OccupyWallStreet brings homelessness into the open

[Dragonbreathp9d]

Source: The Guardian

In Portland, Austin and Philadelphia, the Occupy Wall Street movement is taking up the cause of the homeless as its own, which of course it is. Homelessness is not a side issue unconnected to plutocracy and greed. It's where we're all eventually headed – the 99%, or at least the 70%, of us, every debt-loaded college graduate, out-of-work school teacher and impoverished senior citizen – unless this revolution succeeds.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/oct/24/occupy-wall-street-homelessness-us

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What does it say about these cities that this responsibility is left up to us?

[truedelphi]

1. I just got home from Occupy Santa Rosa - and the word is out

If you support the Occupy Movement but cannot afford to come to any rallies or gatherings, put a tent in your front yard with an "I SUPPORT THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT!" sign along with it.

It might be that we will need to shelter and feed each other.

Or it might be that we will indeed turn the entire establishment on its head, have text books rather than tax breaks, have paid for college rather than endless non-winnable wars, health care for all, and a re-defined way of electing people to office.

[No Elephants]

2. It is disgusting that local governments pretend this problem does not exist.

Some are individuals, couples and families simply down on their luck, some are highly dyfunctional and some are clearly psychotic, totally unconnectd with reality. All are ignored.

Damn cities don't even provide a place where they can shower. People trying to bathe in a sink in health centr or something.

Exactly when was it that most of government became sub-human? I guess it's been there a long time. I've seen shows and read about how people were treated in institutions in the Twenties to Forties and that was horrifying too. Now we've closed most of the insitutions and pretend people aren't dying of exposure every winter and Lord knows what else.

Shamefu and horrifying.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. It "says"

that 30 years of stagnated wages have depleted the tax bases of "these cities", sending them spiraling into an abyss. Less income = less tax base = closure of facilities, cuts in services, lay-offs, and then more reductions in the tax base as private industries lay off due to lack of business. The fact that under repuke administrations, the minimum wage is kept stagnant until an uproar occurs, and increases are finally jammed in but only if they get tacked onto "must have" military funding bills or nonsense like that, is disgraceful. The same happens at the state level where states end funding for cities due to the same loss of tax base.

This is a systemic problem from the very highest levels and trickle-down is never going to work when the top is allowed to skim off all the money before it is due to "trickle down". Building the "base" financially creates a foundation that pumps money back into the system.

[whathehell]

4. And that is entirely correct...n/t

[whathehell]

5. Good...It's about time. n/t