You can visit a city like Helsinki: and yet, there’s barely any homeless people around (of course, homeless people still exist) while comparing that to Los Angeles, it’s a fucking joke. It’s because they prioritize housing for everyone indifferent to their circumstances (even those addicted to drugs or with mental health issues are also sheltered) as they recognize that housing is a human right.
The housing is managed by the state, while Finns pay A TON in taxes at least it’s heading to cover expenses for getting people off the streets. It’s because the Finnish government is on board with putting them into housing while American government demonizes their existence as a whole not even considering them as human beings at all, like WTF is wrong with their mindset?
It’s much harder to get large swaths of the public addicted to opioids due to pesky red tape from Brussels. And there are far fewer veterans you can abandon to their battle PTSD in tent camps.
I read about a Finnish initiative to just get everyone they could find on the streets of Helsinki without an abode into apartments, give them money, and help them sort out their lives and get them into jobs wherever possible. That’s socialism bordering on communism to American ears. That’s quite lefty even by European standards, sadly.
In America’s defense it’s easier to do in a country of 5 million people than in one of 340 million. That’s not a reason not to try though.
Bullshit. There’s no reason why whatever Finland is doing can’t be scaled up. In fact, a large, unified country ought to be able to achieve the same results as a small country for cheaper due to economies of scale.
The only reason America can’t do what Finland does is because America is a sociopathic society that doesn’t understand the concept of common good.
America seems to prioritise profits for the wealthy and oppression for the lower classes while Finland does not… at least not to that extent. Finland calls it some sort of, regulated capitalism, welfare or socialism, while Americans would probably call that straight up communism or whatever.
I see your bullshit and raise you horse manure. Speaking from an administrative point out view, it is indeed harder to run a program like that spread out over a much larger area with a much larger population to deal with. A complication in the US is also in differing state laws. This probably wouldn’t work EU-wide either.
Also Finland didn’t start from a large pool of homeless people due to mental illness or medical bankruptcies because there were other social safety nets spun before this one to catch a lot of the people before they became homeless.
Blame the US for not trying. I do too. But “economies of scale” are not going to help a program that for it to run well cannot be run like a business.
The us is trying. We had shelters for many years and the abuse in them was far worse than anything on the streets. Sure a few freeze to death on the streets which isn’t good, but don’t forget how much worse it was / can be.
don’t let that be an excuse for not doing better either but don’t lose sight of the possibility for worse.
The gdp per capita of the USA (US$84,534.0) is a lot higher than Finland (US$53,149.8) source: world bank. Finland chooses to prioritize the good of society. USA prioritizes the good of the individual (billionaire).
In the USA there’s that traditional puritanical work ethic means that illness, mental health, addiction, and unemployment are signs of laziness so the homeless shouldn’t be helped.
ah but you see the average wealth of people is $620,654 for the us and $179,986 for finland but that is not the whole story. You see the median is $124,041 for the us and $84,093 for finland. You see the problem don’t you. The folks with money in the us didn’t get it by housing the homeless or not having sex with children.
“Why are Finnish people happier than Americans? Must be sauna.”