The homeless are lazy

If every homeless person was an able-bodied, chemically-balanced person with middle-class sensibilities, then I agree with "him".

Unfortunately, people tend to forget that not everyone thinks the same way.

xpost

- there are "invisible" jobs that don't require a high school education - such as janitors. even if a crime is on your record, it is still possible to get a job.

- yes, the tattered clothing may be a turn-off in an interview, but if it's for an invisible job that does not require human interaction, how is their homeless identity relevent?

- you can't honestly say that a homeless person is on the same level as me or you in terms of ambition anyway

or yeah, basically what hstencil said.

This is where I wouldn't have even bothered to reply to him. "It's a funny, honest" is bullshit - it's clearly indicative of his knowledge of and beliefs toward poverty, and for that he can go fuck himself.

- I would indirectly be helping more people;
- I am assuming that the charity's plan would be more organized and long-term than the homeless person's;
- if the charity ends up being a rip-off, I can sue them.

Then it's partly out of privileged white-kid guilt. Which sounds bad, but if I'm in Deep Ellum going to a club or concert and someone obviously struggling asked me for a couple of bucks, I'd feel like absolute shit saying no. (If this is the emotion they're playing on, it works wonders.)

Well, he says he's really into Radiohead but they're a pretty left leaning band aren't they?

Re: That makes no sense
wildchild47
2004-09-03 14:58 (link)
this is ridiculous, you are accusing me of stereotyping the homeless. the ONLY generalizations i made: homeless people are probably homeless because they are lazy and they lack motivation to make things better for themselves. i say this only because i look at a city like chicago and there are so many opportunities.

i didn't want to accuse you for putting words in my mouth, just because it's the standard method of retaliation, but good god, did i really call them the scum of the earth?

the thing is, you can't analyze the homeless dilemna on a person-to-person basis and expect to find a solution. you can't be "judge and jury" of each individual. it's just impossible. so when about 65% of the homeless population has a drug addiction of some kind, you can't approach this thinking, "hmm, what about the 35% who are clean?" funny thing is, you are playing devil's advocate here and nit-picking my views, but you'd be surprised, aside from two generalizations (that may be slightly condescending at most, and for that, i am sorry for being an awful human), we are pretty much on the same side of the fence. you might think you sound like the good guy - sensitive and compassionate toward the homeless plight - but really, you sound like you're here just for the sake of argument.

now, 50% of the homeless population were homeless as children: would i be completely off my rocker if i suggested that we need to take children off the streets?

It's probably much easier to get a 'janitor' job if you know someone. Most of the ones I know are immigrants and very presentable-looking.

That's the key point, really.

"You never really understand a person until you crawl into their skin and walk around in it."

Replace lazy with insecure and unable to see a change can (possibly) be made. I just read about homelessness and how society/we can live with it: To be able to disconnect from the world (incl homeless people) and return to a warm home/with people we love and connect.

This kid is still in high school?

I agree with everything that has been said about this whole thing, but seriously wait until he has to make rent and he can't because he drank (bought music, drugs... etc.) it all. I just don't see where this snap in logic can be relevant at a high school age. Things after high school don't happen to be as logical as trying to be accepted to a university and not knowing what to put in the essay.