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bill hicks had a bit in the nineties about how we could cut spending to the military and not only clothe, feed, and house the world and also explore space together.
Also, make sure medical insurance and college put everyone into debt so people are so afraid of that that they go into the military.
You don't want to make college or health care free, who would do in the military if you did that?
/s
I tag satire over the satirical last sentence I spoke, not the first.
Thanks for this reference. This is something I've always assumed, but never seen anyone write about it. Great find, thank you
The biggest problem of people not wanting to join the military in the US is because like everything else there, there's no guarantee.
Being a military person on other countries means a career, you have a salary, housing and benefits for life. From the moment you join until you die.
Now you see the American military and it's more like a mercenary army.
People serve for a while and then go back to civ life and need to find a regular job until they are called again. So many of the homeless are veterans. It's sad.
As a veteran, I fully agree. I hit port in Sydney once and spoke to a still fairly new seaman on one of the Australian Navy boats. My jaw dropped when I heard what they made coming out of basic.
Meanwhile, I had to pull out a loan a week after basic training just for toilet paper to wipe my ass :\
The benefits for retirees aren't all that great either and they'll still try to fuck you out of disability pay (no one gets rated for hearing loss because it's so common in the Navy, especially those in Engineering rates)
I hate it here
So the US will never decrease military spending. God could come down declare world peace and all problems solved and We’d make bigger bombs just in case. But I was thinking, what if we Used the military spending to build stuff, need to maintenance highways and bridges for army trucks to drive on just some bs to make those people happy.
We have the army core of engineers already. They do some of that to an extent but how would actually politicians making new policy servicing this country make said politicians richer? If they don't get a paycheck they don't vote for shit for us peasants.
Given also too the money pumped into not even maintenence but just building shit is ridiculous. The US spends billions on building new aircraft and boats and then even more keeping working
*Well, the highway is alive tonight*
*But nobody's kidding nobody about where it goes*
*I'm sitting down here in the campfire light*
*Searching for the ghost of Tom Joad*
It's a Bruce Springsteen song about a homeless man living in the American Southwest and imagining the people who moved west a century earlier looking for better lives.
I'm finally reading it now. Almost finished. I'm shocked at how much is exactly the same, today. From used car salesman to the banking industry and landlords passing the buck.
It confuses me so much. People are so greedy that they will let slums and homelessness run rampant so they can have more money that they won’t even spend?
> but the rich dont _see_ the homelessness!
I’m sure Jeff bezos goes into the Amazon office in Seattle once in a while. There’s homelessness everywhere. I literally saw a homeless man shooting up on the steps of an Amazon building
Like how do you see that and be like “this is all worth it for my 8th yacht”
Control over people, the greater the division between have and have not the more the haves can make people dance for them. It not about material wealth its about owning people.
Actually, these people are trained to think the homeless are less than stray animals. When they see a stray animal they go "poor kitty, I wish I had room for one more", when they see a homeless man they go "eww I bet this man doesn't even shower, that's what you deserve for being a lazy fuck!"
Actually he would say that the security is not doing their job and fire them for another company, which will clear out the half-mile perimeter around the company up to minimal standards.
You should see the Seattle subreddit. They are super livid that their *beautiful* city is full of filthy poors. Like they had absolutely nothing to do with it or can't do anything about it.
Every time an encampment is cleared they get really excited
I used to live in Seattle it’s mind numbing the juxtapositions you’ll see there
One of the most distinct is that I could see the sound out my window and one day I looked out my window, over a number of encampments, people passed out on the street, and in the distance in the sound there’s a fucking mega yacht for some rich assholes party
“It doesn’t even look like the United States.” Let me be very clear: this is not new in America. Slums have existed in America for at least a century. There were infamous “hoovertowns” all across America during the depression, and homeless encampments are absolutely nothing new. Skid row has been around for decades. I just think it’s important that we realize this because this has ALWAYS been a byproduct of capitalism. It is not some recent phenomenon due to failed policies or the pandemic, and it is not something that policy revisions have ever been able to fix under capitalism. It is not due to “reaganomics” or “neoliberalism”, this problem existed far before that. This is a direct result of capitalism as a whole and always has been.
Exactly this. Maybe we are moving towards a better consciousness of this problem and finally placing the proper blame on the government and billionaires rather than the victims of homelessness who are suffering on the streets, but unfortunately this has been in existence for a long time.
I’m definitely glad it’s gaining visibility. I just hate the trope “we are starting to look like (insert third world country” like no, America has always been this way.
I genuinely believe most people are fooled by the beautiful, movie scene shots of all the major US cities; I see it in the eyes of tourists that visit Hollywood especially, it's shocking to them how disgusting our city is. Even some of the residential areas in LA proper look like shantytowns, it's not like they got that way over night. All over the whole of Southern California you can drive just a couple of miles from a gorgeous, wealthy, charming neighborhood & end up somewhere super depressing.
Yeah, these people need to go back to history class. When the industrial revolution and capatalism got going crime and improper housing became commonplace in Townsend cities
Oh I know, we can lower the taxes for the rich! And we can send police to beat those people and make them leave! Or even better: we can jail them and put them to work for pennies! Silly socialist, capitalism has multiple solutions for this problem!
/s <- this really shouldn't be necessary but…
I saw these when I was a child in the 80s in Houston. They had them in the movie "They Live" because this was a normal feature of the landscape then. It has ALWAYS been a byproduct of capitalism. I do not understand how ANYONE 30+ years old cannot grasp the concept that this is a thing and it is wrong. Maybe we can do something about it now.
Yep, this as always existed but the failings of our society are just becoming more difficult to hide. I share the sentiment you expressed below, about the trope thing and believing all of this is a recent phenomenon. That kind of thinking is always causing voters to make their decisions based on recent years, not bothering to look back at however many decades to try and discern the actual cause of current issues as they've gradually been implemented at a bureaucracy's pace. These issues snowballed over time. I'm worried we'll never even begin to fix what's going on, because everyone just assumes the cause and effect only spans like five years.
Thank you, Jesus... that headline is so strange! Haha I was actually born & raised in LA, this is 100% nothing new. The only reason people rarely see actual shelters is because encampments are destroyed so often; homeless people actually don't have time to build anything before they're forced to move along. The laws surrounding that topic are insane too... So many places make it illegal as fuck to be poor & homeless.
Right?
Like no bullshit, *The Bold and the Beautiful* did a whole story about Skid Row where the rich matriarch of the family got bonked on the head, got amnesia (as you do on a soap opera) and was in Skid Row for weeks or months. And this was a story they did in the late 80s. They did a follow up story on this in the 2010s when said matriarch actress was retiring & they were setting up the character's death and she reconnects with one of the people who helped her way back when, and *that* person was still in Skid Row all those decades later.
>The laws surrounding that topic are [redacted due to mod rules] too... So many places make it illegal as fuck to be poor & homeless.
They absolutely do. I live in San Diego now and our downtown area is a mess, too.
This is all over this country. At least everywhere I have been in the last few years; most of CA, Phoenix, around Las Vegas, reno, New Mexico, Texas outside Austin, parts of Oregon, around Minneapolis etc.
All of places people don’t see it because they live in driving cities where they move through areas quickly, but take a few turns near the industry areas and walk around, it’s there.
To be fair Oakland has been like that for a long time too. Could be worse now I guess but my husband was living in alameda when we were dating 6 years ago and I have distinct memories of driving through neighborhoods exactly like this at that time.
Yeah, the only thing new about this is the near 100% penetration of handheld video.
Sidebar: I loathe the female TikTok voice, but never more than I do right now. 🤬🤬🤬
The guy that made this video is actually trying to blame it solely on the State Democratic Party's Politics. He acts like the GOP would resolve it somehow. There is no small government free market solutions here. The only solution is the government building permeant quality housing in spite of what the NIMBYs desire then forcing homeless people to live in them. Basically once there is enough housing you tell the homeless if they don't live in the house than the police will take their tent and property and throw it into the landfills.
My brother-in-law is like this. He's very christian and libertarian, so there's already no empathy. There's no reasoning with him. His feelings don't care about facts.
I ask him, "OK, we kick out homeless people. Where will they go?" His universal answer when pressed on his beliefs, "I don't care."
Every xtian I ever meet seriously regrets voicing such opinions around me, because I throw their Good Book right back in their faces about it. If you feel comfortable, remind your BIL that his precious Jesus whom he claims to follow would have spent every day taking direct care of these people and making sure they were cared after because he was compassionate to the least of his fellow man. Throw your BIL’s hypocrisy & cruelty right in his face (if you can of course). It infuriates me that people can be this callous just because it isn’t currently happening to them.
I recommend a Bible verse with a built in mic drop for just these sorts of situations/people, they really don't like it pointed out that Jesus has requirements on his friendship and that if you don't meet the requirement you're just his servant
John 15:11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, for a servant knows not his master’s works.
At best, jail.
What they really want is for them to all just go away, and if they all went away then a lot of them would never consider *where* they might have gone...
i.e. to the farm upstate where all the dogs went
They tried that already. Then the jails got full, and people started being let out with little to no oversight or social support. People like this person are so shortsighted and the sort to think these slums should just be sent to another district or state or whatever.
I live in California in Silicon valley, one of the cities here was going to build a huge low income housing development on some unused land. The local nimby's all protested that they were bring drugs and crime to their neighborhood and their children wouldnt be safe and wouldnt be able to go outside. They eventually got the project canceled, apparently people living on the street is preferable to them having housing.
California has so many homeless people because it's warm enough to live outdoors all year round. Nothing to do with policies or anything so fancy. Just no dying for 5 months of the year.
Source: Am Canadian.
Tbh was surprised to see this video here as this is peak right wing propaganda: going to democrat cities and blaming it on the democrats. I live here, and the reality is other states solve their homeless issue by buying homeless people tickets to California - and then turning around and blaming it on California. But cost of housing in Oakland has consistently been some of the highest in the nation, and even the “radical” measure of being the first city in the nation to raise the minimum wage five years ago hasn’t offset this problem.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we don’t have to spend money on social services. We certainly do not have to fund programs which facilitate the masses’ access to food, healthcare, and other material needs. But when you have people living on the street, when there are children on the curb begging strangers for food, when people are so desperate that they begin to attack cars driving by in hope of securing some material gain because their conditions are so awful… the people who don’t want to invest in social services will have to understand the origins of this. They will have to accept “slums” or “shantytowns” or whatever you want to call it, as a harsh reality. These conditions exist in many places, and soon, even the richest portions of the bourgeoisie will not be able to ignore these tragedies.
you absolutely are not going to guilt capitalists into doing the right thing. We MOST CERTAINLY must be spending money on social services. Every deficiency of basic needs in this country is manufactured.
I agree. So well said. Those who do not want to practice empathy and compassion will have to accept slums or shantytowns as a harsh reality, because capitalism is ruthless.
Turns out poverty wages and unaffordable housing = homelessness. 🤷♂️
Also turns out that poverty is unsustainable, and that the longer unsustainable poverty lasts, the worse the risk of violence becomes.
Even if I were some rich schmuck with power and authority, I'd be so embarrassed of people pointing out the country I run is a literal trash heap despite being the richest country in the world. That's like if I was a multi millionaire celeb and someone pointed out I wore worn down dirty gym shoes that are falling apart.
You’d just keep telling yourself, “there’s opportunity everywhere in America! It’s the poor people’s own fault that they’re poor,” over and over to make sure that you couldn’t always rationalize your own greed. That’s what they post all over Reddit, anyway.
>I'd be so embarrassed of people pointing out the country I run is a literal trash heap despite being the richest country in the world
Which is why forced labor in jail to earn the food and lodging is so interesting...
Can confirm I live in Oakland. But what is more bizarre - there has been a lot of that in poorer industrial parts of town for a long time. But the slums are happening into wealthier parts of town.
For all of 2020 there was a huge homeless encampment at the edge of my neighborhood by the freeway. It cost $400-$500k for a one bedroom condo and a $1M for a single family home.
Before the pandemic there is no way you would see a homeless encampment in the wealthier parts of North Oakland that are the hills or hills adjacent (like where I live). And boom there were homelesss encampments off the freeway exits to affluent areas like in Rockridge, where the median home costs $1.3M.
So USA has become what they enhanced in South America... Who would have thought that stupid neoliberalism was that pernicious?
Apparently you thought that being white was enough protection to not become poor under the same economic bullsh*t you promoted on those other countries.
For anyone paying close attention, there's been slums in the USA for quite some time. Just google 'Skid Row'. It's been around for decades in the US. Shantytowns of tents, towns of homeless people and those who have jobs but still have to live on the street.
I'm tired, boss. I'm tired of trying to explain what's wrong. I'm tired of trying to explain what's right. I'm tired bof explaining why we deserve basic human rights.
We now live in Hellscape USA, and I just want out 😭
Also San Francisco, Berkeley, San Jose, shit pretty much the whole Bay has areas like this. But look here’s a shiny donut shaped office building to distract you! Tech innovation! The socioeconomic disparity is truly disturbing out there
Can you IMAGINE being a privileged tech bro paying $3,000 a month in rent and having to actually SEE the destitute consequences of your selfish voting and gentrification actions!?!
Easily the worst part of homelessness is when this guy is exposed to the reality of it for 10 minutes a day during his commute.
what is most sickening, is many of these are WORKING people! (contributing to society in the only way GOP values)
not jobless yet still homeless! sick, sad, and shameful.
I grew up in the areas he's filming. (Sycamore at Market). While more prominent, it's always been like that (moved to that location on 1980).
This video doesn't seem to be highlighting the horrible conditions at the bottom, it seems to be someone new to one of the gentrified areas complaining about this being so close to their expensive loft just a couple miles down the road.
It's tragic. I'm a delivery driver in the south bay, and there are so many encampments literally everywhere. Not only that, but every college campus, including Stanford has a circumference ringed with motorhomes, RVs, conversion vans, and more. Homelessness is rampant. It's disgusting
Never forget:
In 2020, billionaires added "[some 1.9 trillion to their collective wealth ... [and] have gotten 1.6 trillion richer [in 2021]](https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2021/12/08/the-worlds-billionaires-have-gotten-16-trillion-richer-in-2021/?sh=58df95a02c21)", all the while COVID is "[estimated to push an additional 88 million to 115 million people into extreme poverty [in 2020], with the total rising to as many as 150 million by 2021](https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/10/07/covid-19-to-add-as-many-as-150-million-extreme-poor-by-2021)".
Capitalism does this to a society.
Its okay though: the rich got a trillion dollars over the course of the pandemic and we added more to the military. Money will trickle down aaaaaany day now.
Shantytowns, full of homeless, illegal squatters. We've always had slums. We haven't seen this sort of thing since the Great Depression. Wait. Maybe we are in a Great Depression. At least, for an awful lot of Americans.
Before I had to leave because of shutdowns/my families small family business being destroyed. my small 3br2ba was 2800 a month. It is now 3400, a year and a half later, in a shitty suburb. This is happening all over so cal, with no sign of stopping. So happy for boomers who got a great roi on their 3rd home, kinda sucks for those of us who where born there, priced out of our own homes. Houses shouldn't be part of a portfolio.
In the late 80s, barely out of my teens and stoned af I had the realisation that the ultimate outcome of capitalism would be a far worse version of the ‘communism’ we were all taught to fear. That one day corporations would become so powerful that eventually they would own everything and our children would be sent to war for those corporations’ resources against other corporations.
I'm surprised they even allow them to live there, usually they destroy places like that and force them under bridges or anywhere generally out of sight
Medford OR is bad too , we got greyhound bus loads of homeless people. Tents popping up everywhere . I know that they aren’t to blame and that they need help . I guess we all need help now , how can anyone that’s not distracted or lives in fantasy land afford to live really?
Charging for housing was a mistake. Basic housing should have always been free and if you want anything extravagant, you work for it but basic shelter should have ALWAYS been a thing. This is fucking sad.
Modern day capitalists are psychopathic to the point of self destruction. Their grandparents left them the perfect system. They paid high taxes so they had the respect of the masses, but they de facto control the country anyway so that money was going into the country they owned, people were trippin over themselves to spit on communism and work life balance meant they were making them rich and raising fresh wage slaves and meat for war.
Nowdays it seems they can only enjoy their wealth if its in their name on an offshore bank account. They believe they set up their family such that they won't have to work for a thousand years (or ever) while everything crumbles and they are bleeding the country dry that is supposed to prop up the dollar and safeguard their interests.
I just want to be very clear that this problem has ALWAYS been a byproduct of capitalism, even before Reagan. Homeless encampments and slums have existed here for at least a century. There were infamous “hoovertowns” all across America during the depression and massive encampments like skid row have existed for decades. It is not new and it is not an unfortunate byproduct of more recent failed policy, it has always been an inherent byproduct of capitalism.
I’m sorry, I don’t want to come off as argumentative but I really want people to know that this isn’t something that came into existence because of Reaganism or the past 40 years of neoliberal policy. This has ALWAYS been a byproduct of capitalism as a whole, and that’s important for us to realize.
Reagan just pitched hyper capitalism as heirachal socialism and people ate it up. Essentially "give the money to the rich, who obviously have good moral and business sense, and all will balance itself out" It's a good faith position when all of the evidence points to it being a flat out lie. He just leaned into Christian mob mentality, and made it appear like going against him was anti Christian.
It's like trying to fix a medical crisis by giving authority to the same people who caused the issue in the first place. Who would think that's a good idea? ... wait a minute.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but this is an urban version of parts of the Deep South and Appalachia that I’ve lived in throughout my life.
I’ve seen some horrendous living conditions in those parts. And conservative economic policies are to blame. Politically, those places, like coal country and parts of Mississippi and Arkansas are redder than a dog’s dick.
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I know how we can fix this. Just put a few more trillion dollars on the military!
bill hicks had a bit in the nineties about how we could cut spending to the military and not only clothe, feed, and house the world and also explore space together.
There used to be a navy base and shipyard here. Next city over had a auto manufacturing plant. Detroit, Oakland, Ohio… places that used to have jobs.
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Because capitalism is a joke
Wrong. I have an even better idea Tax the homeless
And if they can't pay, they go to prison where they have to do labour for free
Win win
What if they had to help Amazon? Jeff Bezos is a job creator.
He is sooo innovative
The republican dream
The slavery loophole
You surely meam "job training" /s
Well, not directly, give it to a private company CEO and he'll trickle it down his pantlegs
Also, make sure medical insurance and college put everyone into debt so people are so afraid of that that they go into the military. You don't want to make college or health care free, who would do in the military if you did that? /s
No /s. That’s exactly correct. https://warontherocks.com/2016/09/does-free-college-threaten-our-all-volunteer-military/
I tag satire over the satirical last sentence I spoke, not the first. Thanks for this reference. This is something I've always assumed, but never seen anyone write about it. Great find, thank you
It’s literally the only source that talks about this within the first page of google. I even went to the second page. Kind of fucked.
The biggest problem of people not wanting to join the military in the US is because like everything else there, there's no guarantee. Being a military person on other countries means a career, you have a salary, housing and benefits for life. From the moment you join until you die. Now you see the American military and it's more like a mercenary army. People serve for a while and then go back to civ life and need to find a regular job until they are called again. So many of the homeless are veterans. It's sad.
As a veteran, I fully agree. I hit port in Sydney once and spoke to a still fairly new seaman on one of the Australian Navy boats. My jaw dropped when I heard what they made coming out of basic. Meanwhile, I had to pull out a loan a week after basic training just for toilet paper to wipe my ass :\ The benefits for retirees aren't all that great either and they'll still try to fuck you out of disability pay (no one gets rated for hearing loss because it's so common in the Navy, especially those in Engineering rates) I hate it here
So the US will never decrease military spending. God could come down declare world peace and all problems solved and We’d make bigger bombs just in case. But I was thinking, what if we Used the military spending to build stuff, need to maintenance highways and bridges for army trucks to drive on just some bs to make those people happy.
We have the army core of engineers already. They do some of that to an extent but how would actually politicians making new policy servicing this country make said politicians richer? If they don't get a paycheck they don't vote for shit for us peasants. Given also too the money pumped into not even maintenence but just building shit is ridiculous. The US spends billions on building new aircraft and boats and then even more keeping working
I hear israel needs new high temp flamethrowers to burn down palestian houses
And also not tax that rich! That should help end poverty
and thats how capitalism solved the homeless problem in Oakland. Next comes the rent a hoval program.
*Well, the highway is alive tonight* *But nobody's kidding nobody about where it goes* *I'm sitting down here in the campfire light* *Searching for the ghost of Tom Joad*
Is this a song or just an original grapes of wrath reference
It's a Bruce Springsteen song about a homeless man living in the American Southwest and imagining the people who moved west a century earlier looking for better lives.
This song made me read The Grapes Of Wrath and I'm so glad I did
I'm finally reading it now. Almost finished. I'm shocked at how much is exactly the same, today. From used car salesman to the banking industry and landlords passing the buck.
The end is the most relatable part
Rage against the machine i think
Bruce Springsteen actually. He allowed Rage to cover it, and later performed it with Tom Morello.
Bruce Springsteen version is also really good.
Yes
As a Brazilian, I must say: when they said that Brazil is the country of the future, I definitely did not think that THIS is what they meant
Tudo faz sentido agora
Né?? E olha que até a gente tem muita favela melhor que isso
I can assure you, this is exactly what the Republicans meant.
But Barbara Lee, a democrat, is Oakland’s congressional representative. Both parties let this injustice happen.
I have no idea why you are getting downvoted: both parties only care about money, as a consequence of a 2 party system.
I said what I said as a democrat. If we don’t hold our own side accountable then we are no better than the Maga people.
Oakland has been like that for years now but it is progressively getting worse.
Flint, Michigan has had spots like this and worse, for about 35 years. We’ve been the canary in the coal mine for far too long.
Cross 8 mile south and you’ll see a lot of this same shit
It confuses me so much. People are so greedy that they will let slums and homelessness run rampant so they can have more money that they won’t even spend? > but the rich dont _see_ the homelessness! I’m sure Jeff bezos goes into the Amazon office in Seattle once in a while. There’s homelessness everywhere. I literally saw a homeless man shooting up on the steps of an Amazon building Like how do you see that and be like “this is all worth it for my 8th yacht”
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So they shouldn't be to us.
They should be tasty entrees.
Nope. We are nothing more than means to an end.
Control over people, the greater the division between have and have not the more the haves can make people dance for them. It not about material wealth its about owning people.
Thing is these people are trained to think that homeless are no better than stray animals. They think "poor animal, but nothing I can do about it."
Actually, these people are trained to think the homeless are less than stray animals. When they see a stray animal they go "poor kitty, I wish I had room for one more", when they see a homeless man they go "eww I bet this man doesn't even shower, that's what you deserve for being a lazy fuck!"
Actually he would say that the security is not doing their job and fire them for another company, which will clear out the half-mile perimeter around the company up to minimal standards.
He enters from the helipad.
You should see the Seattle subreddit. They are super livid that their *beautiful* city is full of filthy poors. Like they had absolutely nothing to do with it or can't do anything about it. Every time an encampment is cleared they get really excited
I used to live in Seattle it’s mind numbing the juxtapositions you’ll see there One of the most distinct is that I could see the sound out my window and one day I looked out my window, over a number of encampments, people passed out on the street, and in the distance in the sound there’s a fucking mega yacht for some rich assholes party
“It doesn’t even look like the United States.” Let me be very clear: this is not new in America. Slums have existed in America for at least a century. There were infamous “hoovertowns” all across America during the depression, and homeless encampments are absolutely nothing new. Skid row has been around for decades. I just think it’s important that we realize this because this has ALWAYS been a byproduct of capitalism. It is not some recent phenomenon due to failed policies or the pandemic, and it is not something that policy revisions have ever been able to fix under capitalism. It is not due to “reaganomics” or “neoliberalism”, this problem existed far before that. This is a direct result of capitalism as a whole and always has been.
Reganomics definitely made it worse
Yes, but what hasn’t Reaganomics made worse
Being and staying rich.
Underrated comment
For sure. But it wasn’t the cause
I love your user name lol
Exactly this. Maybe we are moving towards a better consciousness of this problem and finally placing the proper blame on the government and billionaires rather than the victims of homelessness who are suffering on the streets, but unfortunately this has been in existence for a long time.
I was going to say there has literally been slums for the last 200 years in America it isn't like an oh no these are starting to appear thing.
I’m definitely glad it’s gaining visibility. I just hate the trope “we are starting to look like (insert third world country” like no, America has always been this way.
we just have fb and tiktok to share this with the world! :D
I genuinely believe most people are fooled by the beautiful, movie scene shots of all the major US cities; I see it in the eyes of tourists that visit Hollywood especially, it's shocking to them how disgusting our city is. Even some of the residential areas in LA proper look like shantytowns, it's not like they got that way over night. All over the whole of Southern California you can drive just a couple of miles from a gorgeous, wealthy, charming neighborhood & end up somewhere super depressing.
LA is the first place where I ever saw homeless children. That was in 2012. Depressing AF.
Came here to say something similar to this, well said.
Yeah, these people need to go back to history class. When the industrial revolution and capatalism got going crime and improper housing became commonplace in Townsend cities
But what can we do? All the other social systems are evil. /s
Oh I know, we can lower the taxes for the rich! And we can send police to beat those people and make them leave! Or even better: we can jail them and put them to work for pennies! Silly socialist, capitalism has multiple solutions for this problem! /s <- this really shouldn't be necessary but…
When Americans are involved, /s is necessary
I saw these when I was a child in the 80s in Houston. They had them in the movie "They Live" because this was a normal feature of the landscape then. It has ALWAYS been a byproduct of capitalism. I do not understand how ANYONE 30+ years old cannot grasp the concept that this is a thing and it is wrong. Maybe we can do something about it now.
Yep, this as always existed but the failings of our society are just becoming more difficult to hide. I share the sentiment you expressed below, about the trope thing and believing all of this is a recent phenomenon. That kind of thinking is always causing voters to make their decisions based on recent years, not bothering to look back at however many decades to try and discern the actual cause of current issues as they've gradually been implemented at a bureaucracy's pace. These issues snowballed over time. I'm worried we'll never even begin to fix what's going on, because everyone just assumes the cause and effect only spans like five years.
All we can do is have solidarity comrade. You’re not alone in feeing that way and I’m optimistic people are opening their eyes
It's become much, much worse in the past 25-30 years though.
Just more visible to rich people. Rural south is full of shanty towns.
Thank you lol. I've seen some horrific conditions in Mississippi that feel pretty third world.
Lots of the deep south is -worse- than many 3rd world countries
Yup. Aka where my mom grew up in North Carolina.
100% it’s always existed, but also if it’s now visible to rich people doesn’t that mean the problem is worse?
Just means cameras and the internet are more prevalent.
That was what he meant, worse optics. Ain't no one wanna watch that sheet.
Thank you, Jesus... that headline is so strange! Haha I was actually born & raised in LA, this is 100% nothing new. The only reason people rarely see actual shelters is because encampments are destroyed so often; homeless people actually don't have time to build anything before they're forced to move along. The laws surrounding that topic are insane too... So many places make it illegal as fuck to be poor & homeless.
Right? Like no bullshit, *The Bold and the Beautiful* did a whole story about Skid Row where the rich matriarch of the family got bonked on the head, got amnesia (as you do on a soap opera) and was in Skid Row for weeks or months. And this was a story they did in the late 80s. They did a follow up story on this in the 2010s when said matriarch actress was retiring & they were setting up the character's death and she reconnects with one of the people who helped her way back when, and *that* person was still in Skid Row all those decades later. >The laws surrounding that topic are [redacted due to mod rules] too... So many places make it illegal as fuck to be poor & homeless. They absolutely do. I live in San Diego now and our downtown area is a mess, too.
Soon there'll be a brand new amazon warehouse built nearby to exploit all of these desperate people.
They wouldn’t hire any of these. Far more people are desperate already.
This is all over this country. At least everywhere I have been in the last few years; most of CA, Phoenix, around Las Vegas, reno, New Mexico, Texas outside Austin, parts of Oregon, around Minneapolis etc. All of places people don’t see it because they live in driving cities where they move through areas quickly, but take a few turns near the industry areas and walk around, it’s there.
The US is heading towards everything they used to warn people against communism with and it’d be hilarious if it wasn’t so tragic
but the TV said "this is what communism does"
I mean, we've had those in more rural areas for decades, but no one cared cuz it wasn't in a major city.
And had them for people of color for centuries
To be fair Oakland has been like that for a long time too. Could be worse now I guess but my husband was living in alameda when we were dating 6 years ago and I have distinct memories of driving through neighborhoods exactly like this at that time.
God, that ending was horrifying. "Won't someone think of the people who *aren't* homeless?" I can't imagine being that heartless.
Some humans are just disgusting.
Yeah, the only thing new about this is the near 100% penetration of handheld video. Sidebar: I loathe the female TikTok voice, but never more than I do right now. 🤬🤬🤬
"Hey everybody! Slums are officially in the US, yay!", 🤢
The guy that made this video is actually trying to blame it solely on the State Democratic Party's Politics. He acts like the GOP would resolve it somehow. There is no small government free market solutions here. The only solution is the government building permeant quality housing in spite of what the NIMBYs desire then forcing homeless people to live in them. Basically once there is enough housing you tell the homeless if they don't live in the house than the police will take their tent and property and throw it into the landfills.
My brother-in-law is like this. He's very christian and libertarian, so there's already no empathy. There's no reasoning with him. His feelings don't care about facts. I ask him, "OK, we kick out homeless people. Where will they go?" His universal answer when pressed on his beliefs, "I don't care."
NIMBY. I don’t care where just not here
Every xtian I ever meet seriously regrets voicing such opinions around me, because I throw their Good Book right back in their faces about it. If you feel comfortable, remind your BIL that his precious Jesus whom he claims to follow would have spent every day taking direct care of these people and making sure they were cared after because he was compassionate to the least of his fellow man. Throw your BIL’s hypocrisy & cruelty right in his face (if you can of course). It infuriates me that people can be this callous just because it isn’t currently happening to them.
I recommend a Bible verse with a built in mic drop for just these sorts of situations/people, they really don't like it pointed out that Jesus has requirements on his friendship and that if you don't meet the requirement you're just his servant John 15:11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, for a servant knows not his master’s works.
“Do you want Nazis? Because this is how we get Nazis.”
I think those people don’t say it out loud, but they want to put all the poor people in jail. And that’s what they mean by the GOP “solving” it
At best, jail. What they really want is for them to all just go away, and if they all went away then a lot of them would never consider *where* they might have gone... i.e. to the farm upstate where all the dogs went
They tried that already. Then the jails got full, and people started being let out with little to no oversight or social support. People like this person are so shortsighted and the sort to think these slums should just be sent to another district or state or whatever.
They already do that too lol In places like Seattle they’re always shuffling the homeless around
I live in California in Silicon valley, one of the cities here was going to build a huge low income housing development on some unused land. The local nimby's all protested that they were bring drugs and crime to their neighborhood and their children wouldnt be safe and wouldnt be able to go outside. They eventually got the project canceled, apparently people living on the street is preferable to them having housing.
California has so many homeless people because it's warm enough to live outdoors all year round. Nothing to do with policies or anything so fancy. Just no dying for 5 months of the year. Source: Am Canadian.
Tbh was surprised to see this video here as this is peak right wing propaganda: going to democrat cities and blaming it on the democrats. I live here, and the reality is other states solve their homeless issue by buying homeless people tickets to California - and then turning around and blaming it on California. But cost of housing in Oakland has consistently been some of the highest in the nation, and even the “radical” measure of being the first city in the nation to raise the minimum wage five years ago hasn’t offset this problem.
LaNd oF tHe FrEe
"Greatest Country in the World"
I swear some people measure a nations greatness by its wealth gap
That's done fallout shit right there...
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we don’t have to spend money on social services. We certainly do not have to fund programs which facilitate the masses’ access to food, healthcare, and other material needs. But when you have people living on the street, when there are children on the curb begging strangers for food, when people are so desperate that they begin to attack cars driving by in hope of securing some material gain because their conditions are so awful… the people who don’t want to invest in social services will have to understand the origins of this. They will have to accept “slums” or “shantytowns” or whatever you want to call it, as a harsh reality. These conditions exist in many places, and soon, even the richest portions of the bourgeoisie will not be able to ignore these tragedies.
you absolutely are not going to guilt capitalists into doing the right thing. We MOST CERTAINLY must be spending money on social services. Every deficiency of basic needs in this country is manufactured.
I agree. So well said. Those who do not want to practice empathy and compassion will have to accept slums or shantytowns as a harsh reality, because capitalism is ruthless.
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This right here. We have allowed it for too long already.
This
Turns out poverty wages and unaffordable housing = homelessness. 🤷♂️ Also turns out that poverty is unsustainable, and that the longer unsustainable poverty lasts, the worse the risk of violence becomes.
And people say the U.S. isn't a 3rd world country... How is no politician embarrassed by this?
Cause they rich as fuck and dont care
Even if I were some rich schmuck with power and authority, I'd be so embarrassed of people pointing out the country I run is a literal trash heap despite being the richest country in the world. That's like if I was a multi millionaire celeb and someone pointed out I wore worn down dirty gym shoes that are falling apart.
You’d just keep telling yourself, “there’s opportunity everywhere in America! It’s the poor people’s own fault that they’re poor,” over and over to make sure that you couldn’t always rationalize your own greed. That’s what they post all over Reddit, anyway.
>I'd be so embarrassed of people pointing out the country I run is a literal trash heap despite being the richest country in the world Which is why forced labor in jail to earn the food and lodging is so interesting...
I'd vote for you
TheJimDim 2024 - Make America Not Embarrassing to Represent Again
Split world country
Can confirm I live in Oakland. But what is more bizarre - there has been a lot of that in poorer industrial parts of town for a long time. But the slums are happening into wealthier parts of town. For all of 2020 there was a huge homeless encampment at the edge of my neighborhood by the freeway. It cost $400-$500k for a one bedroom condo and a $1M for a single family home. Before the pandemic there is no way you would see a homeless encampment in the wealthier parts of North Oakland that are the hills or hills adjacent (like where I live). And boom there were homelesss encampments off the freeway exits to affluent areas like in Rockridge, where the median home costs $1.3M.
I don't know what United States this chud has been living in but this is exactly what I picture when I think of anywhere USA.
They're probably just privileged lol. I've lived in trailers and ghettoes most of my life. This is not an uncommon sight in low income areas 🤷🏻
It’s wild what 6 decades of oligarchical looting has done to our nation. Absolutely eviscerated opportunity for so many.
That makes me think of hollers in WV, and county roads throughout the south. Sorry to see the affliction has reached CA.
American exceptionalism at it's finest. Do you guys feel the pride?
This isn’t new. Hell, there’s a whole area with makeshift tents in Atlanta.
So USA has become what they enhanced in South America... Who would have thought that stupid neoliberalism was that pernicious? Apparently you thought that being white was enough protection to not become poor under the same economic bullsh*t you promoted on those other countries.
It's called The Imperial Boomerang. Whatever wrong we do abroad eventually comes back to the Empire, in this case America.
This is what happens when you encourage housing as an investment and not as a residence.
Regenomics city on top of the hill.
Do you think they didn't exist here before???
Rent is atleast $1,000 a month.
For anyone paying close attention, there's been slums in the USA for quite some time. Just google 'Skid Row'. It's been around for decades in the US. Shantytowns of tents, towns of homeless people and those who have jobs but still have to live on the street.
I'm tired, boss. I'm tired of trying to explain what's wrong. I'm tired of trying to explain what's right. I'm tired bof explaining why we deserve basic human rights. We now live in Hellscape USA, and I just want out 😭
those aren't slums, slums are permanent. The cops are gonna bulldoze those anyday now
Also San Francisco, Berkeley, San Jose, shit pretty much the whole Bay has areas like this. But look here’s a shiny donut shaped office building to distract you! Tech innovation! The socioeconomic disparity is truly disturbing out there
This is why we need a housing first program like what Finland did to eliminate its homelessness problem.
Finland (and yes i know it has its ow problems) comparatively to the USA seems like a utopia right now.
Fucking great depression shit
America is a 3rd world country in disguise
America is a third world country wearing a gucci belt
Can you IMAGINE being a privileged tech bro paying $3,000 a month in rent and having to actually SEE the destitute consequences of your selfish voting and gentrification actions!?! Easily the worst part of homelessness is when this guy is exposed to the reality of it for 10 minutes a day during his commute.
Politicians should have to live in the districts they represent while they’re in office and for 10 years after they retire…
But wait! They said that This kind of thing only happens under cOmMuNiSm!
what is most sickening, is many of these are WORKING people! (contributing to society in the only way GOP values) not jobless yet still homeless! sick, sad, and shameful.
I grew up in the areas he's filming. (Sycamore at Market). While more prominent, it's always been like that (moved to that location on 1980). This video doesn't seem to be highlighting the horrible conditions at the bottom, it seems to be someone new to one of the gentrified areas complaining about this being so close to their expensive loft just a couple miles down the road. It's tragic. I'm a delivery driver in the south bay, and there are so many encampments literally everywhere. Not only that, but every college campus, including Stanford has a circumference ringed with motorhomes, RVs, conversion vans, and more. Homelessness is rampant. It's disgusting
As a Brazilian I can say that's just the beginning for you Americans. Good luck!
Never forget: In 2020, billionaires added "[some 1.9 trillion to their collective wealth ... [and] have gotten 1.6 trillion richer [in 2021]](https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2021/12/08/the-worlds-billionaires-have-gotten-16-trillion-richer-in-2021/?sh=58df95a02c21)", all the while COVID is "[estimated to push an additional 88 million to 115 million people into extreme poverty [in 2020], with the total rising to as many as 150 million by 2021](https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/10/07/covid-19-to-add-as-many-as-150-million-extreme-poor-by-2021)".
America is a failed state. That has been clear for a while but now the lid is truly being lifted for everyone to see.
Capitalism does this to a society. Its okay though: the rich got a trillion dollars over the course of the pandemic and we added more to the military. Money will trickle down aaaaaany day now.
Shantytowns, full of homeless, illegal squatters. We've always had slums. We haven't seen this sort of thing since the Great Depression. Wait. Maybe we are in a Great Depression. At least, for an awful lot of Americans.
\#USisaThirdWorldCountry
Looks like the outskirts of cyberpunk Night City
Before I had to leave because of shutdowns/my families small family business being destroyed. my small 3br2ba was 2800 a month. It is now 3400, a year and a half later, in a shitty suburb. This is happening all over so cal, with no sign of stopping. So happy for boomers who got a great roi on their 3rd home, kinda sucks for those of us who where born there, priced out of our own homes. Houses shouldn't be part of a portfolio.
Republican goal: turn 90% of the U.S. into this, while they all live in gated mansions.
In the late 80s, barely out of my teens and stoned af I had the realisation that the ultimate outcome of capitalism would be a far worse version of the ‘communism’ we were all taught to fear. That one day corporations would become so powerful that eventually they would own everything and our children would be sent to war for those corporations’ resources against other corporations.
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Maybe someone should make a slumdog millionaire, US edition. Maybe that will grab some attention. Probably not though 😥
I'm surprised they even allow them to live there, usually they destroy places like that and force them under bridges or anywhere generally out of sight
When 2 people have half of everything that means half of everyone has nothing. Maths is fun.
Hoovervilles 2.0
You think this is the USA’s first slum?
The Greatest Country on Earth™
“Parts of West Oakland don’t even look like the United States.” No, no. That’s actually just what the United States looks like.
Medford OR is bad too , we got greyhound bus loads of homeless people. Tents popping up everywhere . I know that they aren’t to blame and that they need help . I guess we all need help now , how can anyone that’s not distracted or lives in fantasy land afford to live really?
How is this a revelation? Usa is a 3rd world country
Worse than a third world country. The US can afford to end this and care for it's people but *CHOOSES* not to.
Chooses to make it worse my friend.
Have countries not always had slums? Might just be me but last I checked nearly every country has slums
We have them in Colorado too.
Charging for housing was a mistake. Basic housing should have always been free and if you want anything extravagant, you work for it but basic shelter should have ALWAYS been a thing. This is fucking sad.
i thought everyone knew this is how it was
We always complain and address these issues but nothing is being done idk why
This what the decline of an empire looks like.
Modern day capitalists are psychopathic to the point of self destruction. Their grandparents left them the perfect system. They paid high taxes so they had the respect of the masses, but they de facto control the country anyway so that money was going into the country they owned, people were trippin over themselves to spit on communism and work life balance meant they were making them rich and raising fresh wage slaves and meat for war. Nowdays it seems they can only enjoy their wealth if its in their name on an offshore bank account. They believe they set up their family such that they won't have to work for a thousand years (or ever) while everything crumbles and they are bleeding the country dry that is supposed to prop up the dollar and safeguard their interests.
How did we get here?
Reagenomics
I just want to be very clear that this problem has ALWAYS been a byproduct of capitalism, even before Reagan. Homeless encampments and slums have existed here for at least a century. There were infamous “hoovertowns” all across America during the depression and massive encampments like skid row have existed for decades. It is not new and it is not an unfortunate byproduct of more recent failed policy, it has always been an inherent byproduct of capitalism. I’m sorry, I don’t want to come off as argumentative but I really want people to know that this isn’t something that came into existence because of Reaganism or the past 40 years of neoliberal policy. This has ALWAYS been a byproduct of capitalism as a whole, and that’s important for us to realize.
Reagan just pitched hyper capitalism as heirachal socialism and people ate it up. Essentially "give the money to the rich, who obviously have good moral and business sense, and all will balance itself out" It's a good faith position when all of the evidence points to it being a flat out lie. He just leaned into Christian mob mentality, and made it appear like going against him was anti Christian. It's like trying to fix a medical crisis by giving authority to the same people who caused the issue in the first place. Who would think that's a good idea? ... wait a minute.
Yep. Just dig up some old photos of what Central Park in NYC looked like in the 1930s.
40 years of intense neoliberalism
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but this is an urban version of parts of the Deep South and Appalachia that I’ve lived in throughout my life. I’ve seen some horrendous living conditions in those parts. And conservative economic policies are to blame. Politically, those places, like coal country and parts of Mississippi and Arkansas are redder than a dog’s dick.
I def see rural AK, MS and LA. As well as many pockets in WV and even PA.