Having lived through this, let me just say, directly: fuck you.
There is no support system in this nation. Support of the most basic kind is predicated on impossible things, like giving up addictions or proving you're worthy of Jesus' love. It's conditional on race, religion, sexual orientation, you name it.
And so many, SO VERY MANY are just right at the edge of having a Michael Douglass-in-Falling Down kind of day. People that think like you do clearly haven't dealt with the active and ongoing bullshit of living day to day, hand to mouth, without shelter, without being clean.
Honestly I don't care about your opinion, but I will take one more opportunity to say fuck you.
In similar spirit to what dang posted in reply to you a few months ago: we empathize with your experience and can understand you feeling this way, but we need you to avoid expressing your feelings like this on HN.
Rather than fulminating and attacking other community members, which is clearly against the guidelines, please think of a way you can draw on your experiences to educate others who may not share your experiences and thus may not be aware of the reality for people in this situation.
It's true that their comment broke the guidelines, but in fairness your comment lacked substance, and qualifies as a shallow dismissal, which is also against the guidelines, and is ultimately the reason why it was so upsetting to that commenter. Please try to make comments more substantive in future.
The US Federal Government spends over $3 TRILLION on social services. US states collectively spend around $1 TRILLION on social services.
This is what's available just in my state:
- temporary housing
- free drug treatment programs
- free addiction services
- free food at hundreds of food shelves that also offer other amenities.
- free public transportation
- free and low cost job training
- free and low cost pharmaceuticals and medicine
I've never been homeless, because in several instances, I've actually used social services to survive and get back on my feet because that's why they're there. People complaining there is no support system are either willfully ignorant these programs even exist, or are just too lazy to take advantage of them. And I don't remember ANYBODY in ANY of the non-profit, state funded or state run offices asking me about my race or sexuality before they offered to help me.
I honestly don't know what you're on about man, but saying there is no support system is pretty crazy to hear someone say.
Quite candidly for a lot of people whether or not there's enough "support" is just a matter of looking at outcomes. Are outcomes bad? Then (to some people) there is self-evidently not enough support.
Maybe the dissonance could be explained by being in different states? I can totally imagine social workers in some localities imposing their personal or religious beliefs on people needing help...
There is no support system in this nation. Support of the most basic kind is predicated on impossible things, like giving up addictions or proving you're worthy of Jesus' love. It's conditional on race, religion, sexual orientation, you name it.
And so many, SO VERY MANY are just right at the edge of having a Michael Douglass-in-Falling Down kind of day. People that think like you do clearly haven't dealt with the active and ongoing bullshit of living day to day, hand to mouth, without shelter, without being clean.
Honestly I don't care about your opinion, but I will take one more opportunity to say fuck you.