Rising rents and homeless seniors😐

yes we read about it a lot and see it on Youtbe about the USA . Elderly..mainly women living in Camper vans and cars.... something that doesn't happen here in the UK simply because it's not allowed , not that there isn't homeless seniors....but definitely not on the scale of the USA
 
hollydolly said:
yes we read about it a lot and see it on Youtbe about the USA . Elderly..mainly women living in Camper vans and cars.... something that doesn't happen here in the UK simply because it's not allowed , not that there isn't homeless seniors....but definitely not on the scale of the USA
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Really ..wow ..but here it's not just women living in Vans and cars going to get away from everything it's people living on the streets here too because they've lost half their income from somebody passing away and the rents are so high I feel sorry for them I really do it's a sad situation
 

Theresa## said:
Really ..wow ..but here it's not just women living in Vans and cars going to get away from everything it's people living on the streets here too because they've lost half their income from somebody passing away and the rents are so high I feel sorry for them I really do it's a sad situation
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😢
 
Theresa## said:
Really ..wow ..but here it's not just women living in Vans and cars going to get away from everything it's people living on the streets here too because they've lost half their income from somebody passing away and the rents are so high I feel sorry for them I really do it's a sad situation
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Oh yes we know that we've seen it on the news... hundreds of thousands of people in the USA and in Canada...
 
Ok, this is the deal! Everyone, including governments on all levels have only so much money.
Question is what is your priority? Do you spend your limited money on?
a) Feeding and housing the poor and the homeless in your own community?
b) Fighting another "stupid" foreign war (actually 2 of them) and wasting billions of dollars on the death of women, children, dogs and cats?

I believe "a" is more important but who am I to "blow against the wind?"
 

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I live in a senior community and rent increases have had many take PT jobs to make up the difference ...
how long that will work is completely up to their age and health.
I agree that instead of seeing millions sent to foreign countries we need to help our own citizens
 
Jeni said:
I live in a senior community and rent increases have had many take PT jobs to make up the difference ...
how long that will work is completely up to their age and health.
I agree that instead of seeing millions sent to foreign countries we need to help our own citizens
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It makes me wonder what happened to the golden years 😔
 
Packerjohn said:
Ok, this is the deal! Everyone, including governments on all levels have only so much money.
Question is what is your priority? Do you spend your limited money on?
a) Feeding and housing the poor and the homeless in your own community?
b) Fighting another "stupid" foreign war (actually 2 of them) and wasting billions of dollars on the death of women, children, dogs and cats?

I believe "a" is more important but who am I to "blow against the wind?"
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I agree
 
Theresa## said:
It makes me wonder what happened to the golden years 😔
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I can only speak for the one person I know in the position... my neighbor. She's ... I think 70 now and is not homeless only because of the generosity of a local church offering her a very reasonable rent in a house a member owns. She was talking about it this summer... how she never expected to be in this position, but she knew why she's there. She admitted that she thought there would always be someone (she actually said "a man" cringe) to "take care of her." She never prepared... never even thought of the future because she assumed there would always be someone there to "rescue" her.

Well anyhow, the story is going to end well, I do believe. She has secured a part-time job in a discount store and is feeling independent for the first time in her life and by all indications is loving it. She was talking about checking into volunteering at the hospital during her non-work hours, too... I think that will be very good for her. (y)
 
Packerjohn said:
Ok, this is the deal! Everyone, including governments on all levels have only so much money.
Question is what is your priority? Do you spend your limited money on?
a) Feeding and housing the poor and the homeless in your own community?
b) Fighting another "stupid" foreign war (actually 2 of them) and wasting billions of dollars on the death of women, children, dogs and cats?

I believe "a" is more important but who am I to "blow against the wind?"
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In principle, you're correct. But in reality, I don't think it flies. Let's be honest here, if China attack Taiwan, the US will find the money to fight back. The US is the richest country in the world. It has individuals with enough money to solve the homeless problem. I sincerely believe, it's not for want of total dollars that leave the homeless stuck on the streets with unmanaged mental illness and addictions, it's a lack of a will to do it. This Christian nation doesn't stretch so far that the least among us become deserving enough.

It's not that the government want to give money to foreign wars. There are tactical and strategic reasons the US will be involved. On top of the that, the Industrial Military Complex is raking it in right now. Yes, the US are spending a lot of money in, say, Ukraine, but where is that money being spent? A few people are getting very rich off the back of these conflicts. In short, there's a financial reason to be in it.

In other words, because of the way finance works, and the politics around it, the US isn't broke. It has a national debt of 33Tr, which is a mind-boggling number, but it's had a national debt since the American Revolutionary War (which apparently was 75m, which was a whole lot then!) If there is a will to do something, the US will do it. I think you can read some of the comments and know why that will isn't there. It can be difficult to get your head around helping the homeless, because what are you going to get out of it? Everything is measured in dollars and cents, and you're only going to get that investment back by way of saved funds that would have been spent on other things.

Which leaves us with empathy, sympathy, and caring. I say, you do it because you can. You do it because it's the right thing to do. You do it because seeing these people breaks your heart. And there will be those who call you a SJW, a bleeding heart liberal, or worse - but what they're really saying is that they're less of a person than they could be. IMO.

For everything we see, do, spend and save, we end up in the same place - laying down in a bed somewhere while the life drifts out of us. through inaction, helping to aid the hastening of that moment in someone because they're strung out seems about the least Christian thing you can do.

You know when the homeless get mentioned? When political propaganda is being produced, and when it inconveniences people who aren't homeless. Other than that, they're invisible.
 
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CallMeKate said:
I can only speak for the one person I know in the position... my neighbor. She's ... I think 70 now and is not homeless only because of the generosity of a local church offering her a very reasonable rent in a house a member owns. She was talking about it this summer... how she never expected to be in this position, but she knew why she's there. She admitted that she thought there would always be someone (she actually said "a man" cringe) to "take care of her." She never prepared... never even thought of the future because she assumed there would always be someone there to "rescue" her.

Well anyhow, the story is going to end well, I do believe. She has secured a part-time job in a discount store and is feeling independent for the first time in her life and by all indications is loving it. She was talking about checking into volunteering at the hospital during her non-work hours, too... I think that will be very good for her. (y)
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Thank goodness she has a little help and growing independent I wish her only the best in these trying times.
 
VaughanJB said:
Let's be honest here, if China attack Taiwan, the US will find the money to fight back.
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The U.S. would borrow the money to fight back. However, I struggle to see how we would fight the Chinese in their own backyard. Taiwan is approximately 120 miles off the Chinese coast. Moreover, the Chinese navy is now larger than the American navy, and the Chinese are building more ships at a faster rate than we can match. I just don't see a military solution to the Taiwan problem.
VaughanJB said:
The US is the richest country in the world. It has individuals with enough money to solve the homeless problem. I sincerely believe, it's not for want of total dollars that leave the homeless stuck on the streets with unmanaged mental illness and addictions, it's a lack of a will to do it. This Christian nation doesn't stretch so far that the least among us become deserving enough.
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We certainly have many very wealthy individuals in this country. Thus far, every single attempt to increase taxes on the rich has failed. Our politicians actually prefer their go to "trickle down economics" which has proven to transfer even more wealth to the rich and nothing ever trickles down.
When you say that the U.S. is the richest country in the world, are you accounting for the $32 trillion in debt we now carry? Moreover, keep in mind that trillion-dollar deficits are the norm. $32 trillion amounts to $100,000 of debt for every citizen (32T/320M). If you split that debt among just the taxpayers in the country (leaving out the retired, the children, and the homeless), that's 128,489,000 taxpayers, or $249,000 per taxpayer. How does this make us rich?
VaughanJB said:
It's not that the government want to give money to foreign wars. There are tactical and strategic reasons the US will be involved. On top of the that, the Industrial Military Complex is raking it in right now. Yes, the US are spending a lot of money in, say, Ukraine, but where is that money being spent? A few people are getting very rich off the back of these conflicts. In short, there's a financial reason to be in it.
Click to expand...
Typically, the wars we get involved in seem to benefit military suppliers. The companies that build missiles, bombs, bullets, sell jet fuel, etc. all seem to do quite well in wartime. How does that help the average middle or lower-class citizen?
VaughanJB said:
In other words, because of the way finance works, and the politics around it, the US isn't broke. It has a national debt of 33Tr, which is a mind-boggling number, but it's had a national debt since the American Revolutionary War (which apparently was 75m, which was a whole lot then!) If there is a will to do something, the US will do it. I think you can read some of the comments and know why that will isn't there. It can be difficult to get your head around helping the homeless, because what are you going to get out of it? Everything is measured in dollars and cents, and you're only going to get that investment back by way of saved funds that would have been spent on other things.
Click to expand...
Adding somewhere in the neighborhood of $1–$1.5 trillion to our current $32 trillion debt every year isn't sustainable. Years ago, we lost our AAA rating, and currently, there's a sizeable group of countries looking to move away from the dollar as the standard. This clearly seems to indicate a lack of faith in our ability to sustain the current economic trend.
VaughanJB said:
Which leaves us with empathy, sympathy, and caring. I say, you do it because you can. You do it because it's the right thing to do. You do it because seeing these people breaks your heart. And there will be those who call you a SJW, a bleeding heart liberal, or worse - but what they're really saying is that they're less of a person than they could be. IMO.

For everything we see, do, spend and save, we end up in the same place - laying down in a bed somewhere while the life drifts out of us. through inaction, helping to aid the hastening of that moment in someone because they're strung out seems about the least Christian thing you can do.

You know when the homeless get mentioned? When political propaganda is being produced, and when it inconveniences people who aren't homeless. Other than that, they're invisible.
Click to expand...
Helping the homeless is the right thing to do, but it's also treating the symptom, not the cause of the problem. Perhaps if people could earn a living wage while working a job, they would be willing to do so. Perhaps they wouldn't end up addicted to drugs as a means of escaping their plight.
Our country is the way it is today as a result of late-stage capitalism. The rich are getting much, much richer, and the shrinking middle class is struggling with increased rent, interest rates, inflation, and a lack of jobs that pay a living wage.
 
Rich said:
The U.S. would borrow the money to fight back. However, I struggle to see how we would fight the Chinese in their own backyard. Taiwan is approximately 120 miles off the Chinese coast. Moreover, the Chinese navy is now larger than the American navy, and the Chinese are building more ships at a faster rate than we can match. I just don't see a military solution to the Taiwan problem.
Click to expand...

I agree a military intervention seems unthinkable. But at least for now, the rhetoric points toward the US defending Taiwan. If that happens, it'll be a strategic defensive, and I don't see the war going to Mainland China. Let's hope none of that ever happens.

Rich said:
We certainly have many very wealthy individuals in this country. Thus far, every single attempt to increase taxes on the rich has failed. Our politicians actually prefer their go to "trickle down economics" which has proven to transfer even more wealth to the rich and nothing ever trickles down.
When you say that the U.S. is the richest country in the world, are you accounting for the $32 trillion in debt we now carry? Moreover, keep in mind that trillion-dollar deficits are the norm. $32 trillion amounts to $100,000 of debt for every citizen (32T/320M). If you split that debt among just the taxpayers in the country (leaving out the retired, the children, and the homeless), that's 128,489,000 taxpayers, or $249,000 per taxpayer. How does this make us rich?
Click to expand...

Let's be perfectly honest here, and blunt. The rich have too many power through friends, lobbying, and donations to political parties to worry too much about a raise in taxes. There doesn't seem to be a way to get it done with the democratic process, with regard to them, is completely circumvented.

When writing my initial post, I'd done some trivial research into debt. It led me down a bit of a path, and I didn't want to say more about it. There are, apparently, 70 countries on the verge of being unable to pay their debts. They can get loans from the IMF, but to do so they must sign up to strict economic policy changes. This sounds reasonable on the one hand, but on the other you then have the IMF setting policy within a nation, which can't be right.

China are huge players here. They've loaned one trillion dollars to other countries. Scary stuff, but again, we've allowed this to happen on our watch. It's a very complex topic and I felt it was too big to really go into here.

Rich said:
The U.S. would borrow the money to fight back. However, I struggle to see how we would fight the Chinese in their own backyard. Taiwan is approximately 120 miles off the Chinese coast. Moreover, the Chinese navy is now larger than the American navy, and the Chinese are building more ships at a faster rate than we can match. I just don't see a military solution to the Taiwan problem.

We certainly have many very wealthy individuals in this country. Thus far, every single attempt to increase taxes on the rich has failed. Our politicians actually prefer their go to "trickle down economics" which has proven to transfer even more wealth to the rich and nothing ever trickles down.
When you say that the U.S. is the richest country in the world, are you accounting for the $32 trillion in debt we now carry? Moreover, keep in mind that trillion-dollar deficits are the norm. $32 trillion amounts to $100,000 of debt for every citizen (32T/320M). If you split that debt among just the taxpayers in the country (leaving out the retired, the children, and the homeless), that's 128,489,000 taxpayers, or $249,000 per taxpayer. How does this make us rich?

Typically, the wars we get involved in seem to benefit military suppliers. The companies that build missiles, bombs, bullets, sell jet fuel, etc. all seem to do quite well in wartime. How does that help the average middle or lower-class citizen?

dd
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"China are huge players here. They've loaned one trillion dollars to other countries. Scary stuff, but again, we've allowed this to happen on our watch. It's a very complex topic and I felt it was too big to really go into here".

Agreed, the difference here is that China loans money, we give it away.
 
CallMeKate said:
I can only speak for the one person I know in the position... my neighbor. She's ... I think 70 now and is not homeless only because of the generosity of a local church offering her a very reasonable rent in a house a member owns. She was talking about it this summer... how she never expected to be in this position, but she knew why she's there. She admitted that she thought there would always be someone (she actually said "a man" cringe) to "take care of her." She never prepared... never even thought of the future because she assumed there would always be someone there to "rescue" her.

Well anyhow, the story is going to end well, I do believe. She has secured a part-time job in a discount store and is feeling independent for the first time in her life and by all indications is loving it. She was talking about checking into volunteering at the hospital during her non-work hours, too... I think that will be very good for her. (y)
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“Cringe” is spot on! Hopefully, ours is the last generation of women with this mindset. And to think we started the women’s liberation movement!
 
Rich said:
Adding somewhere in the neighborhood of $1–$1.5 trillion to our current $32 trillion debt every year isn't sustainable. Years ago, we lost our AAA rating, and currently, there's a sizeable group of countries looking to move away from the dollar as the standard. This clearly seems to indicate a lack of faith in our ability to sustain the current economic trend.
Click to expand...

I agree, but homelessness isn't the straw that is going to break anyone's back. There's plenty spent that could be cut back. It's just a matter of prioritizing them. A lot is prioritized based on political influences these days, rather than the effectiveness of the end result.

Rich said:
Helping the homeless is the right thing to do, but it's also treating the symptom, not the cause of the problem. Perhaps if people could earn a living wage while working a job, they would be willing to do so. Perhaps they wouldn't end up addicted to drugs as a means of escaping their plight.
Our country is the way it is today as a result of late-stage capitalism. The rich are getting much, much richer, and the shrinking middle class is struggling with increased rent, interest rates, inflation, and a lack of jobs that pay a living wage.
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1000% agree. And most people simply aren't ready for it.

Let me tell you about housing/rentals in the UK, and why we should all care. Brits have lived off the back of wealth generated from house price increases for decades. The money made, depending on when you bought, outstripped the stock market, wage increases, and other investments. As the prices increased, wages didn't, so a gap started to open. Today, a new home isn't affordable on an average wage.

This has also driven up rents. Hedge Funds saw the money being made, and they bought up a lot of housing. They then rented it out through agencies and so it goes. However, with wages being stagnant, the affordability of even renting is severely squeezed. We have a full blown crisis. For example, students can no longer afford places to stay while studying.

But we might think, so what - they're only students. The reality is this - we're all on the property ladder, and the water is rising as more and more people drown and simply can't function in the market. The water is now midway up the chests of students who have student loans, but can't make them stretch far enough. This will continue, and soon the students won't have their head above water. So next it'll be another demographic as things get increasingly tighter.

This is a process, a gradual erosion of opportunity. It's happening in other areas of society too. Crime will increase, poverty will rise, and desperate people will do desperate things. There is no silver bullet, but I'd sure like to hear from someone with some good ideas about what to do, because the same old tired economic policies the governments throw out there are pathetic and weak. Trickle down! It gushed up!

IMO YMMV
 
Daisy99 said:
And once rents go up, they never go back down.
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The problem is, this model where personal wealth is predicated on house price increases isn't sustainable. This might sound silly given it's been going on for some time already, but it's clearly breaking down. Can you imagine what it'll be like in 50 years? Wages need to go up, but as soon as anyone says that the economists will say it'll drive up inflation. Well honestly, it's not good enough. IMO.
 
I'm not really one for conspiracy theories but here goes... It's my opinion that much of this takes place in an effort to create a large, low income work force. It's the only way that so called civilized societies can compete with the growing third world economies. Honestly, if an American or British corporation has to pay a living wage and benefits to each worker how can they compete with third world countries that operate in the "Dickens" times? Low pay, no sick time, no benefits, and if you don't like it you can be replaced. I'm not able to think of another reason why a college education is so expensive in the U.S. It's a way to reserve university level education for the upper class.
 
Rich said:
I'm not really one for conspiracy theories but here goes... It's my opinion that much of this takes place in an effort to create a large, low income work force. It's the only way that so called civilized societies can compete with the growing third world economies. Honestly, if an American or British corporation has to pay a living wage and benefits to each worker how can they compete with third world countries that operate in the "Dickens" times? Low pay, no sick time, no benefits, and if you don't like it you can be replaced. I'm not able to think of another reason why a college education is so expensive in the U.S. It's a way to reserve university level education for the upper class.
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Capitalism requires an underclass. What we have today is greed, avarice, and plain nastiness.
 
Rich said:
I'm not able to think of another reason why a college education is so expensive in the U.S. It's a way to reserve university level education for the upper class.
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I just read a really good book that addressed this point: After the Ivory Tower Falls: How College Broke the American Dream and Blew Up Our Politics--and How to Fix It by Will Bunch.
 
Lack of affordable housing is pushing even younger employed people making well over the minimum wage to living in cars. The elderly are definitely suffering worse since appx 1 in 10 US seniors live below the poverty line.
 
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The reason there are homeless seniors is that they can no longer afford their homes. Rents are increasing well beyond their ability to pay. And the rents are going up is that there is a shortage of housing. It's pure supply and demand. I think it's financially not beneficial for developers to build more housing. The profits from their rentals, they have now, are providing great returns. More housing and those profits disappear. Again, supply and demand. We can't order owners to keep rents low, but we could alter tax laws to make new housing more profitable.
 

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