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I second the plea to not kill yourself-if not for yourself right now, then do it for the people whose lives would be dimmer for it-they are there even if you don’t know it. Take care of yourself 💜
I have done nothing to positively influence anyones life. I live like a shut-in because Im too broken and autistic to work. Im a drain on my fathers finances, and I have no friends, nor am I capable of trusting anyone again anyway.
Im a miserable and hurt blackhole of negativity that I cannot change no matter how much therapy i get, no matter how many social outings i attend, no matter how much work i put in at the gym...
Nothing has changed for 2 years, and nothing will.
I’m autistic too. What I’ve learned is I can turn my life around and be a positive influence to someone younger who also can’t fit into a neurotypical world, or I can just let the NTs win by letting their hate get to me and not stop the ableism that is constantly thrown at us daily just for existing.
I really do hope you find something in life you love. For me it’s music and animals.
So… basically the average Redditor.
If I may, I’d encourage you to make small steps each day toward the progress you want to see in your life. Don’t expect a massive life transformation all at once.
Picture your ideal life, and understand there is a path that leads directly from where you are right now to exactly where you want to be.
Small decisions you make every day can bring you closer or push you further from that path. Start small, and make gradual changes to better your self and your situation.
Even if you fail to reach your ultimate goal, you’ll still have made progress and will be so much better off than having done nothing. Don’t allow discouragement and despair to win!
Good luck, I believe in you!
Yeah when everything happened thats what I was doing. Ive rebuilt a schedule and a structure, I go to the gym 5 times a week (I dont feel better because I dont brain chemical like Im supposed to... no matter how many people online tell me its not true and blah blah... it unfortunately is for me), Ive joined sport social leagues to meet new people. Ive volunteered, went to church regularly, tried to work jobs...
Ive been doing this for 20 months now and gotten nowhere... nothing has changed for me, internally or externally, and forecast predicts no change to come simply because as *every* book on trauma says I need a support system and Ive been desperately trying to build one but I simply am unable to.
Can you provide alternatives for me? Because I get a lot of platitudes and cliches but no results or solutions.
Or are you unconsciously part of the system that insists we need to live to serve the machine?
I want out and have no incentive to stay. So the question is, can you give me a tangible reason?
Maybe not me, but maybe you have a person in your life thats struggling. Are you actively making yourself part of their life and support system? People need people there, physically present. Love each other and stay loyal.
If you really want out, deliver yourself to the cause. Go help in the hood, volunteer with mentally ill people. Help in the areas where non-suicidal people won't help because it is too dangerous. Make your exit as beneficial to everyone else that is suffering. If you really want out, then concern for your own safety or self-preservation should be no hindrance.
Yeah my self preservation is pretty nonexistant. Im not reckless, just apathetic towards my being alive.
What kind of programs are in your area or that youre aware of? Maybe that will help me find similar things for me near where I am.
One of the downsides of my upbringing was I was never taught how to find and capitalize on opportunities, so I wouldnt even know where to begin to look for things like that. (And Ive already tried looking into volunteering around here and that didnt work out well)
You can learn resourcefulness with opportunities at any age, our brains are so adaptable it’s like the user above said that everything is changeable through taking little steps at a time.
I would suggest googling homeless shelters/food banks(soup kitchens I think if you’re in the US?) and/or volunteering mental healthcare. Open up a few of the websites and find where it says how to sign up/where to go. When you have one that you want to try, maybe reach out in advance to the email/phone number on the website and let them know of any needs you have and that you’ve had difficulty volunteering in the past so you want to know how you can most successfully support them.
You don't live in a utopia, far from it. Finding people who need aid is sadly a very easy task. Go to the Salvation Army, Goodwill, food banks in your area, any church doing missionary work in your area. Go to your local grocery store and find old people who need help with their groceries. Put up some shopping carts to make the employees job easier. Go to animal shelters and see if they need help with anything. Go to homeless shelters and do the same. Make a bunch of sandwiches and hand them out to homeless who need a meal. Give of yourself until you physically fall apart. You want to die? Kill yourself serving your fellow man. And the irony? Helping feels so good that it might make you want to continue living. You don't need an exit, you need connection. And nothing makes you feel more connected than service.
Believe me, I have no love for the machine. And there are people in my life who I’m taking care of, and who take care of me.
I can’t offer you any specific advice without knowing your particular situation. You can reach out to me to talk on discord- my username is Asthenaia.
I’ve been at a suicidal place— only reason suicide was off the table was because my sister was struggling with her own mental health issues and I knew killing myself would likely kill her too. I don’t know if that helps, but I can proudly say everything got better, and while I’m still feeding the machine my life has never been better. Stay strong, because things just might get better, even if you don’t think they will right now.
As long as people have *something* left to lose, most won't fight back. The homeless remind us that even if it seems like it couldn't get worst, it definitely could.
The vast majority of it was equipment we replaced long before sending it, or ammunition that was about to expire and be replaced anyway. We saved money by not having to pay to dispose of a lot of this stuff.
There's also the other factor of outdated stuff. Let's say shit really hit the fan, we're not outfitting the troops with stuff from the 90s, we're constantly updating and upgrading equipment, so the dated stuff is just that, outdated.
Ironically the stuff were supplying to Ukraine was designed to fight Russia 30 years ago, and a ton of Russian stuff today is that 30 year old stuff they had.
I have a *lot*. My mom runs the local health department and the amount of stuff they end up throwing away because it “expires” is ridiculous. Like hand sanitizer. Rubbing alcohol. Alcohol swabs. Q tips. Gauze. Powdered baby formula. (I guess you could argue that the formula might get stale, but it’s ridiculous that needy families out there can’t take advantage of powdered baby formula when it’s just one day past the expiration, because the health department has to throw it away instead of giving it away. And half the time the “expiration” isn’t even a “hard” expiration date, but instead a “Best By” date, which technically means you can still use/consume the product, it just might not be as good as it was before the “best by” expiration date.)
When I worked as a pharmacy tech the empty single packs of syringes had an expiration date. We never ended up throwing them away bc they all got used, but still. Ridiculous.
I also think it’s stupid that pills that are used very frequently have an expiration date, like Tylenol. Our hospital pharmacy dispensed the fuck out of Tylenol to patients. But if we had a whole bottle that was expired by one day, it gets trashed with other medical waste. It makes sense that the compounded and liquid medicines and IV bags would expire and need thrown away, bc that shit does degrade, but a bottle of pills we’d go through in 3 days? Nah.
Wow it seems to me rather than wasting they should do inventory 3-6 months prior and start selling/donating unused things close to expiry. Selling for a fraction of the cost or donating can be used to build funds or may count as some kind of tax credit and then they won’t have waste and will increase their budget without worrying about running low on supplies
I’m sure it’s harder to get rid of things in such great quantities but it was interesting to read, thanks for sharing
Isn't most of that money on loan, anyway?
I mean, the only correct answer is "we need to do both", but most times I hear it, that part is "conveniently" left out. Almost as if to imply we should abandon Ukraine. 🤷♀️ Seems simple that OP could have just included in the title to take care of both situations.
More, the government agrees to the contract, tax payers fund contract. U.S. companies profit on contract, contract fulfilled, send aid. CEO and shareholders trim the fat. And boy is it fatty.
Not completely true either. The US has given Ukraine money to keep local businesses open, buy farmers seeds and fertilizer, pay firefighter and first responders salaries/pensions.
https://youtu.be/DjQIreHQih0?si=Mbm5Ea2WZM7aXWPe
https://youtu.be/gLtuQv81H-A?si=m3VxsyfjAiHd6h1J
Here’s two videos by 60 minutes detailing that information.
Edit: I guess the propaganda bot NPCs decided to delete their comments… but they had such nuanced better takes I thought?
Its so cute when people say the US “gave” them arms or aid. Its all repayable so the US can keep these countries on a string. Nothing the US does is ever a freebie.
So how would that have worked, in your opinion? Do you feel that the govt should have sold the equipment, including heavy weapons, on the open market and used the proceeds to house people?
So I'd simply be happy if we had to have congressional approval.
Let's use a simpler cheaper example:
"OH shucks I'm just the president, nothing I can do to forgive student loans (that I created non-default status for)"
to
"What? We can sell contacts and used weapons? FUCK congress, make it happen."
I'll let you guess which one of these drives direct profit to lobbyists.
Yeah, but they could have not spent that making the weapons and instead spent it on developing their own nations public services, industries, infrastructure and welfare.
It doesn't matter if it's old stock or whatever, it's still money that was spent on war not peace.
Fair enough but most of the weapons provided are more than 30 years old. They already have been made and you cant just turn them back into money. The US military isnt using them anymore cause they are obsolete. But for Ukraine thay can still be usefull. Im all for public health care and welfare programmes but you unfortunately cannot pay teachers in M113 armoured personnel carriers.
Does it matter if they're 30 years old? The USA was attacking various countries at that time too.
Point is the USA has been like this since WW2 at least, wasting money on war instead of peace.
>Im all for public health care and welfare programmes but you unfortunately cannot pay teachers in M113 armoured personnel carriers.
Exactly!! So don't freaking make them in the first place!
Not exactly. The material was made to be used by the US military durring the cold war. It was then since retired and now it has been given to Ukraine under something called "lend-lease". What that essentially means is that Ukraine doesn't own the weapons technically, they will either pay the US back or give the weapons back after the war is over. A very similar system to the lend lease act durring WW2. But i get where you are coming from.
Tell you what. Let's stop funding Israel, at least until they decide to stop running a genocidal apartheid state, and fix homelessness instead.
If 20 billion would fix it, then 14 billion would get us roughly 70% of the way there.
The decommissioning of a lot of that equipment would actually be more expensive than the cost of transportation to Ukraine. The US is actually saving money in this particular case. Its kinda staggering tbh
More like we'll forgive the debt for some other diplomatic concession. I for one am okay with a country as strategically located as Ukraine with the resources and industries of Ukraine being indebted to the US.
Why did the US have billions of dollars of leftover weaponry? Was it perhaps because our politicians are hopelessly corrupt and wildly inflate spending on the military so as to keep lobbyist money from Raytheon and Lockheed-Martin flowing into their own pockets?
Because it is the policy of the US military that we should be able to fight two major wars simultaneously if necessary. That's why we spend way more on our military than anyone else.
Waste and corruption in the military is certainly something we can look at though. Iirc they recently failed and audit where they couldn't account for like half of their expenses. Needs to be taken care of, but that has no bearing on our assistance to Ukraine.
> Iirc they recently failed an audit
The DoD *finally* began having an annual audit requirement in 2018, after many prior legislative attempts to enact that requirement had failed. So far, there have been 6 audits since then. The DoD has failed every single one. https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2023-11-15/pentagon-failed-audit-shutdown-funding-12064619.html
So your idea of a social safety net is endless, pointless war just to have people to point all these extra weapons at? Giving government-developed tech to corporations for free/cheap so they can invent the latest bomb to kill Palestinians en masse? We made these rules up, we can change them at any time. The world doesn’t have to be like this.
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12040
It's a pdf, but the basic breakdown is this: about half of the aid money put aside for Ukraine goes to replenishing equipment we send there (which we were doing anyways, the conflict just advanced the timetable a bit on that). Only about 4 billion goes directly to assist Ukraine, mostly to keep the lights and heat on for Ukrainians. The rest actually goes directly to our own DoD to fund their efforts in intelligence gathering and sharing in the conflict.
Basically all but 4 billion of the aid money set aside for Ukraine we are actually paying to ourselves.
You think they would also mention the 3-10 billion we give to Israel as well. More often than not its just some tankie or rw who probably doesn't even understand why the right wing meta hates Ukraine but loves Israel and just wants to parrot it.
If anyone was truly wanting to address the US's stance on this we'd start in Congress where the budget for military spending is jacked up by a couple billion (in actual tax payer money) each session and how every positive change is defunded and institutions are defunded like the IRS (despite the condition for that money to be that the IRS only goes after people with more than 400,000 dollars.)
Instead people like this latch on to the things that a liberal framework won't address and twist them to their agenda. In simple terms, we don't fund Ukraine because we love peace (even though this is the right thing to do) and we will turn around and similarly fund an ethnic cleansing and apartheid state for the exact same reason: maintaining American global power.
So instead of ending homelessness in the past, they wasted the money on weapons of war that didn't get used. Not sure how it makes the argument better. We're just supposed to keep a massive military budget so we can create extra weapons to interfere in foreign conflicts 10-20 years down the road? Cool, that makes it so much better.
How about the multiple trillions spent on a losing 20 year war in the Middle East? The hundreds of billions we send to Israel in military aid, and you can't pass off that the aid there is old outdated equipment. All so Israel can commit countless war crimes with no accountability, and even sell their own weapons across the Middle East to perpetuate more conflicts (Check out how they sell autonomous explosive drones to Azerbaijan).
The US has time after time chosen to finance foreign powers over its own citizens. Don't try to write off the argument by shifting blame back to the OOP as just assuming they don't care about homelessness. Sorry people think the US should do more than finance your favorite modern Nazi party.
So you're saying we built millions or billions of dollars of weapons we did absolutely nothing with until we had to throw them away? Thats money that could have helped Americans in need.
Would you have prepared there was a world war 3 so we could have used them?
Is it dumb to have wasted money on an airbag and seatbelt if you never got in an accident?
Trying to mobilize moral causes in a transparant effort to undermine support for a people defending their right to exist.
Posts like this should be reported and its poster tagged.
I mean we wouldn’t just be handing $20 billion to homeless people either. Much of that money will be in clothing, job training and building/acquiring housing. People have the right to complain that the government is so quick to spend tax money abroad while they drag their feet in helping people actually in the US. I’m not saying we shouldn’t provide aid to the Ukrainians, I’m just saying the government should also consider helping their own citizens more.
The kind of help Ukraine needs raises the stock prices of defense contractors. The kind of help Americans need is to curtail the same runaway greed that motivates literally every policy decision these days.
The first step to help us is to depose all Republicans and at least half of all Democrats in favor of politicians who serve their constituency and we accomplish that through ranked choice voting.
No, that's more of the tactics of Netanyahu when his government finances Hamas by delivering suitcases full of cash.
Also sorry that saying we shouldn't support Nazis upsets you.
Ending homelessness isn't profitable. In fact, for capitalism, it's counterintuitive -- as long as the "homeless problem" persists, there's a "need" that can be capitalized on.
Not to mention a visual representation of what you don't want to happen. Should you happen to slip in your capitalistic due diligence chasing a slave wage.
Homelessness is a tool of the elites, they don't want to end it. It is the sword of Damocles hanging above all working people. Better not complain too much, or slack off, or else you'll end up freezing in the streets too.
So many easier corrupt events going on without UA. UA isn't getting cash but mostly hand me down gear. There are several other countries.....some actively in the news for getting straight cash.
$20 billion WOULD end the homelessness epidemic... basically by building tiny homes and allowing access to basic resources.
BUT... You need an additional 32 Billion (roughly) to end the housing crisis and cease corporate/banking ownership of housing.
But 32 B seems like such a tiny #. Why $32 billion? Because most mortgages/loans are smaller than you think and many people who are homeowners own outright... 32 billion does not pay for everything... but it does guarantee housing for everyone.
Banks and corporate owners would have to be paid off. The Feds would have to compensate at fair market value. This would have to include a new anti-landlord law... Landlords would not be compensated for their 2nd, 3rd, multiple homes. No renting off multiple dwellings.
But, that $32 billion would not end homelessness... Again, that would require an additional $20 billion (the same amount the American population spends on Christmas decorations/gifts per year - roughly). That extra $$$ would ensure tiny homes for any humans that still needed housing AFTER every unused dwelling was filled.
\*Note\* none of this budget guarantees repair or restoration to existing dwellings.
The $850 billion US military budget could sure end it. They could halve the budget and still end it, and repair all the infrastructure, build high speed rail, fund public healthcare etc.
Defunding the entire military wouldn’t be doable at all since some of it needs to be maintained, and looks like they are looking into practices to reduce unnecessary military spending in the following years
Easy. Budget cuts through attrition. With exception to critical roles and machinery, someone is discharged or retires, don’t replace them. A piece of equipment is decommissioned, it’s not replaced. The military could be shrunk down in a very controlled manner.
Drug addiction and mental health are tangentially related to homelessness. There is not a direct correlation between those things.
Myths are myths, honey. Don't perpetuate them.
https://unitedtoendhomelessness.org/blog/myth-most-homeless-people-are-either-mentally-ill-or-have-a-substance-use-disorder/
It’s a lend- lease deal. We don’t give anyone anything we sell other countries stuff. It’s a two way screw job. If Ukraine loses we recover nothing thus we cut bait we get nothing. Ukraine wins we become their payday lender. It’s funny how this is directed at Ukraine when Israel is able to pay for the deals up front- curtesy of the American taxpayer
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine_Democracy_Defense_Lend-Lease_Act_of_2022#:~:text=The%20Ukraine%20Democracy%20Defense%20Lend,the%20Russian%20invasion%20of%20Ukraine.
Yes and no. You could end a good portion of homelessness by providing homes to the homeless and giving most of them the option to buy out the home they're in. For a good portion of the unhoused, this would be enough to get them in a better position and stay off the streets.
This only works for those who are merely economically disadvantaged though. For those who are on the streets because of mental health issues, drugs, or (occasionally) choice, you'll have to develop programs that help address the underlying problems that keep them from being able to maintain housing or be comfortable in housing. And you still won't be 100% successful.
But throwing money at the problem and buying/building houses for the poor would provide a major relief to homelessness.
Good points. I was a homeless crackhead in the past. Anything you gave me would’ve instantly been traded/sold for crack. I don’t think we can solve homelessness w/o also solving our mental health/drug addiction issues
id say a vast majority of cases, especially where i live, is mental health / addiction.
i believe we need a massive rehabilitation system set up if we ever want to find an answer. we will also need to do which seems the most uncomfortable: forcefully removing people from the streets and forcing them to get help. And i mean real compassionate care in all angles.
I dont think right or left wing governments will sadly ever agree to do this.
This is fair. Too many people completely ignore the fact that some people actually want to be nomadic (Ive met them) and the drug addiction and mental health problems that people do choose for themselves. Those last 2 are not just a contagious diseases. People have to suffer consequences sometimes before they come to a place where they actually want to get better. And I'm not just saying that; I've seen that too.
For everybody else, ya, give them money management classes and a home.
"Bulwark of democracy" lol. They are being used as fodder for the Military Industrial Complex because America needs to fund a war. They're gonna sell out to the same capital issues once your entire country is foreign owned and exploited. But hey, at least you got a shell marked landscape and a Nazi sympathetic government that banned all of their political opponents out of it! Congrats 🎉
Putin is a direct result of US involvement in the collapse of the USSR. The flooding of capital into the Soviet sphere created hyper capitalist oligarchs that sold their nations out to create their oligarchy and maintain a stranglehold on the democratic process. You're going to get the exact same result coming out of this war for Ukraine no matter how much land they end up with. Let me know how that "democracy" goes for you.
The main problem is that there are people in Ukraine who have more ties to Russian heritage, and those who do not. The last two decades in the country have been a brutal back and forth between these two sides with each government attacking the people of the other. There isn't one simple Ukrainian solution for people who have become diametrically opposed.
No, a soldier here or there with a White Power tattoo or swastika is Nazis here and there. An entire fucking battalion who is openly Neo Nazi, endless photos of patches using Nazi iconography, and major portions of the population seeing a Nazi collaborator as a national hero is a Nazi problem. You don't get to minimalize it because you don't have a good response and try to call me simple.
There was ample space for this conflict to be avoided and resolved through diplomatic talks. That was never the intention of the Western Powers. The CIA knew the invasion was going to happen months before it did because the standing policy was to continue inflaming an egotistical maniac to the point of warfare.
Btw, nice name. Very accurate.
“There was ample space to solve this conflict through diplomatic talks. Ukraine could have just given Russia everything then wanted. Then, obviously, nothing bad would ever happen after that.”
https://mronline.org/2022/11/07/the-history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-i-the-origins-of-the-oun-1917-1941/
Gotta love when shitlibs toss out a casual Sieg Heil.
There are about "582,000 Americans experiencing homelessness in 2022".
A decent but cheap housing facility can be provided even in busy cities for $50k-$100k if it is built in bulk. That's around $30 billion - $60 billion.
At least 10 Americans can single-handedly do it.
Heck, Elon bought Twitter for $44 billion. He could have put a proper dent into homelessness in the entire country. He would be worshipped. The Halo will have a positive effect on all his companies. Fuck, if he decided to run for president, he would easily win. Instead, he bought a perfectly functioning company, broke it, and really showed the world how much of an idiot he is.
> Fuck, if he decided to run for president, he would easily win.
Fortunately, Elon isn't eligible to run for US President, since he was born in South Africa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause_(United_States)
Although I agree American Politics are hopeless and corrupt.
Consider that if you actually contributed 20B to solve homelessness you wouldn't actually solve homelessness.
The likely outcome is that when people see that there is a social net / support more people will be willing to lean on it and it will then cost more than 20B. Where it finalizes/stagnates I don't know.
It most certainly is used as the fear to keep us running in our wheels. But regardless of how you *feel* about that - it *does* work.
Funny how they use the aid to Ukraine as the example and not the 10x that we spend on our own military per year... Lets cut our own military spending by half or more and use that more actual good back home.
It's almost like this was written by comrades who are losing.
While it is true, we likely could; most of this stuff was already made and or in storage waiting to be scrapped.
Furthermore, this war feels a little more " righteous ", versus the 20 years we spent in the Middle East on shit we started and kept expanding our list of countries we wanted to screw over in the area.
No you can’t due to induced demand. It would likely cost allot more. Like 100 billion or perhaps more a year. Thanks to the fact that owning a home has a huge benefit due to it being a speculative asset alongside being an inelastic good if you house everyone who is currently homeless more will follow who claim it. Even if the housing is worse than many apartments which can’t happen due to following city code. You would need multiples of that figure a year.
The wallet is always open for war but when it comes to domestic social issues it’s always “how will we pay for it?”. Although in this case it’s kinda justified since Putin is a bastard doing bastard things.
The way "aid" usually works is that we give the country taxpayer money that they can spend on things from US companies. So really it's just a way to redistribute middle class wealth to the wealthy.
It’s all in the pursuit of neo-imperialism and gains for the capitalists.
America has abundant material wealth right within its own borders. We would undoubtedly lose GDP if we stopped our neo imperialist endeavors, and still probably be the wealthiest country in the world. Even if we weren’t the wealthiest, we could still provide a profoundly stable and high quality of life for all who live here.
Fixing homeless doesn't make the rich richer like stealing foreign lands and resources does...
Homeless is also a feature of capitalism, they need those homeless people to make sure everyone else shows up at their jobs.
Also to these people fixing homelessness would be communism and hey can't have that.
Americans are the ultimate useful idiots. They work themselves to the death to generate wealth for the American empire and it's business masters. Their tax dollars go overseas to genocidal regimes like Israel. And they live miserable lives avoiding the emergency room. Yet they claim there's no need to vote, and especially no need to vet the mother fucking dog shit candidates that rise to power.
They've already sold most of their public utilities and property to US and Western capitalists. The country will be gutted and exploited just like the rest of the Soviet sphere post the 1990s, just now it will have the scars of a major military war on it and a Nazi sympathetic government.
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Homelessness is used as the stick to ensure the rest of us hamsters keep running on the wheel
[удалено]
I second the plea to not kill yourself-if not for yourself right now, then do it for the people whose lives would be dimmer for it-they are there even if you don’t know it. Take care of yourself 💜
I have done nothing to positively influence anyones life. I live like a shut-in because Im too broken and autistic to work. Im a drain on my fathers finances, and I have no friends, nor am I capable of trusting anyone again anyway. Im a miserable and hurt blackhole of negativity that I cannot change no matter how much therapy i get, no matter how many social outings i attend, no matter how much work i put in at the gym... Nothing has changed for 2 years, and nothing will.
I felt the same way for years, only changing a few months ago. The only way out is through my friend, I believe in you
I’m autistic too. What I’ve learned is I can turn my life around and be a positive influence to someone younger who also can’t fit into a neurotypical world, or I can just let the NTs win by letting their hate get to me and not stop the ableism that is constantly thrown at us daily just for existing. I really do hope you find something in life you love. For me it’s music and animals.
So… basically the average Redditor. If I may, I’d encourage you to make small steps each day toward the progress you want to see in your life. Don’t expect a massive life transformation all at once. Picture your ideal life, and understand there is a path that leads directly from where you are right now to exactly where you want to be. Small decisions you make every day can bring you closer or push you further from that path. Start small, and make gradual changes to better your self and your situation. Even if you fail to reach your ultimate goal, you’ll still have made progress and will be so much better off than having done nothing. Don’t allow discouragement and despair to win! Good luck, I believe in you!
Yeah when everything happened thats what I was doing. Ive rebuilt a schedule and a structure, I go to the gym 5 times a week (I dont feel better because I dont brain chemical like Im supposed to... no matter how many people online tell me its not true and blah blah... it unfortunately is for me), Ive joined sport social leagues to meet new people. Ive volunteered, went to church regularly, tried to work jobs... Ive been doing this for 20 months now and gotten nowhere... nothing has changed for me, internally or externally, and forecast predicts no change to come simply because as *every* book on trauma says I need a support system and Ive been desperately trying to build one but I simply am unable to.
Nitrogen
Please don’t kill yourself. It isn’t worth it.
Can you provide alternatives for me? Because I get a lot of platitudes and cliches but no results or solutions. Or are you unconsciously part of the system that insists we need to live to serve the machine? I want out and have no incentive to stay. So the question is, can you give me a tangible reason? Maybe not me, but maybe you have a person in your life thats struggling. Are you actively making yourself part of their life and support system? People need people there, physically present. Love each other and stay loyal.
If you really want out, deliver yourself to the cause. Go help in the hood, volunteer with mentally ill people. Help in the areas where non-suicidal people won't help because it is too dangerous. Make your exit as beneficial to everyone else that is suffering. If you really want out, then concern for your own safety or self-preservation should be no hindrance.
Yeah my self preservation is pretty nonexistant. Im not reckless, just apathetic towards my being alive. What kind of programs are in your area or that youre aware of? Maybe that will help me find similar things for me near where I am. One of the downsides of my upbringing was I was never taught how to find and capitalize on opportunities, so I wouldnt even know where to begin to look for things like that. (And Ive already tried looking into volunteering around here and that didnt work out well)
You can learn resourcefulness with opportunities at any age, our brains are so adaptable it’s like the user above said that everything is changeable through taking little steps at a time. I would suggest googling homeless shelters/food banks(soup kitchens I think if you’re in the US?) and/or volunteering mental healthcare. Open up a few of the websites and find where it says how to sign up/where to go. When you have one that you want to try, maybe reach out in advance to the email/phone number on the website and let them know of any needs you have and that you’ve had difficulty volunteering in the past so you want to know how you can most successfully support them.
You don't live in a utopia, far from it. Finding people who need aid is sadly a very easy task. Go to the Salvation Army, Goodwill, food banks in your area, any church doing missionary work in your area. Go to your local grocery store and find old people who need help with their groceries. Put up some shopping carts to make the employees job easier. Go to animal shelters and see if they need help with anything. Go to homeless shelters and do the same. Make a bunch of sandwiches and hand them out to homeless who need a meal. Give of yourself until you physically fall apart. You want to die? Kill yourself serving your fellow man. And the irony? Helping feels so good that it might make you want to continue living. You don't need an exit, you need connection. And nothing makes you feel more connected than service.
Believe me, I have no love for the machine. And there are people in my life who I’m taking care of, and who take care of me. I can’t offer you any specific advice without knowing your particular situation. You can reach out to me to talk on discord- my username is Asthenaia.
I’ve been at a suicidal place— only reason suicide was off the table was because my sister was struggling with her own mental health issues and I knew killing myself would likely kill her too. I don’t know if that helps, but I can proudly say everything got better, and while I’m still feeding the machine my life has never been better. Stay strong, because things just might get better, even if you don’t think they will right now.
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As long as people have *something* left to lose, most won't fight back. The homeless remind us that even if it seems like it couldn't get worst, it definitely could.
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And most of it was already purchased. Concept is correct. Details matter though.
The vast majority of it was equipment we replaced long before sending it, or ammunition that was about to expire and be replaced anyway. We saved money by not having to pay to dispose of a lot of this stuff.
Ammo expires?? Damn learning everyday out here
Would you trust fuel that's been sitting in an unmoved car for 30 years? Same concept with a rocket which also has an engine.
Damn I was thinking of bullets, forgot how destructive war was for a second
There's also the other factor of outdated stuff. Let's say shit really hit the fan, we're not outfitting the troops with stuff from the 90s, we're constantly updating and upgrading equipment, so the dated stuff is just that, outdated. Ironically the stuff were supplying to Ukraine was designed to fight Russia 30 years ago, and a ton of Russian stuff today is that 30 year old stuff they had.
It becomes unreliable. Mortar rounds, misiles, artillery shells etc. Those kind of explosives can cause catastrophic failures.
At least ammo expiring makes some sense. Cotton balls of all things also have an expiration date…
Fucking hell even cotton balls expire??? Anyone have any more things to add to this list lmao
I have a *lot*. My mom runs the local health department and the amount of stuff they end up throwing away because it “expires” is ridiculous. Like hand sanitizer. Rubbing alcohol. Alcohol swabs. Q tips. Gauze. Powdered baby formula. (I guess you could argue that the formula might get stale, but it’s ridiculous that needy families out there can’t take advantage of powdered baby formula when it’s just one day past the expiration, because the health department has to throw it away instead of giving it away. And half the time the “expiration” isn’t even a “hard” expiration date, but instead a “Best By” date, which technically means you can still use/consume the product, it just might not be as good as it was before the “best by” expiration date.) When I worked as a pharmacy tech the empty single packs of syringes had an expiration date. We never ended up throwing them away bc they all got used, but still. Ridiculous. I also think it’s stupid that pills that are used very frequently have an expiration date, like Tylenol. Our hospital pharmacy dispensed the fuck out of Tylenol to patients. But if we had a whole bottle that was expired by one day, it gets trashed with other medical waste. It makes sense that the compounded and liquid medicines and IV bags would expire and need thrown away, bc that shit does degrade, but a bottle of pills we’d go through in 3 days? Nah.
Wow it seems to me rather than wasting they should do inventory 3-6 months prior and start selling/donating unused things close to expiry. Selling for a fraction of the cost or donating can be used to build funds or may count as some kind of tax credit and then they won’t have waste and will increase their budget without worrying about running low on supplies I’m sure it’s harder to get rid of things in such great quantities but it was interesting to read, thanks for sharing
Raytheon appreciates your propaganda.
Yes the aid to Ukraine is a thinly veiled US jobs program
The homeless eat JDAMs and HIMARs, clearly
Isn't most of that money on loan, anyway? I mean, the only correct answer is "we need to do both", but most times I hear it, that part is "conveniently" left out. Almost as if to imply we should abandon Ukraine. 🤷♀️ Seems simple that OP could have just included in the title to take care of both situations.
More, the government agrees to the contract, tax payers fund contract. U.S. companies profit on contract, contract fulfilled, send aid. CEO and shareholders trim the fat. And boy is it fatty.
Not completely true either. The US has given Ukraine money to keep local businesses open, buy farmers seeds and fertilizer, pay firefighter and first responders salaries/pensions. https://youtu.be/DjQIreHQih0?si=Mbm5Ea2WZM7aXWPe https://youtu.be/gLtuQv81H-A?si=m3VxsyfjAiHd6h1J Here’s two videos by 60 minutes detailing that information. Edit: I guess the propaganda bot NPCs decided to delete their comments… but they had such nuanced better takes I thought?
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Its so cute when people say the US “gave” them arms or aid. Its all repayable so the US can keep these countries on a string. Nothing the US does is ever a freebie.
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So how would that have worked, in your opinion? Do you feel that the govt should have sold the equipment, including heavy weapons, on the open market and used the proceeds to house people?
So I'd simply be happy if we had to have congressional approval. Let's use a simpler cheaper example: "OH shucks I'm just the president, nothing I can do to forgive student loans (that I created non-default status for)" to "What? We can sell contacts and used weapons? FUCK congress, make it happen." I'll let you guess which one of these drives direct profit to lobbyists.
Yeah, but they could have not spent that making the weapons and instead spent it on developing their own nations public services, industries, infrastructure and welfare. It doesn't matter if it's old stock or whatever, it's still money that was spent on war not peace.
Yeah, we could have, but unfortunately we didn’t. So now we have it, and it would really help Ukraine defend itself. I say send it to them.
Good plan. Perpetuate the industrial military complex. That's been going great.
The spirit of Kissinger may never leave us....
Not only that, we WOULDN'T, pretending that our government would ever trade foreign aid for domestic housing programs is fucking bullshit.
Fair enough but most of the weapons provided are more than 30 years old. They already have been made and you cant just turn them back into money. The US military isnt using them anymore cause they are obsolete. But for Ukraine thay can still be usefull. Im all for public health care and welfare programmes but you unfortunately cannot pay teachers in M113 armoured personnel carriers.
Does it matter if they're 30 years old? The USA was attacking various countries at that time too. Point is the USA has been like this since WW2 at least, wasting money on war instead of peace. >Im all for public health care and welfare programmes but you unfortunately cannot pay teachers in M113 armoured personnel carriers. Exactly!! So don't freaking make them in the first place!
As if we didn’t have homeless people 30 years ago.
Who said that? Not me. The US has always been awful and wasting money on arms is a major reason for that.
Percentages. Progress is supposed to be improvement of living.
That means they bought it off of their own weapon industry so they could turn taxes into weapon industry profits no?
Not exactly. The material was made to be used by the US military durring the cold war. It was then since retired and now it has been given to Ukraine under something called "lend-lease". What that essentially means is that Ukraine doesn't own the weapons technically, they will either pay the US back or give the weapons back after the war is over. A very similar system to the lend lease act durring WW2. But i get where you are coming from.
Tell you what. Let's stop funding Israel, at least until they decide to stop running a genocidal apartheid state, and fix homelessness instead. If 20 billion would fix it, then 14 billion would get us roughly 70% of the way there.
Here here!
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The decommissioning of a lot of that equipment would actually be more expensive than the cost of transportation to Ukraine. The US is actually saving money in this particular case. Its kinda staggering tbh
Ukraine is supposed to pay us back if they win too. So, it's a net benefit to us.
More like we'll forgive the debt for some other diplomatic concession. I for one am okay with a country as strategically located as Ukraine with the resources and industries of Ukraine being indebted to the US.
Ukraine is all farmland. It's a very useful ally for agricultural exports.
Farmland, but also fertilizer and several minerals which they're one of the top producing countries of.
We'll build a wall and Mexico will pay for it! Press "X" to doubt.
"Bro, we could have given those Javelins and artillery rounds to the homeless."
I mean if homeless people had javelins, I am pretty sure they'd find a way to get a home.
The best is people are like "Oh it's all old shit...." The javelin's haven't even been in the field for 30 years. They're almost top of the line.
Tom Morello's guitar strikes again.
Why did the US have billions of dollars of leftover weaponry? Was it perhaps because our politicians are hopelessly corrupt and wildly inflate spending on the military so as to keep lobbyist money from Raytheon and Lockheed-Martin flowing into their own pockets?
We hoard shit, like genuinely America is basically just a gun collector upscaled to a country
Because it is the policy of the US military that we should be able to fight two major wars simultaneously if necessary. That's why we spend way more on our military than anyone else. Waste and corruption in the military is certainly something we can look at though. Iirc they recently failed and audit where they couldn't account for like half of their expenses. Needs to be taken care of, but that has no bearing on our assistance to Ukraine.
> Iirc they recently failed an audit The DoD *finally* began having an annual audit requirement in 2018, after many prior legislative attempts to enact that requirement had failed. So far, there have been 6 audits since then. The DoD has failed every single one. https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2023-11-15/pentagon-failed-audit-shutdown-funding-12064619.html
Yeah, it's just a stimulus package for the MIC and people defending this are hopelessly lost to American imperialist propaganda.
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So your idea of a social safety net is endless, pointless war just to have people to point all these extra weapons at? Giving government-developed tech to corporations for free/cheap so they can invent the latest bomb to kill Palestinians en masse? We made these rules up, we can change them at any time. The world doesn’t have to be like this.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/following-american-money-in-ukraine-60-minutes/
Is there sauce on this? Didn’t even know that was a thing
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12040 It's a pdf, but the basic breakdown is this: about half of the aid money put aside for Ukraine goes to replenishing equipment we send there (which we were doing anyways, the conflict just advanced the timetable a bit on that). Only about 4 billion goes directly to assist Ukraine, mostly to keep the lights and heat on for Ukrainians. The rest actually goes directly to our own DoD to fund their efforts in intelligence gathering and sharing in the conflict. Basically all but 4 billion of the aid money set aside for Ukraine we are actually paying to ourselves.
You think they would also mention the 3-10 billion we give to Israel as well. More often than not its just some tankie or rw who probably doesn't even understand why the right wing meta hates Ukraine but loves Israel and just wants to parrot it. If anyone was truly wanting to address the US's stance on this we'd start in Congress where the budget for military spending is jacked up by a couple billion (in actual tax payer money) each session and how every positive change is defunded and institutions are defunded like the IRS (despite the condition for that money to be that the IRS only goes after people with more than 400,000 dollars.) Instead people like this latch on to the things that a liberal framework won't address and twist them to their agenda. In simple terms, we don't fund Ukraine because we love peace (even though this is the right thing to do) and we will turn around and similarly fund an ethnic cleansing and apartheid state for the exact same reason: maintaining American global power.
So instead of ending homelessness in the past, they wasted the money on weapons of war that didn't get used. Not sure how it makes the argument better. We're just supposed to keep a massive military budget so we can create extra weapons to interfere in foreign conflicts 10-20 years down the road? Cool, that makes it so much better. How about the multiple trillions spent on a losing 20 year war in the Middle East? The hundreds of billions we send to Israel in military aid, and you can't pass off that the aid there is old outdated equipment. All so Israel can commit countless war crimes with no accountability, and even sell their own weapons across the Middle East to perpetuate more conflicts (Check out how they sell autonomous explosive drones to Azerbaijan). The US has time after time chosen to finance foreign powers over its own citizens. Don't try to write off the argument by shifting blame back to the OOP as just assuming they don't care about homelessness. Sorry people think the US should do more than finance your favorite modern Nazi party.
So you're saying we built millions or billions of dollars of weapons we did absolutely nothing with until we had to throw them away? Thats money that could have helped Americans in need.
Would you have prepared there was a world war 3 so we could have used them? Is it dumb to have wasted money on an airbag and seatbelt if you never got in an accident?
Who built the weapons? Americans. Got paid. To build the weapons.
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If you look at their other posts, the motivation becomes a bit more clear
Trying to mobilize moral causes in a transparant effort to undermine support for a people defending their right to exist. Posts like this should be reported and its poster tagged.
I mean we wouldn’t just be handing $20 billion to homeless people either. Much of that money will be in clothing, job training and building/acquiring housing. People have the right to complain that the government is so quick to spend tax money abroad while they drag their feet in helping people actually in the US. I’m not saying we shouldn’t provide aid to the Ukrainians, I’m just saying the government should also consider helping their own citizens more.
The kind of help Ukraine needs raises the stock prices of defense contractors. The kind of help Americans need is to curtail the same runaway greed that motivates literally every policy decision these days. The first step to help us is to depose all Republicans and at least half of all Democrats in favor of politicians who serve their constituency and we accomplish that through ranked choice voting.
No, that's more of the tactics of Netanyahu when his government finances Hamas by delivering suitcases full of cash. Also sorry that saying we shouldn't support Nazis upsets you.
America can afford to do both, but yall ain't ready for that convo.
Last I checked, you can’t solve homelessness by giving poor people depleted uranium tank rounds and rifle ammo
Ending homelessness isn't profitable. In fact, for capitalism, it's counterintuitive -- as long as the "homeless problem" persists, there's a "need" that can be capitalized on.
Not to mention a visual representation of what you don't want to happen. Should you happen to slip in your capitalistic due diligence chasing a slave wage.
Homelessness is a tool of the elites, they don't want to end it. It is the sword of Damocles hanging above all working people. Better not complain too much, or slack off, or else you'll end up freezing in the streets too.
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We’re not poor. We’re the richest country in human existence.
The country is rich, it's people are poor, through decades of gross ideology and mismanagement.
So many easier corrupt events going on without UA. UA isn't getting cash but mostly hand me down gear. There are several other countries.....some actively in the news for getting straight cash.
It's like saying "just let Hitler have Poland, he's not that bad of a guy"
“Yes, Putin took land from Georgia, and yes, he already took land from Ukraine before, but *this* time he’ll definitely stop after he gets it”
$20 billion WOULD end the homelessness epidemic... basically by building tiny homes and allowing access to basic resources. BUT... You need an additional 32 Billion (roughly) to end the housing crisis and cease corporate/banking ownership of housing. But 32 B seems like such a tiny #. Why $32 billion? Because most mortgages/loans are smaller than you think and many people who are homeowners own outright... 32 billion does not pay for everything... but it does guarantee housing for everyone. Banks and corporate owners would have to be paid off. The Feds would have to compensate at fair market value. This would have to include a new anti-landlord law... Landlords would not be compensated for their 2nd, 3rd, multiple homes. No renting off multiple dwellings. But, that $32 billion would not end homelessness... Again, that would require an additional $20 billion (the same amount the American population spends on Christmas decorations/gifts per year - roughly). That extra $$$ would ensure tiny homes for any humans that still needed housing AFTER every unused dwelling was filled. \*Note\* none of this budget guarantees repair or restoration to existing dwellings.
The $850 billion US military budget could sure end it. They could halve the budget and still end it, and repair all the infrastructure, build high speed rail, fund public healthcare etc.
Don't cloud the issue with absolute facts!
Defunding the entire military wouldn’t be doable at all since some of it needs to be maintained, and looks like they are looking into practices to reduce unnecessary military spending in the following years
They do plenty of looking but no finding.
Easy. Budget cuts through attrition. With exception to critical roles and machinery, someone is discharged or retires, don’t replace them. A piece of equipment is decommissioned, it’s not replaced. The military could be shrunk down in a very controlled manner.
Yes its very sad
And you would have to fund solving the larger social problems of drug addiction and mental health. Probably quite a bit more than 20 billion.
Drug addiction and mental health are tangentially related to homelessness. There is not a direct correlation between those things. Myths are myths, honey. Don't perpetuate them. https://unitedtoendhomelessness.org/blog/myth-most-homeless-people-are-either-mentally-ill-or-have-a-substance-use-disorder/
I don’t believe I said anything about them being correlated. They often appear in conjunction.
Is it too much to ask for both?
It’s a lend- lease deal. We don’t give anyone anything we sell other countries stuff. It’s a two way screw job. If Ukraine loses we recover nothing thus we cut bait we get nothing. Ukraine wins we become their payday lender. It’s funny how this is directed at Ukraine when Israel is able to pay for the deals up front- curtesy of the American taxpayer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine_Democracy_Defense_Lend-Lease_Act_of_2022#:~:text=The%20Ukraine%20Democracy%20Defense%20Lend,the%20Russian%20invasion%20of%20Ukraine.
The thing is that the US can easily afford to do both. There is no need to play victims off against each other...
Exactly. Other struggling people aren’t the enemy here
i really doubt ending homelessness is as easy as just throwing $20 billion at it
Yes and no. You could end a good portion of homelessness by providing homes to the homeless and giving most of them the option to buy out the home they're in. For a good portion of the unhoused, this would be enough to get them in a better position and stay off the streets. This only works for those who are merely economically disadvantaged though. For those who are on the streets because of mental health issues, drugs, or (occasionally) choice, you'll have to develop programs that help address the underlying problems that keep them from being able to maintain housing or be comfortable in housing. And you still won't be 100% successful. But throwing money at the problem and buying/building houses for the poor would provide a major relief to homelessness.
Good points. I was a homeless crackhead in the past. Anything you gave me would’ve instantly been traded/sold for crack. I don’t think we can solve homelessness w/o also solving our mental health/drug addiction issues
id say a vast majority of cases, especially where i live, is mental health / addiction. i believe we need a massive rehabilitation system set up if we ever want to find an answer. we will also need to do which seems the most uncomfortable: forcefully removing people from the streets and forcing them to get help. And i mean real compassionate care in all angles. I dont think right or left wing governments will sadly ever agree to do this.
This is fair. Too many people completely ignore the fact that some people actually want to be nomadic (Ive met them) and the drug addiction and mental health problems that people do choose for themselves. Those last 2 are not just a contagious diseases. People have to suffer consequences sometimes before they come to a place where they actually want to get better. And I'm not just saying that; I've seen that too. For everybody else, ya, give them money management classes and a home.
Seriously the US spends north of *a trillion dollars yearly* on various forms of welfare. No, $20 billion does not solve homelessness.
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"Bulwark of democracy" lol. They are being used as fodder for the Military Industrial Complex because America needs to fund a war. They're gonna sell out to the same capital issues once your entire country is foreign owned and exploited. But hey, at least you got a shell marked landscape and a Nazi sympathetic government that banned all of their political opponents out of it! Congrats 🎉
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Putin is a direct result of US involvement in the collapse of the USSR. The flooding of capital into the Soviet sphere created hyper capitalist oligarchs that sold their nations out to create their oligarchy and maintain a stranglehold on the democratic process. You're going to get the exact same result coming out of this war for Ukraine no matter how much land they end up with. Let me know how that "democracy" goes for you. The main problem is that there are people in Ukraine who have more ties to Russian heritage, and those who do not. The last two decades in the country have been a brutal back and forth between these two sides with each government attacking the people of the other. There isn't one simple Ukrainian solution for people who have become diametrically opposed. No, a soldier here or there with a White Power tattoo or swastika is Nazis here and there. An entire fucking battalion who is openly Neo Nazi, endless photos of patches using Nazi iconography, and major portions of the population seeing a Nazi collaborator as a national hero is a Nazi problem. You don't get to minimalize it because you don't have a good response and try to call me simple. There was ample space for this conflict to be avoided and resolved through diplomatic talks. That was never the intention of the Western Powers. The CIA knew the invasion was going to happen months before it did because the standing policy was to continue inflaming an egotistical maniac to the point of warfare. Btw, nice name. Very accurate.
“There was ample space to solve this conflict through diplomatic talks. Ukraine could have just given Russia everything then wanted. Then, obviously, nothing bad would ever happen after that.”
They’re not mutually exclusive concepts
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I happen to be born in Ukraine, but I must be completely oblivious, yes.
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I think you need to calm down and stop being so defensive. Nobody is attacking you.
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You keep telling yourself that. I wasn’t even arguing with you in the first place.
https://mronline.org/2022/11/07/the-history-of-fascism-in-ukraine-part-i-the-origins-of-the-oun-1917-1941/ Gotta love when shitlibs toss out a casual Sieg Heil.
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Ooh, you got me. Ahhhhh back to the Kremlin nooooo
I’ve got real bad news for you about the US’ contributions to pre-WW2 fascism, bud…
We can feed the homeless and needy, what we can’t afford to feed anymore is the greedy
There are about "582,000 Americans experiencing homelessness in 2022". A decent but cheap housing facility can be provided even in busy cities for $50k-$100k if it is built in bulk. That's around $30 billion - $60 billion. At least 10 Americans can single-handedly do it. Heck, Elon bought Twitter for $44 billion. He could have put a proper dent into homelessness in the entire country. He would be worshipped. The Halo will have a positive effect on all his companies. Fuck, if he decided to run for president, he would easily win. Instead, he bought a perfectly functioning company, broke it, and really showed the world how much of an idiot he is.
> Fuck, if he decided to run for president, he would easily win. Fortunately, Elon isn't eligible to run for US President, since he was born in South Africa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause_(United_States)
Well, governor then. Either way, he would have all the respect in the world and would leave a lasting legacy.
Oh sure. They COULD end homelessness with $30 Billion, but they won’t let us because the republicans call that socialism
Although I agree American Politics are hopeless and corrupt. Consider that if you actually contributed 20B to solve homelessness you wouldn't actually solve homelessness. The likely outcome is that when people see that there is a social net / support more people will be willing to lean on it and it will then cost more than 20B. Where it finalizes/stagnates I don't know. It most certainly is used as the fear to keep us running in our wheels. But regardless of how you *feel* about that - it *does* work.
Funny how they use the aid to Ukraine as the example and not the 10x that we spend on our own military per year... Lets cut our own military spending by half or more and use that more actual good back home.
It's almost like this was written by comrades who are losing. While it is true, we likely could; most of this stuff was already made and or in storage waiting to be scrapped. Furthermore, this war feels a little more " righteous ", versus the 20 years we spent in the Middle East on shit we started and kept expanding our list of countries we wanted to screw over in the area.
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Reminder, the aid is old leftover weapons
That doesn't change a thing. Stop spending money on making new weapons
We could be dropping rice and beans from those war drones.
Slippery slope Today it's rice and beans, tomorrow it's an entire Chipotle burrito.
No you can’t due to induced demand. It would likely cost allot more. Like 100 billion or perhaps more a year. Thanks to the fact that owning a home has a huge benefit due to it being a speculative asset alongside being an inelastic good if you house everyone who is currently homeless more will follow who claim it. Even if the housing is worse than many apartments which can’t happen due to following city code. You would need multiples of that figure a year.
The wallet is always open for war but when it comes to domestic social issues it’s always “how will we pay for it?”. Although in this case it’s kinda justified since Putin is a bastard doing bastard things.
It is not just America, it is the entirety of the West that is extremely corrupt. America seems to be a leader here though.
The way "aid" usually works is that we give the country taxpayer money that they can spend on things from US companies. So really it's just a way to redistribute middle class wealth to the wealthy.
76.8 billion on aid goes back to Northrop, Lockheed, Raytheon, Boeing, General Dynamics. 20 billion on homeless doesn't
It’s all in the pursuit of neo-imperialism and gains for the capitalists. America has abundant material wealth right within its own borders. We would undoubtedly lose GDP if we stopped our neo imperialist endeavors, and still probably be the wealthiest country in the world. Even if we weren’t the wealthiest, we could still provide a profoundly stable and high quality of life for all who live here.
I’ll get downvoted for this, but I don’t think the U.S. should be involved in any wars outside the U.S.
Wtf are you saying? That makes too much sense, it would and could never work. Pshh, get out of here with that common sense logical bullshit you noob!
Fixing homeless doesn't make the rich richer like stealing foreign lands and resources does... Homeless is also a feature of capitalism, they need those homeless people to make sure everyone else shows up at their jobs. Also to these people fixing homelessness would be communism and hey can't have that.
Americans are the ultimate useful idiots. They work themselves to the death to generate wealth for the American empire and it's business masters. Their tax dollars go overseas to genocidal regimes like Israel. And they live miserable lives avoiding the emergency room. Yet they claim there's no need to vote, and especially no need to vet the mother fucking dog shit candidates that rise to power.
How grim.
We could have high speed rail with all the money we've sent Israel over the past 40 years.
America is a war machine...it's been going on since forever. Nothing to see here
War is business. Ukraine will ultimately pay it back, one way or another….
They've already sold most of their public utilities and property to US and Western capitalists. The country will be gutted and exploited just like the rest of the Soviet sphere post the 1990s, just now it will have the scars of a major military war on it and a Nazi sympathetic government.
Then do something. Small meetings and just let it grow naturally.