I appreciate the points of "Ghost of Cutten", "T_Geithner", and "Mav88". As far as "misterno", "what does being married have to do with getting laid?" I agree with "misterno" that other countries have homelessness and poverty as well. It reminds me of Rio de Janero. I saw plenty of street people, especially in the morning before working hours. I am told that most of them have full-time employment in the city, and return to their families on the weekends. I also saw plenty of thieves (people with look-outs who will follow you until you find some place public to wait them out.) Mental illness is certainly an important factor in poverty. Not just to raving, shouting kind. Simple maladjustment can go a long ways to keeping a person for stable employment. (The threshold depends greatly on the profession.) I would like to throw in another factor, crime. Although I have met enough people looking for a jail term, to some degree it is a matter of circumstance similar to unplanned pregnancy and business bankruptcy. As an example, there is homeless fellow who works at the local Burger King. I have seen him there for 10 years, 5 days a week. He does the best that he can to conceal his homeless status, and I only know by having befriended him for years and a few chance encounters in the community at large. He doesn't act or smell like an alcoholic/drug addict. He is quite self-disciplined and self-controlled. I don't really know why he is homeless, but it is not just zero money and zero discipline. I suspect that it may be a legal matter. Keeping a low-profile and off the grid seems like a necessity.
Because too many people have too many children which they cannot financially support. A HUGE MAJORITY of those in poverty "should never have been born".
So how come there are so many mentally ill people in USA? This is my question. I don't think it's genetics. I really believe we grow them. We take fine healthy babies and traumatize them throughout their formative years.
I seriously believe that USA has an exploding mentally ill population. I can compare USA with some other countries and there is a huge difference How can you expect a mentally ill person to perform his job well? In the USA, homelessness is NOT AN ECONOMICS PROBLEM it is a MENTAL ILLNESS PROBLEM.... IMHO, it is caused by alcoholism, drug addiction, self centerism caused by capitalism, greed, too much individualness, awkward family structures that you will never see in other countries. Kid has 2 fathers, his sister has probably 3 mothers of which she has other haf sisters. Mother has emotional problem because the father cheated on her. Oh by the way, they all attend the church every Sunday, but the father is fucking the secretary every Sunday afternoon. Probably sees his kids once a month. Look at the ads in the craigslist. Some of the ads are unbelievable. The guy is looking for a roommate for the 3rd room and the second room is occupied by a hooker who happens to attend college and brings her mom once in a while to home but she has no idea what is going on. So the guy is looking for a lesbian roommate. Another ad says, looking for a roommate free rent in exchange for staying in the house naked all the time. Another ad says looking for a girlfriend and in the same ad he compares fucking to marrying in a financial way. He is probably an investment banker. How can you NOT expect a society to produce so many mentally ill people, when money and lust is the center of everything and social/daily life is missing the most important human components. Kids don't look like kids, wives look like tomcats and husbands look like domesticated dogs. All the roles in a family has been changed. That is why the society is collapsing. fake money, fake women, fake life America is decaying fast. So fast that it will not slowly crack and collapse but it will happen overnight.
We don't need to guess or talk abstractions. The number one cause of poverty in the united states is women having children too early and out of wedlock. Having a kid when you can't afford one is an economically destructive choice. I would guess alcohol and drugs are some distant second. Being dumb is a hardship as well, but that is not a choice.
Strawman... I have no idea who said that, certainly not me. I fact I have never anyone claim that non sequitur, but anyway paying people to not be envious doesn't work either. I believe the only thing that really works is opportunity, that way the envious are only the lazy and destructive. Sadly we lack enough opportunity now.
The United States is not the richest country in the world. It is the most indebted country in the world. The problem is that our politicians spend as if we <i>were</i> the richest country in the world.
I think the "homeless" problem began when Federal Judge would not allow anyone to be kept against their will in mental situation. I sold some real estate for a family, the brother was "homeless" as I had to hire detective to find him for signature on closing documents. Met him at postal station with notary. Brought him check for $50,000. He wanted to go cash it, LOL... Felt sorry for the guy.... I also live in Houston in the upscale Galleria area. I only see two cultures on streets: black and low class white...never hispanic or asian... It is a sad situation that the country needs to deal with.....we give 1.5 Billion to Egypt!!! I would rather spend that money addressing some of our own problems IMHO SteveD
And I must confess, that it is indeed I that on a regular basis finds myself foraging in the MCD dumpsters for a Big Mac that may have not been prepared to the customers liking and was discarded like a used tampon. You want to know why I am in that situation? Well, it has something to do with averaging into losers. It has been said many times over that doubling down and averaging in has killed more heebs than Adolph H. I am living proof.
I wasn't talking about giving away money. We basically agree, because if you do it right, battling poverty and presenting opportunities are the same thing. One the answers to the OP's question therefore is the difference in education for the poor and the rich. It's making the wealth&health distribution even more skewed.