Comparing someone buying some clothes from H&M to a slave seems a bit dramatic. I’ll focus on the less cynical part of the post.
The number of vacant homes was higher than I expected, and the number of homeless was lower than I expected… both by a significant margin. From what I could find, about 1/3 of vacant homes are vacation homes. I assume this is the rich problem being eluded to? If these are vacation homes they are likely not in areas where the homeless would need them, like near places to find work or public transit.
I’d be curious what the average vacant home is like. I live near a city with a lot of vacant homes (over 100,000 of them from what I can find with 2020 data). I assume some might have some homeless people breaking in to get a roof over their head, but they would need a lot of work to be called homes. Most of them were once beautiful homes, but now they are in disrepair, many have extensive fire damage, and are not safe as-is. They can be bought for a couple thousand dollars, but the city has started to rip them down, as they are dangerous and beyond repair in many cases. The city is spending $3m to mow the lawns and board up the vacant homes, but it’s not enough. Residents are having to pick up the slack if their want their neighborhood to look semi-decent. I’m sure the city, all the businesses in the city, and the existing residents would all love have those houses with families in them. Making them safe enough for the homeless would be very expensive and then there is the question of if they can keep it up. It also will keep other people away from the city instead of trying to win them back. There have to be better options than telling a homeless person to stay in an old burned out mansion with a collapsing floor and roof. They can’t afford to fix it, and the people who can don’t want to be there, hence the current conditions.
On the food issue, horrible nutrition guidance from the government, along with misguided incentives from the government for business, have been largely responsible for the current issues. The food has no nutritional value, so people are never satisfied and keep eating more. It’s great for profits I guess, as long as they don’t care about killing their customers. This isn’t an idea that should be exported.
Comparing someone buying some clothes from H&M to a slave seems a bit dramatic. I’ll focus on the less cynical part of the post.
The number of vacant homes was higher than I expected, and the number of homeless was lower than I expected… both by a significant margin. From what I could find, about 1/3 of vacant homes are vacation homes. I assume this is the rich problem being eluded to? If these are vacation homes they are likely not in areas where the homeless would need them, like near places to find work or public transit.
I’d be curious what the average vacant home is like. I live near a city with a lot of vacant homes (over 100,000 of them from what I can find with 2020 data). I assume some might have some homeless people breaking in to get a roof over their head, but they would need a lot of work to be called homes. Most of them were once beautiful homes, but now they are in disrepair, many have extensive fire damage, and are not safe as-is. They can be bought for a couple thousand dollars, but the city has started to rip them down, as they are dangerous and beyond repair in many cases. The city is spending $3m to mow the lawns and board up the vacant homes, but it’s not enough. Residents are having to pick up the slack if their want their neighborhood to look semi-decent. I’m sure the city, all the businesses in the city, and the existing residents would all love have those houses with families in them. Making them safe enough for the homeless would be very expensive and then there is the question of if they can keep it up. It also will keep other people away from the city instead of trying to win them back. There have to be better options than telling a homeless person to stay in an old burned out mansion with a collapsing floor and roof. They can’t afford to fix it, and the people who can don’t want to be there, hence the current conditions.
On the food issue, horrible nutrition guidance from the government, along with misguided incentives from the government for business, have been largely responsible for the current issues. The food has no nutritional value, so people are never satisfied and keep eating more. It’s great for profits I guess, as long as they don’t care about killing their customers. This isn’t an idea that should be exported.