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Homeless when there are 1 million empty homes, hunger when the USA produces record crops?

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Liberal_in_LA Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 02:31 AM
Original message
Homeless when there are 1 million empty homes, hunger when the USA produces record crops?
The USA is still the land of plenty. During the coming depression, will all the homeless people sleep on the street (see 'Soylent Green') when there are empty houses/condos a plenty? Will Americans starve when America is the most productive producer of food in world history?

paycheck to paycheck
http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2008/photo_galleries/paycheck-to-paycheck/index.shtml
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bananas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 02:34 AM
Response to Original message
1. k&r nt
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wundermaus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 02:54 AM
Response to Original message
2. Yeah, that free enterprise, capitalistic dog eat dog system at work
is not all that it's cracked up to be is it? Socialism is a dirty word in the American vernacular but that is because America was ruled by a bunch of old white guys in a gated community. The old fascist guard is fading fast... and democratic revolution of renewal and reinvention is already under way. The idiocy and insanity of insatiable lust for greed has played itself out.
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asteroid2003QQ47 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 03:29 AM
Response to Reply #2
6. I wish I could find reason to share your optimism.
Those validation junkies high on the fallen won't give up easily.
-----------------------------------------------
It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
--Gore Vidal
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wundermaus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 04:27 AM
Response to Reply #6
7. There's something finally happening... and WE are making it happen...
On 1/20 Ken Burns shares his views on President Obama with Keith Olbermann

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og9l6P-SVnQ
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Cessna Invesco Palin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 05:32 AM
Response to Reply #2
10. There are plenty of homeless people in Western Europe.
Homelessness is not specifically an economic problem. That's only one element.
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pnwmom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 03:04 AM
Response to Original message
3. And where do the 1 million families whose homes were foreclosed go?
Most of those families worked for years saving up deposits and making monthly payments.

But they should be replaced by other homeless families, is that what you're saying?
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Liberal_in_LA Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 03:06 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. They've already gone into apartments. There are a million homes empty right now
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pnwmom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 03:17 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. You don't know where they've gone. No one does.
Edited on Fri Jan-23-09 03:20 AM by pnwmom
Years ago, I knew someone who lost her home. Her family of 4 had to move into a single room with friends. (She couldn't move in with us because we're on different coasts.)

I think it would be much better if we helped people avoid foreclosures and keep their homes, rather than to replace them with other people.
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girl gone mad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 05:34 AM
Response to Reply #5
11. No reason we can't do both.
Work to help people keep their homes and use abandoned or unsold properties for affordable housing.

Developers overbuilt. Homeless people are already squatting in empty condos in many cities. They call them abandominiums.
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Liberal_in_LA Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 11:54 PM
Response to Reply #11
18. 'abandominiums'? Glad people are making use of them
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KharmaTrain Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 04:37 AM
Response to Original message
8. There Will Be A Lot Of Suffering This Year...
We're still not at the bottom yet. Credit is still in deep freeze, people are losing their homes, cars and jobs...and dare I say the worst is yet to happen.

Yep, millions of homes are empty as banks refuse to issue credit unless you have 90% of the price in cash. Tons of goods are sitting in holds and docks cause there is no demand...thus causing factories to shut down and putting more people out of work...those people who used to spend no longer have the money thus retail sales continue to nosedive...and many retailers are now having problems getting credits to purchase new merchandise. I keep telling people get what you can while you can, it may be a while until we see the diverity of goods for a long time.

We could even see nationalizing of banks to get this country rolling again.
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SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 05:27 AM
Response to Original message
9. People will be squatting in empty houses.
and people with larger homes will be "taking in boarders" .. It may be "illegal" but people will still do it. If it's the difference between making the mortgage payment of being thrown out, they will do what they have to do..
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RadiationTherapy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 05:43 AM
Response to Original message
12. NO! People must PAY! We are capitalists!! NO FREE RIDES!
Everyone must make their own way or suffer and die.
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infidel dog Donating Member (186 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 11:39 AM
Response to Reply #12
17. Thank Republican Jeezus and the Almighty Dollar!
Can you imagine how things would change if the American People could bring themselves to utter the dreaded S-word? (socialism) I think I heard something... "Socialism" There it is again!! SOCIALISM!!! Zounds! Is there revolution in the air???
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midnight Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 05:49 AM
Response to Original message
13. Not if we change the mindset that assumes that if you are not
pulling yourself up by your own bootstrapes you don't deserve anything,but you do deserve help only if you're a big ceo of a bank, or corporation. This has to change.
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cat1985 Donating Member (23 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 05:54 AM
Response to Original message
14. Facts of Life
It is a sad fact of life that there will always be empty houses with homeless people, starving people with grain mountains in warehouses, and people dying of diseases that are curable a a cost of a few pence each.

You highlight one of many things that are so wrong with the world.
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blindpig Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 07:44 AM
Response to Reply #14
16. Not facts of life but facts of capitalism.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Hamlet Act 1, scene 5, 159–167 ...


Socialism or barbarism, guess what we got?
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HamdenRice Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-23-09 06:49 AM
Response to Original message
15. You've put your finger on the strange irony of modern depressions--not based on shortage
That's why I find the neo-malthusians get it completely wrong. The strange irony of our economic system is that it can collapse in the presence of material plenty. Houses and homelessness, food surpluses and hunger.

They are crises of demand and coordination, not of scarcity. But they are just as terrible as if we were a small third world country facing famine.
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diane in sf Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-24-09 12:10 AM
Response to Original message
19. The empty homes are in small towns and the rust belt where the jobs have vanished
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