• PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    You say that, but have you seen the enormous homeless camps in Los Angeles and San Francisco? We’re talking about thousands of people without sanitation, clean water, shelter, food or even the ability to wash themselves or their clothes. It’s really bad and probably on par with 10th century Europe as far as living conditions, although many of these people are worse off because they lack the ability to take care of themselves and many of them are drug addicts.

    • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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      11 months ago

      Yeah, that’s bad, and I imagine if bubonic plague broke out in that one area it could be devastating. It’s not the norm across any large portion of society so we won’t see a larger outbreak of it.

      That’s not to say those people don’t matter. It’s a systemic failure of the highest order that people aren’t housed and don’t have access to healthcare, it’s just they don’t create the conditions for a pandemic of that kind. We understand the disease vector now and we have largely eliminated it.

    • schroedingershat@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Having these people be homeless in awful conditions is entirely a choice made by the wealthy californians. One that can be remedied in months if the harm to their health becomes larger than the utility of being able to use them as a political pawn. They can also be supplied antibiotics and flea/rodent control tools for a few dollars per capita.

      • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        Sadly the state supreme courts have ruled that it is basically illegal to force services on these people. Many of them, particularly the heavy drug addicts are highly resistant to help and are hell-bent on pursuing their drug habit. And it’s not just in California, homeless drug users exist everywhere in the United States in all 50 states. Well, I suppose it wouldn’t last very long in Alaska due to the winters.

        But Florida, California, Oregon Washington Hawaii, they’re everywhere. I find homeless people in the middle of the forest, on the coast and in rural towns… Just about everywhere I go I find homeless people now. It’s kind of crazy and not something you saw 5 years ago.

        • schroedingershat@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Do any of you “we can’t provide affordable housing, stop pushing opioids on people, have a social safety net, or permit people to build multi-family dwellings because we found a homeless person who didn’t want to be institutionalised and abused” types even remotely comprehend how stupid and evil you sound? Like it wouldn’t even be believable as a villain introduction in a comic book.