Classism

[beam]

Well, here goes a serious subject. I just got back from a week-long business trip to Chicago. I've been there before, but each time I go, I get to looking around at everyone and their priorities. It just makes me sad....everyone running around looking soooo important with their dress clothes, black coats, attache cases. Ugh. While the homeless guy walks by, everyone snobs their nose at him...in contempt.

It is no longer ok to be a racist or a sexist or an this-ist or that-ist...which is good. But why is it so perfectly ok to trample poor people. One night, I had at least 5 homeless people ask me for help (money). It just really makes me sad. No one will help them. Not only that, they are treated as less than dirt.

Now I understand that some have befallen this fate due to their own poor choices, but is it ok to discount them because of their mistakes?

People are prejudice against poor people.

I don't know...it's getting late. I leave you with this:

What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

[MagMan5446]

it's never ok to be racist or any "ist". That's just isn't cool. People that are racist are ignorant and they are not worth breathing. They are the scourge of the earth.

Most homeless people are not very nice. Most are mentally ill drugees/alcholics.

[bornl33t]

well not to fight you on this.... but if I can work and keep myself going with less then 300$ a week... then a homless person can do it too! I guess it's their own choise? To live of my taxes and beg for their beer money.
Ok so that's not true for all of them... but I honestly don't see HOW they can be that way but by their own choise?

Get out of the city, get a small job and live in a homeless shelter. Use the job to start paying rent and start working your butt off to get yourself established! If I just got hired at my place of work I would be making 10.50$ a hour. Figure that for 40 hours a week and there's a small living! it's not much but it would get you out of your cardboard box!!!


It's a choise, not a spiral down. Sounds hard? Then what do you think a suicidal depression is?

[MagMan5446]

Originally posted by Heat
Then what do you think a suicidal depression is?

Survival of the fittest...

[ShinyGuy]

If I walked in to a business you ran having not bathed, shaved, had a haircut or changed my clothes in the last 3 weeks and asked you for a job would you hire me? Didn't think so. Would you even try to find out if I was qualified? Would you trust me to walk around you warehouse to sweep the floors?

We have a severe problem with homelessnes in the US. Welfare is easily abused by those that know how to work the system and yet does almost nothing for those that truely need it. We have virtually no system to help people make the first step to recovery. We rely on private charities to do much of anything. While its true that many people are homeless by choice most aren't.

[bornl33t]

Originally posted by MagMan5446


Survival of the fittest...

Bingo

[CRiZO]

social darwinism

[Webmaster]

I have very little sympathy for homeless/beggers in america.

There are some who deserve pity and help. Some prefer thier life style. Some are mentally ill and belong in a hospital. Some are hopeless addicts who have given up on life.

There are alot of programs to help people find jobs and get on thier feet. Our country was founded on people coming across an ocean with nothing more than a suitcase.

I recently saw an episode of 20/20, where there were a group of orphaned kids whose parents were killed my Islamic extremists in Somalia(?). They spent years, wondering around several countries, trying to find a place to excape voilenc, living on grass and mud at times. Evetually they found a UN refugee camp. After hearing thier plight, it was set up to send them to America. They got support from the governement for 4 months and had volunteers help them adjust to the life style change. After that, they were on thier own. And they succeeded.

When asked how many hours a day they wanted to work given the opportunity, one replied 16 sounded good. There is one who lives in Kansas City who is working two jobs and also taking classes to become a doctor. Another started preaching, and later worked for the organization who helped him get on his feet...

There are dozens of people who have come here from this particular program and they are all surviving. Not everyone is a shining sucess, but they are here, working, free from voilence and pursecution, able to eat a solid meal, and they came here with NOTHING but the horrors in thier mind.

We have alot of programs set up to help people who need it. Some are not able to take the help because they have problems that prevent them from functioning normally. But there are those who have squandered thier american dream and I do pity them. Then, there are still others, professional beggers, who make more every week than you or I. Those people make me sick.

Any way - just my 2 cents

[Cha0tic]

i agree with webby to a degree.

some people get trapped in poverty, however. say a person loses everything he had, or makes poor descisions that force him to lose all his money. this person now lives on the street and has nothing but the clothes on his back. this person is dirty and smells. people say, "why doesn't he just get a job?" who would hire somebody that is dirty and smells? no one. this person is now trapped in poverty.

[Shaft]

Like many other big cities, there are a lot of beggars and street performers in Chicago. Some are quite pushy and there are even a few mean ones.

You have to dodge them. Avoid there pitch for Streetwise. Walk with attitude. If you don't they'll bleed you. I've even had one try to start a fight with me.


My point is that you need not feel that the wealthier folks in Chicago are ruthless or selfish. It's more that they are calloused. Many of them, myself included, can be quite charitable - just not in the form of plinking silver into the beggars paper cup.

[the JoKeR]

People need to WANT to change and better their lives.
There's a guy I see every few months on the side of the road near work. Every time, it's a different sign he's holding. "Out of work, no heat in the house", "No money, please help my family have a good Christmas", etc., each time to match the season. He's not wearing trashed clothes, but just looks slightly shabby. Instead of standing there begging, he could hit any number of business along the road he's on and look for work. Begging is easier (once you've given up your dignity).

[joeyjoe367]

I once saw a special on the News where they sent a guy out on the street DRESSED as a homeless guy, and put him on a fairly busy corner.

After 2 hours, he ended up with $50 and Free Lunch. that's $25/hr and lunch (another $5 or whatever) for FREE.

JUST for standing there and looking pathetic.

I know people who have handed bums $5 bills and seen them walk off and jump into a Lexus. Another time, a simpathetic person handed a "street-person" $20, and then saw him jump into his Winnibago (sp)

yes, there are specific cases where people have a problem getting off the street, but in general, It's a matter of willingness to change one's lifestyle.

Webbie, I think you'l like my parent's story.

My father immagrated from South Korea to the united states when he was about 19 years old. Born soon after the korean war, his family wasn't the best off.

My grandmother's sister got into the united states somehow by marriage and got my father's family visa's via invitation. He stayed with his aunts family, joined the job core and got trained as a car mechanic. He worked while attending the University of Washington and married my mom. They had to wait quite some time to have a seremony for their wedding.

Now he's a manager at Boeing living comfortably in Seattle. His sister is a Doctor, and his brother is also at Boeing as an engineer.

Now, TRY and tell me that the system doesnt work for someone who wants to work. It worked for him.