Jesus!

You think people are just lazy !!!???

... people are ... just lazy ?

... are .... just lazy ?

.... just lazy ...

.... lazy ...




>.<





The average home requires a mere 5,000 man hours to build.

google answers: Man hours to build a house



Now how in the goddamn #ing #ed up #ing world do the dick sucking goddamn #ing banks get off by charging for a bitch slapping #ing FORTY YEAR mortgage to buy the same home !?

A person could have built 10 homes THEMSELVES in that time.






Mike Grouchy

I don't understand how anyone can think it right that someone can own over a billion dollars, and that person can feel it appropriate to not even pay their workers a living wage. I don't have a problem wih someone working hard and saving their money to live in a more comfortable way. I have an enormous problem that someone can have so much money that the equivalent would be thousands upon thousands of comfortable middle class wages.

Does it reflect well on a rich society to have people so wealthy they could light cigars with hundred dollar bills and never notice anything, while in poorer suburbs there are diseases coming back that were supposed to have been eradicated, like polio for instance? Does it reflect well on a society that if you can't afford healthcare you have a good chance of dying because the hospitals may say that they will treat you, but you are a very long way down a very long list effectively giving you a death sentence? Does it reflect well on a society that eats away at workers conditions and the right to unionise, and that games the system so they employ you for 1 hour a week less so that they can effectively use you as a full-time employee, but give you casual conditions? This is the workers fault in the minds of those who see collective labour as akin to Communism, never mind some people just want a little stability so they can plan ahead and maybe be able to get their kids a nice present for Christmas.

It makes me sick seeing wealthy nations in a race to bottom, not content with outsourcing jobs to extraordinarily underpaid Asian countries, when workers start asking for nothing more than the simple dignity to have a job that pays a living wage, they shut up the factories and move to the next country with no unions and a history of bloody suppression of human rights.

People are told to get new jobs in first world countries, but the jobs all packed up and went, but that's of course the fault of the greedy workers having the audacity to demand that they can live on their pay. How many billions of dollars did the bankers suck out of the system, nearly melting down the global economy, and then had the audacity to ask for more, and the governments paid them. Meanwhile some poor lady is charged with theft for trying to skim coins out of a pond at a shopping mall - she's showing initiative and is deemed a criminal while the banks and multi-national countries have a form of Communism where they redistribute the wealth of the poor amongst themselves and it's called free enterprise.

This image kind of sums it all up for me.

Xterrain


I call this the cause to the 'Pigeon Mentality': Throw enough seed out in one place and soon enough the whole flock will rely on your handouts and nothing else.

However, on the other hand I completely agree with you about us as a species needing more empathy. However, that empathy must be possessed by both sides of the equation and neither can take advantage of the other for any reason for the ideology to work effectively.

Another idea I had concerned the amount of wasted food in this country. I read a stat that 40% of the food is wasted in the U.S. annually. If we could funnel a lot of that wasted food towards a food bank that could decide what was edible and what was trash, it would be an elegant solution, turning waste into someone's sustenance. I don't imagine lots of "pigeons" would be lining up for food scraps if they had better options.

cuckooold
I don't understand how anyone can think it right that someone can own over a billion dollars, and that person can feel it appropriate to not even pay their workers a living wage. I don't have a problem wih someone working hard and saving their money to live in a more comfortable way. I have an enormous problem that someone can have so much money that the equivalent would be thousands upon thousands of comfortable middle class wages.

The wealth distribution in the U.S. is insane. I'm not for the redistribution of wealth, but I am against a system that is gamed against the little man, rigged to pay out for those with connections, and organized behind closed doors by secret negotiations among heartless crooks.

Capitalism has gone awry, but I think it can be saved. I don't think we need a revolution or communism - we just need a fair playing field where small business has a chance, where we actually manufacture something here in the States, where we stand by our quality of work, and craftsmanship. Is there such a thing as ethics in the world of big business? They'll have it removed from the dictionary before long.

I worked every year of my life from 1968 to 2007. I still became homeless because of medical bills and no family who could help. They would not accept payments of 150/per month and instead garnished our paycheck. We lived on the Snake River with three children and drove to work every day and back to camp every night for three months. I did not like being homeless. I don't know why anyone believes that healthy minded people would make that choice just to sit in the dirt. When we recovered enough to find a place to rent, we could only rent crappy places because of our credit rating and lucky to get that. A couple of years later, I got my kids counseling because they were 10,8,6, and it traumatized them to go from a home to a camp.

reply to post by TwoTonTommy


I know people who have gotten a lot of good food from supermarket dumpsters. We had a 'Food, not Bombs' group getting a lot of food that would have gone to waste, and going to a pretty rough and downtrodden area of Melbourne and giving away free food. And what happens when someone tries to show a little initiative? They get threatened and hassled by law enforcement. Don't the police have better things to do, like chasing criminals or something, rather than persecuting poor people? And yet people wonder how Communist governments come into power.

How much money has the September 11 tragedy and associated military actions taken out of the US economy, and what has it done to other countries finances?

The Taliban gained a lot of support in early 90s because they were able to efficiently move resources into areas of Afghanistan suffering from the effects of the Soviet war, and struck by natural disasters, and they were able to perform law enforcement duties that the Afghan police of that time would not deal with.

The US invasion of Iraq took a well developed country in the Middle East with a very high standard of living and more or less reduced them to living like primitives. What the people of Iraq ever do to the US government to suffer so badly? Weren't we shown how accurate the 'smart bombs' were? So accurate that they could bomb Saddam and his forces, but the economy would keep ticking over. I thought that the military was the one institution in America which looked after the workers, but I hear a lot of stories of soldiers developing weird conditions that nobody either wants to, or knows how to deal with. Are the people in the military also suffering diminishing conditions and rights? Gee, they're only putting their lives on the line for their country.

Where did the money go? Did the unionised Communist workers steal it all through asking for a living wage and acceptable working conditions or did the banks steal it? Did Osama bankrupt the U.S in a similar way he claims to have brought down the Soviet Union?
This is all very interesting because I have no doubts that if one walks into a supermarket (but can't afford to shop), that the supermarket will be full of groceries. The hardware shops are full of hardware, and the banks seem to have plenty of notes in their drawers and plenty of cameras to watch that money. The police appear to have lots of money to buy even more equipment for surveillance and the NSA seem to have enough money to build even more eavesdropping posts. The military have plenty of money (seemingly not for some soldiers medical expenses) to buy even more and newer high tech planes and warships so they can blow the world up 18 times over instead of just 12.5 times, and even though the government shut down, I doubt Obama or Ted Cruz or Paul Ryan lost a days wages during the shutdown.

No, it seems that the place the money is missing from is the hands of those who need it most - the disabled guy down the road (it's gotta be his fault he's disabled - he was probably a crack head or smoked ciggies, or ate too many hot dogs) for who an extra $60 might make all the difference. I don't think America will ever have a Northern European or Australian semi-socialist styled part of the economy, so I guess that they will just keep having to scapegoat the workers in whatever way they can. I fear that Australia is will move more towards a US model of welfare and health, but there's still a way to go yet.

Willtell
All we can do bro is help each other

The beginning of the macro economic demise of this country was started when Reagan cut taxes for the rich and destroyed our trade policy that protected American workers.

Then the so called liberal progressive Bill Clinton passed NAFTA and let the pernicious devil of the Banksters loose on the world when he gutted the Glass Steegle act that required the separation of investment banks from regular savings banks.

Now the US is going the way of a third world country

The progressives have ruled both parties for awhile now. They are trying to crash the system so people will beg for change and then they will give it to us. Hitler,Stalin,Mao......How many times do we need to see this play out before we learn?

reply to post by mikegrouchy


Excellent, really isn't a mortgage a (death gauge) if you used basic translation , I mean if anything most people if it were not for interest could easily pay for what it cost to build their home in about 10 years I bet, add in taxes and interest (bank rent) most people find the situation they are in where it takes 30, when I saw that whole TARP fiasco unfold and the treasury secretary a few years ago act as though the sky was falling to get bail out money, that was the moment that people should have been screaming I am mad as hell, and I am not going to take it anymore, but what happened?

Nothing, banks become more powerful and rich off of the backs of people that got suckered into the fanfare and excitement of the American Dream, many of those people lost their homes, were quickly discarded after they put money down and possibly paid for at least a quarter of the value or more if you took away the interest and the banks got to repossess the properties to make new mortgages on them for the next wave of suckers.

A lot of this has nothing to do with lazy people, it has more to do with propped up, made to look legal pyramid schemes and organizations called banks, that desperately need major overhauls but unfortunately that is not going to happen.

justreleased
reply to post by nighthawk1954

 

I think people are just lazy. They want a home, a car they want to go on vacation but they don't want to work.

For most of us it's a fact that if you want a paycheck you need to work for somebody else . Don't tell me there's no work available because that's bs. It may not be the job you want but I'm sure it's better than living in a "tent city".

I guess I agree with the personal responsibility part of your statement. I married a blue collar guy, when offered a loan we cut thirty grand off of what the bank offered to be sure we could afford our home if only one of us could work.

We've never had a vacation except camping in a tent (irony) thirty miles from home. We drive vehicles from the late nineties and pay for all repairs. We have not one penny of outstanding debt.

We are caring for elderly parents and twenty something kids. Twenty eight years of it. We've had scrapes in the past with job losses, age discrimination with finding new jobs and have had major appliances and vehicles fail. We've happily paid for all of it by working and paying taxes.

I hadn't gone to a doctor in years because any extra money was used to get our kids to the doctor first. We pay over a hundred twenty five bucks a week for our health insurance premiums, our kids are too old for our policy. I had to leave my my "full time" 40 hour a week job with no bennies because I collapsed and couldn't breathe. I was hauled into the E.R. where over the "vacation" of three weeks in the hospital I was diagnosed with Lymphoma and operated on the main heart valve with an enormous lung crushing tumor attached to it. After that it was chemotherapy with a grand total of thirty thousand dollars to save my life. All that in six months.

I am now well and recovering but we'll pay. Because we're good, responsible citizens. I shudder to think if my other half loses his job. When his job went kaput three years ago it took a year and a half to find another at 53 yrs old. We took our savings and purchased a years worth of mortgage payments so we could keep our home.

The only difference between people is the size of the buffer zone. And I'm talking about the buffer zone created by our individual work, not parents or the nanny state. Trouble comes unexpectedly to anyone on this planet, responsible or not. Anyone can end up in a tent.

I guess I just wanted to say I agree with your gritty attitude on caring for oneself and being responsible, however compassion for other situations does not equate approval of laziness.