Is it now a crime to be poor?

[royal_archer]

I think awareness is a big thing. Unless people know that this stuff is going on, they can’t do anything about it. Also, your church may have or be part of a program that assists in getting homeless people jobs and schooling. Just do some research. But I really think awareness is the key here. There are plenty of people who would help if they just knew… and putting them in touch with programs that assist homeless would really be good too.

Per my post #20: group 3 the temporarily displaced would bennefit from job matching and education. I don’t think this would help those with mental issues G1, or the lazy G2.

As someone who taught adult education, I see the need for people to learn more and wish the churches would offer more short education seminars for all adults including those that are in lesser jobs who just want to move up. Unfortunately when I taught the only people who attended were those who had good jobs but wanted better jobs.

 

[WillieWonka]

The rich (as well as the contributors of all classes) would rather see these people as productive contributing members of society. The rich are rich because of the creation of wealth. Those who are not working are not creating wealth for the rich, instead they are consuming more resources than they are producing. This takes money from the wealthy. The only people bennefitting from this are those who seek the political power that can be leveraged from the result of the condition of the poor.

The middle class guy in front of his 44 inch LCD TV would also like to see someone be productive by producing those TVs. He also likes the productivity that resulted in his Bid, chips, and couch.

Everyone on this forum has a computer with the power that would have cost millions in 1980. You’re all living like 1980 millionaires.

 

[Aquinas62]

it has always been a crime in the eyes of the rich. to be poor in this world means that those in power do not care about them. the rich keep the poor down so that they may have more money and power. we can do nothing other than charity to help the poor until the rich start having a moral compass that is not broken. But on the brighter side of things when socity collapses all the yuppies and trust fund babies and powermonger politians will be runnunig to the homless looking to learn to survive with nothing. And I for one welcome our new homless overlords they’ll probably do a better job runnung things than a buch of money hungry warmongers we have now.

being poor is not a crime, but being envious is a sin…

 

[nsper7]

Remember, the city government has to try and maintain order. In this day and age, you need a permit to do just about anything that is going to draw a crowd in a public place. It doesn’t matter if what you are doing is ‘low class’ (i.e. feeding and providing supplies to the homeless) or ‘high class’ (i.e organizing some gala function on the public square), you’re probably going to need a permit.

And remember, the world is not in a vacuum. Things do affect each other. It said that in Orlando, businesses were complaining that the feeding of the homeless nearby was having a detrimental effect on their business. Usually, cities are going to try and do what is necessary to prevent one group’s actions from infringing on the rights of others, in this case property rights. For example, near where I live is a Christian student ministry (it is Protestant) and next door a building was torn down and a new one being built. Due to construction (I think it was a nice condo complex or something), the road was blocked and so was the sidewalk, thus having a bad effect on the Christian ministry. Eventually, construction stalled due to funding issues and the city came in and told the construction group that if they were not going to finish building, then they had to stop blocking the street and sidewalk.

What if you are the business owner who is seeing your customer base being scared away because someone is doing things that are attracting homeless people to the area? Remember, it is one thing if a person wants to invite people into their own home/place of business and do things, but it is different if you are doing things on public property that is causing a group of people to congregate and it is affecting nearby private property owners.

What is wrong with the city cracking down on things such as drug use and open booze containers? Those things are illegal anyway and, frankly, if you are homeless–thus lacking money in the extreme–there is no excuse for you using your already lacking resources on things that detrimental. Living in a university town with a major football team, we see people getting busted on game day and they are certainly not impoverished looking.

Obviously, racism is disgusting and inexcusable.