Feed the poor, tax the rich, shelter the homeless, punish the corrupt and

[In Truth We Trust]

did I say TAX THE RICH?!?

[SammyWinstonJack]

1. Sounds like a good plan to me.

:bounce:

[SteppingRazor]

2. Look all that other stuff's well and good...

But GOD FORBID WE TAX THE RICH, yeah?!!

So, we'll just have to abandon all hope of feeding the poor and sheltering... well, whatever the hell else you said. Tax the rich... Lord! Whoever heard of such a silly thing.

[catmandu57]

3. don't you know

The poor will be with you always.

I wonder when they slipped that little gem in?

[Deja Q]

6. Agreed. For the New Testament, that contradicts a LOT of Jesus' teachings

Still, nobody's perfect.

[sui generis]

4. eat the poor, pay the rich, use the homeless as tax shelters

and reward the corrupt.

Sounds like this administration is "staying the course" just like they said.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Boyoboy, do you have YOUR priorities screwed up.

It's Tax the Poor, Feed the Rich, Shelter the Corrupt, and Punish the Homeless.

[Gildor Inglorion]

7. Better hurry! ALL their money will soon be off-shore...

residing safely in the Cayman Islands or Swiss accounts - untaxable, untouchable, and beyond anyone's reach. But by that time, the USA will have become Guatemala del Norte, with 1% of the population controling 99.9% of the nation's wealth and the rest of the people impoverished, ignorant, and unquestioningly following the teachings of Holy Mother Church. Viva los oligarchs!
:(

[theboss]

8. Drug the homeless

If we could force the homeless to take the anti-psychotic drugs they need, you would see a dramatic decrease in homelessness.

But the civil libertarian in me understands that there is probably no legal way to do this.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

13. What?!?!?!

You assume the homeless are such because they are mentally ill. That is not the case by any standard.

Quite frankly, it's flat out horrible that you'd even suggest that.

[sui generis]

15. actually being homeless for any amount of time

is not conducive to good mental health. Poor nutrition, social pariah, low or zero self esteem, unusual to no human interaction, and a panoply of survival mechanisms that take over would make even a sane person warp a little.

The Reagan era deinstitutionalization actually did release a lot of "hard" cases onto the streets and set the standard for subsequent generations of people with mental health issues to become and remain homeless, but it's erroneous to paint a complex problem with such a simple brush as "psychosis".

[theboss]

17. It's not the reason for all the homelessness

But since hospitals can only hold mental health patients for 72 hours without consent, you end up with a revolving door to a large degree.

This started in the 80s with the closure of a lot of decrepit state hospitals (asylums) and the de-institutionalization policies of the Reagan era.

A huge percentage of the homeless are paranoid schizophrenics. And they are certainly the most visible. If they get on a regular medication regime, they could start to put their lives back together. But the support net is frayed and you can force them to take their medicine.

Read up:

http://www.mentalhealth.com/mag1/pre-hom1.html
http://www.schizophrenia.com/New/Dec02b/homeless.htm
http://www.sfnsw.org.au/quality/accomm.htm

The main problem is the inability of the homeless to find support networks.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

18. I do work for mental health treatment facilities AND the homeless, ok?

I'm well aware of the problems. But you don't just go drugging all of them and expect that to cure homelessness. It doesn't even scratch the surface of the problem.

[getmeouttahere]

9. Have you guys heard this one from conservatives....

"A poor person never gave me a job"

Well, guess what, the rich aren't either!!!

[DBoon]

12. Who the hell "gives" anyone a job?

Oh wait.

I forgot.

Conservatives are given jobs from their daddy's law firms.

[DBoon]

10. Commie!

This is Republican America.

You have it all backwards.

[indepat]

11. Such liberal thinking will not be tolerated in a neocon-oriented world

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

14. I know an 18 year old girl....

....who says the poor have overburdened the American economy and are ruining the country, while the rich have to carry everyone's weight.

Well, she's blonde, so that might explain it.

[zbdent]

16. Been reading the Bible again?

Sounds like some of the things said in the bible . . .