I understand why so many bums hang around truck stops now

In Ben Franklin's day, I'm sure mental illness wasn't as much of a problem as it is today. Pretty sure mother nature took care of that issue pre-emptively, by killing every third child and pregnant mother during childbirth.

I'm not sure I can objectively agree with your assertion that "most" people who are poor, are poor because of bad decisions. A lot of them were living paycheck to paycheck, and one incident tipped the scales against their favor, and they lost their housing. Many of them were homeless as teenagers, fleeing an abusive environment, and could never put their lives back together again.

I used to be homeless as well. It was like a screaming inside of me, to get my life together. Did I also mention that I just landed a trucking job I should be able to retire from? Half a decade of posting on this forum, and I made it to the top.

We're always so quick to judge this situation as being "their own fault." I think, the homeless are the most discriminated against, marginalized group in society. For some reason, we cannot make fun of someone for their race, or their disability, or sexual orientation. But it's completely okay to use outdated pejorative terms like, "bum" to describe somebody without housing.

One thing I noticed in your story about the college kid who moved to Charleston with nothing-- he probably had a place to ####, shower shave and sleep to get his life together. Without these basic elements, you can't even sleep during the night time and be awake during the day time like a "normal" person. Nobody will hire you if they know you are homeless. Nobody will hire you if you are clearly poor, smell bad, or have no access to basic hygiene facilities.

We talk like these people are "living the life" hanging outside of Love's or Flying J's for days, or weeks at a time. They sit there in front of the store at 2, 3, 4 and 5 AM, because that's the safest place to be. There is some access to a restroom, to the security of other human beings, and a chance to scrape up the leftovers of people who do not need what they are throwing away. It was always the most humiliating experience, to ask people for $2 because I was hungry. It was always a sign of their weakness, when they took out all of their life's frustrations on me, and told me to "get a job you ####ing bum," just because I asked for some help. I could tell, it really made them feel better to lash out at someone under the pretext that I'm just a worthless, lazy bum, when I really knew, they were probably pissed about other, irrelevant parts of their life that had nothing to do with me; like their wife cheating on them, or paying too much in child support, or some idiot just cut them off in traffic. I'm just being real with you.

 

Im not making fun of homeless people. Im glad u got your life together. Poor people in general keep doing the same things that keep them poor. Like spend everything they make every month over and over. If u r living paycheck to paycheck u r spending too much money. Should save at least 10%. That college kid lived at the ymca until he could afford his own apartment. His experience shows that if one has determination and work ethic one can move out of poverty just as you have. This is truly the greatest country on earth and yes our system of governance makes us exceptional to all others ie communism, socialism, etc.

 

Don't worry, I mock everyone, of course my favorite targets are snowflakes. There are too many forms of assistance from local churches all the way to the government for homelessness to be anything other than laziness or a mental disorder.

 

laziness I can understand. But a mental disorder is a disability, and perhaps of the worst kind. There are indeed a lot of forms of assistance. However, whenever I needed the help of a church, they were always very condescending towards me, as if I was below them. I was a disgusting sinner for needing the "Lord's Money." You know, the money they got for free and never paid a cent of taxes towards.

 

Oh no, don't get me wrong. I wasn't saying you were making fun of anybody. Yeah, before I got it together, I was living in an airport. I spoke to the BBC about this about six months ago, it was on international radio. But I can't go into detail about that on this forum ..

Our system of governance indeed makes us exceptional. While people hate the "welfare state," without it, we would be living in conditions similar to those of Mexico, or other third-world nations. The Welfare State gave me an opportunity, when I could not afford college. Five years later, that opportunity is dangling a base salary of $85k in front of me for a 4 day work week, or $100k if I work 5. I truly do appreciate this wonderful country, this is a land of opportunity for everybody. Native citizens, immigrants, even people working illegally and under the table, without them our economy would be severely impacted.

 

It may have said "church" on the building, that doesn't mean those who attended were Christians.

I saw a study a while back, it showed a direct correlation between the reduction in charity in response to government handouts. It doesn't excuse the attitude of a so called church, but it does explain why so many (including myself) have little to no sympathy.

 

My biggest gripe and concern, are about the homeless that do have serious mental handicaps.
Thanks to the liberal jerkoffs at ACLU, all the state run mental institutions were forced to close, thus kicking a lot of seriously disturbed out on the street to starve. Yes, there were a few people confined that shouldn't have been. Usually committed by some family member, for some type of personal gain.
So because of this, it was decided that every one deserved and wanted"freedom." I'm guessing that the majority of folks who read this post, either weren't born yet, or are too young to remember these places. But I remember when they were kicked out. The lucky ones had family that managed to somehow care for them. The rest were out on the street, with no clue how to care for themselves.
Sure was an increase in the jail populations, corresponding to the hospitals closing.

 

@moloko, I congratulate you on being able to pull yourself up by your bootstraps! There were times, when I was a young man, that I went hungry. But never a time when I didn't have a roof over my head, even if it was a dive "motel."
But, I was young and healthy. I worked one full-time job, and four part time jobs, to pull out of it. So while I can't say I had it as bad as you did, I can say that, with a modicum of intelligence, and a lot of hits and hard work, a person does not have to "beg" to live. Sure, it might come to having to ask for a hand up, and being willing to take a hand out for a short period of time, until you can get your shirt together.

 

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest impacted the way society viewed mental institutions. Unfortunately, the burden was shifted to correctional facilities. Now with the ACLU interference, that system has become overburdened.

 

Not the life I'd want.

The old saying about walking a mile in their shoes comes to mind. I make no assumptions about why someone is asking for help. Thanks to a lot of hard work and a couple of good breaks I'm sitting pretty good right now. I remember being only a pay cheque or two away from disaster though. It's easy to say they must be lazy and are only there because of their bad choices but that's not always the case.

That said I usually say no. That's it, a simple no. Making excuses or yelling at them makes no sense to me.