Pleased to see it because:
its election time here and the Protest Wall Street demonstrations do bring to light the plight of those not in the Tea Party.
the bad side:
isnt this really the start of food riots in america. just seeing a lot more homeless on the street corners. its starting to look like Salt Lake City UT here. calling it "food riot" for lack of a better word.
I don't think throwing Molotov cocktails at police will get much done, tbh. It just escalates the level of violence involved...and unless people are willing to kill the police and national guard, won't resolve anything. Oakland isn't Libya.
I watched a documentary the other night about the USA once your time limit is up, you cease getting money and get food stamps instead. I wonder how on earth does an unemployed person pay their rent, buy essential things like clothes and the rest? And yes I know nothing at all about North American society besides what I see on Telly... :confused::confused:
Almac Wrote:I watched a documentary the other night about the USA once your time limit is up, you cease getting money and get food stamps instead. I wonder how on earth does an unemployed person pay their rent, buy essential things like clothes and the rest? And yes I know nothing at all about North American society besides what I see on Telly... :confused::confused:
Low income housing, Housing First, rental and housing assistance such as HUD, welfare, Medicaid, shelters etc. There are quite a few different governmental, NGO, and religious organizations that deal with such things. Indeed, I just donated a bunch of canned goods to such an organization. There are ones that assist with rent and clothing, and I believe that most essential items such as toiletries are covered with food stamps.
I watched this movie last night, it seemed rather poignant considering what the western world is going through at the moment.
Quote:isnt this really the start of food riots in america. just seeing a lot more homeless on the street corners. its starting to look like Salt Lake City UT here. calling it "food riot" for lack of a better word.
Oh, stop being so dramatic. American's haven't known what it was like to really have it bad for quite a long time. Tell me, how many children do you see wondering around the streets with distended stomachs from malnutrition? I usually see them wandering around with distended stomachs due to too much food and too little exercise. How about on T.V. see any there? There is hunger and homelessness, true, but there are such things around the world. And there is support for people in those situations. You don't hear the Occupiers demanding food. More often than not, they are talking about student loans, unemployment, and the tax system.
What we are seeing is people pissed off, legitimately pissed off. I'm glad of it. We should all be pissed off.
Almac Wrote:I watched a documentary the other night about the USA once your time limit is up, you cease getting money and get food stamps instead. I wonder how on earth does an unemployed person pay their rent, buy essential things like clothes and the rest? And yes I know nothing at all about North American society besides what I see on Telly... :confused::confused:
They don't. and they go into the uncounted segment. Unemployment statistics published by the government only count those collected unemployment. If you are not collecting a check you are not counted.
This post may appear off topic, but it is not. Last nights network news showed that the European Union worked out a deal to keep Greece from going under. No one likes it. The Prime Minister of Greece, (apparent moron), is putting it to a vote of the Greek people, when he should be on his knees thanking the 17 members of the European Union who busted their butts to put the package together.
Greece goes, the banks in the European Union go under, followed by the United States. That is what the big economic conference is about this week.
Occupy Wall Street I am with you, but there is a debt problem out there that threatens to bring down the planet, and from everything I have seen, once this house of cards begins to fall, the whole planet can go quickly. Hang on tight America.
To expand on Inchante's post to put this into perspective, the USA during the depression had to deal with waves of refugees from the Midwest and mass starvation, people were literally dying along the side of highways. The current recession has no where near reached that level of damage, partly because we now live in developed welfare states with the social security nets to provide those kinds of serious repercussions.
I volunteered at a food bank for awhile and talked with homeless and workers with nonprofit agencies. Basically most welfare services (such as HUD) takes years to get and you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get them, something many homeless people can't do even if the police leave them alone (nonprofits are generally faster and better than government welfare, but sometimes they're worse and corrupt). Food stamps are pretty easy to get but they're not enough by themselves (especially if you don't have a kitchen) to get you through the month and any other help you get can cost you food stamps. You can only buy food with food stamps, not toiletries. However, GR (General Relief) allows some people to get 2 party checks with participating stores to get whatever they need asides from a few prohibited items, but it's hard to get, it's not much, and the person getting it is expected to pay it back. In California at least it's pretty easy to get medical welfare, though it continually changes its mind on what it will cover and what it won't. As many charities for the homeless are religious it's not unknown for gays (especially transgendered) to be turned away (of course if you have track marks on your arm, that's ok).
Still, while the problems faced by the homeless are worse than many realize, they're generally not starving, and I'm amazed by how many have the ability to get smokes and alcohol (not to say a majority of them do, but many do). If all else fails it's easy to get put in jail which is "3 hots and a cot." Of course services to the homeless and poor (which keep them from becoming homeless) is in the most danger of being cut and there's less giving to charities than there had been so the sitch may change.
The only time I was homeless was as a runaway and I didn't starve. As runaways we couldn't access either welfare or nonprofits and anyone caught aiding us (including homeless shelters) could be charged with contributing to our delinquency, so we pretty much had to turn to crime (heck, being a runaway was itself a crime). I dabbled in many things with a krew of other runaways but mostly I panhandled, took part in a shoplifting scheme, and helped to scam a pizza place who'd throw the huge order we got called in still warm in their boxes in the dumpster which we'd take (we had to share with the adult homeless guy who claimed the dumpster as his own though he shared his pot and alcohol with us) and after filling ourselves took the rest to the other kids. We also got sack lunches from the C-House (Covenant House) van but we had a love/hate relationship with them as they'd report our squats and any service helping kids (a few had a "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding minors who came for help which C-House didn't care for) and of course we couldn't actually stay at C-House without them reporting us to the police and our families (unless you were 18, as they helped people up to age 21).
Runaways and other homeless youth have it even worse than adult homeless. But even so I've heard of much worse in other countries, including one that just shot homeless youth (some Central American country in the grips of a civil war, IIRC, and with too many orphans), a guy told me how a cop in the Philippines shot a little boy who stole a wallet right in front of the American (Navy) who pointed him out and it was the obvious the cop thought was nothing wrong with what he did and simply seemed happy to help as he took the wallet from the dead child to give back to the American, and homeless youth (and I presume adults in some cases) in Russia have to spend winters sleeping on hot water pipes to keep from freezing to death. So even though it's worse than many Americans realize it's still not as bad as it could be.
The first molotov cocktails were used by fascist Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War. He won, overthrew the Spanish Republic, and ruled for 35 years.
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