so I guess this is political… as the city, the cops, the poor and the homeless are all involved…rumor has it that the tv people will be out to cover it…on a personal level as I own less I have less to lose… its easy to fold my blankets and go… for others its not so easy. they can't do this to people is the most common protest around here. spent the evening debating the issue.. the camps are bad but better then other options … . but most likely they will close the camp…while not creating a solution for those who live in them… we are still on the waiting list for an apartment (for one we applied for last year august ).. most likely we will head back to the woods..
This is a longshot, but have you considered getting a job for the local government as a homeless rights advocate, someone who will speak up at meetings when issues affecting homeless people arise? If you get the job, you'd make life better for the homeless and also have a steady paying job that would get you off the streets.
The waiting lists for housing are long, some of them are up to multiple years. Unless there is something "Officially" Wrong with you. (Medically or Mentally Handicapped not just being angry at the Beraucracy[sp?].)
If you miss a monthly check in, they drop you from the list, and that makes you have to refile.
A reminder for those who are just joining this webcomic. Riley's Patreon can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/Jrileymc ...Oh and don't forget to click the "You Like This" button in the lower right hand corner of the comic.
Sadly, I think the zombie purge is being implemented because it's the cheapest solution that takes the problem out of the public view. :/ It's a terrible solution because it's hurting the people who are suffering instead of helping them. And as you pointed out, it's very dehumanizing, people being chased away like they were rats instead of humans.
The ultimate reason the purges work is because the homeless are not fixed in location. A city with aggressive anti-homeless policies can simply push the problem onto neighboring cities. Kinda the "I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you" approach to "solving" the problem. Consequently, the problem needs to be addressed at the state or national level for a real solution to work. We used to do that for a segment of the homeless (the mentally ill). But the mental institutions (aka insane asylums) got shut down during the Reagan era to reduce the budget. The competent homeless, like Riley, I believe genuinely want to dig themselves out of their situation and would gladly do so given the opportunity. Unfortunately, their reputation gets smeared because of their cross-association with the mentally ill homeless. And people are less willing to help them for fear that they'll just be wasting effort trying to help a mentally ill homeless.
Even those on the right should agree that the minimum wage should be adjusted to keep up with inflation. It should be somewhere between $10-$11 right now with inflation adjustments only. The critics do have a point that some marginally-profitable businesses would become unprofitable with a minimum wage increase and have to shut down, but I think an honest cost-benefit analysis would show that the adjustment would result in far more good than harm. We could also use more federal programs to turn unskilled laborers into skilled laborers, people would work less hard an make more money, and companies would have higher-value employees that they would not want to lose.
Budget items which automatically adjust for inflation should only be items which most people can agree have a specific "right" amount. Social Security checks are a good example, since they're based on what a retired person needs to buy to live (food, housing, clothing). Unfortunately, there's very little agreement on what the "right" amount should be for a minimum wage. Some people believe it's zero, some people believe it's around $25/hr, everyone else thinks it's somewhere in between. For budget items with no "right" amount, the fluctuation that comes with it stagnating, then being updated when a critical mass of voters feels it's too low, is the mechanism by which it says in the ballpark of the right amount, without ever having to establish exactly what the right amount is.
Too often the assumption is made that raising the minimum wage means the $7.25/hr job will turn into a $11/hr job. The reality is that it often means the $7.25/hr job will turn into no job. You have to strike a balance between making sure desperate people aren't taken advantage of by employers, but still allowing employers to hire people cost-effectively to do jobs while staying in business. The loss of manufacturing jobs to China in the 1990s was partially due to unions resisting the U.S. manufacturing sector lowering costs by automating in the 1980s. As a result, manufacturing in the U.S. was no longer competitive, and it became cheaper to manufacture overseas. Instead of the U.S. having automated factories which still hired Americans to monitor and maintain the robots, the factories and manufacturing jobs moved out of the country entirely. It's never as simple as just forcing employers to pay more.
And on the other side of the coin, those minimum wage workers who do keep their jobs will be more likely to afford a place to live and other basic necessities. Right now, in 33 states, the unemployed enjoy a better standard of living than those working full-time at minimum wage, because so many government benefits are directed only to people who don't work. I'd like to see the minimum wage folks enjoy a substantially better quality of life than the unemployed.
Well, it certainly would be good for me, since I own decent chunks of several robotics companies that specialize in repetitive labor such as fast food, sorting, and that sort of thing.
The lowest skilled jobs are usually the minimum wage jobs, and those are the ones that will first be replaced by robots. The tipping point seems to be around $11.00/hr, depending on the costs of doing business in a state. I know that most of our orders are coming from places that have raised the minimum wage to that level. And unlike physical labor, the cost of robotics is coming down as robots become more common - the economies of scale. So if you raise the minimum wage, there will be fewer jobs for people with low levels of skill.
Sounds ripe for a lawsuit. It's the same here in Georgia, But older structures are grandfathered in, they can't tear down a structure just because it has reached a certain age. You can, for instance, have a mobile home older than 15 years on your property, but you can't move an older one onto your property.
I have a nice 1998 34' fifth wheel on my property that I can't even give away because the new owner couldn't park it anywhere!
I use it for storage.
felonimayhem at 2:19PM, Aug. 3, 2017
This is a longshot, but have you considered getting a job for the local government as a homeless rights advocate, someone who will speak up at meetings when issues affecting homeless people arise? If you get the job, you'd make life better for the homeless and also have a steady paying job that would get you off the streets.
Mr Kaos at 9:49AM, Aug. 1, 2017
i am sorry to hear that. we humans are idiots.
Nowhereman10 at 7:12PM, July 29, 2017
On a lighter note, I do love the Zombie RV. It's expression is absolutely priceless!
felonimayhem at 4:07PM, July 30, 2017
I was so impressed that I started playing Plants vs. Zombies again for old time's sake.
itsune9tl at 6:55PM, July 27, 2017
The waiting lists for housing are long, some of them are up to multiple years. Unless there is something "Officially" Wrong with you. (Medically or Mentally Handicapped not just being angry at the Beraucracy[sp?].) If you miss a monthly check in, they drop you from the list, and that makes you have to refile.
Nowhereman10 at 2:38PM, July 26, 2017
A reminder for those who are just joining this webcomic. Riley's Patreon can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/Jrileymc ...Oh and don't forget to click the "You Like This" button in the lower right hand corner of the comic.
felonimayhem at 7:20AM, July 26, 2017
Sadly, I think the zombie purge is being implemented because it's the cheapest solution that takes the problem out of the public view. :/ It's a terrible solution because it's hurting the people who are suffering instead of helping them. And as you pointed out, it's very dehumanizing, people being chased away like they were rats instead of humans.
Makaira at 11:32PM, July 28, 2017
The ultimate reason the purges work is because the homeless are not fixed in location. A city with aggressive anti-homeless policies can simply push the problem onto neighboring cities. Kinda the "I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you" approach to "solving" the problem. Consequently, the problem needs to be addressed at the state or national level for a real solution to work. We used to do that for a segment of the homeless (the mentally ill). But the mental institutions (aka insane asylums) got shut down during the Reagan era to reduce the budget. The competent homeless, like Riley, I believe genuinely want to dig themselves out of their situation and would gladly do so given the opportunity. Unfortunately, their reputation gets smeared because of their cross-association with the mentally ill homeless. And people are less willing to help them for fear that they'll just be wasting effort trying to help a mentally ill homeless.
felonimayhem at 7:11AM, July 26, 2017
Even those on the right should agree that the minimum wage should be adjusted to keep up with inflation. It should be somewhere between $10-$11 right now with inflation adjustments only. The critics do have a point that some marginally-profitable businesses would become unprofitable with a minimum wage increase and have to shut down, but I think an honest cost-benefit analysis would show that the adjustment would result in far more good than harm. We could also use more federal programs to turn unskilled laborers into skilled laborers, people would work less hard an make more money, and companies would have higher-value employees that they would not want to lose.
Makaira at 11:17PM, July 28, 2017
Budget items which automatically adjust for inflation should only be items which most people can agree have a specific "right" amount. Social Security checks are a good example, since they're based on what a retired person needs to buy to live (food, housing, clothing). Unfortunately, there's very little agreement on what the "right" amount should be for a minimum wage. Some people believe it's zero, some people believe it's around $25/hr, everyone else thinks it's somewhere in between. For budget items with no "right" amount, the fluctuation that comes with it stagnating, then being updated when a critical mass of voters feels it's too low, is the mechanism by which it says in the ballpark of the right amount, without ever having to establish exactly what the right amount is.
Makaira at 11:10PM, July 28, 2017
Too often the assumption is made that raising the minimum wage means the $7.25/hr job will turn into a $11/hr job. The reality is that it often means the $7.25/hr job will turn into no job. You have to strike a balance between making sure desperate people aren't taken advantage of by employers, but still allowing employers to hire people cost-effectively to do jobs while staying in business. The loss of manufacturing jobs to China in the 1990s was partially due to unions resisting the U.S. manufacturing sector lowering costs by automating in the 1980s. As a result, manufacturing in the U.S. was no longer competitive, and it became cheaper to manufacture overseas. Instead of the U.S. having automated factories which still hired Americans to monitor and maintain the robots, the factories and manufacturing jobs moved out of the country entirely. It's never as simple as just forcing employers to pay more.
felonimayhem at 9:47AM, July 28, 2017
And on the other side of the coin, those minimum wage workers who do keep their jobs will be more likely to afford a place to live and other basic necessities. Right now, in 33 states, the unemployed enjoy a better standard of living than those working full-time at minimum wage, because so many government benefits are directed only to people who don't work. I'd like to see the minimum wage folks enjoy a substantially better quality of life than the unemployed.
Petercat at 1:38AM, July 28, 2017
Well, it certainly would be good for me, since I own decent chunks of several robotics companies that specialize in repetitive labor such as fast food, sorting, and that sort of thing. The lowest skilled jobs are usually the minimum wage jobs, and those are the ones that will first be replaced by robots. The tipping point seems to be around $11.00/hr, depending on the costs of doing business in a state. I know that most of our orders are coming from places that have raised the minimum wage to that level. And unlike physical labor, the cost of robotics is coming down as robots become more common - the economies of scale. So if you raise the minimum wage, there will be fewer jobs for people with low levels of skill.
Petercat at 12:29AM, July 26, 2017
Sounds ripe for a lawsuit. It's the same here in Georgia, But older structures are grandfathered in, they can't tear down a structure just because it has reached a certain age. You can, for instance, have a mobile home older than 15 years on your property, but you can't move an older one onto your property. I have a nice 1998 34' fifth wheel on my property that I can't even give away because the new owner couldn't park it anywhere! I use it for storage.
Petercat at 7:28PM, July 31, 2017
That's impossible. The laws go by age, not condition.
Twometerwill at 12:54PM, July 31, 2017
Sounds like a business opportunity, refurbish campers to today's code, start the clock over.
Lepidolite Mica at 12:08AM, July 26, 2017
This is something that had ought to be spread. We need to get this comic out there so people recognize this sort of careless lawmaking as an issue.