The attachment to money is getting out of control...

Poverty should not be the reason why people are forced to die. It seems like everywhere I turn I see people suffering from the effects of poverty, hunger, and lack of clothing or shelter or warmth. It's gotten way out of control and at this point the American medical system seems a bit insane. Does it really make sense to let people die or let cancers spread because of a few bucks? It's time to stop worshiping money as if it is more important than human life itself. Homeless people freezing to death in the streets and people's mothers and sons dying because they can afford medical care has to stop NOW. Let's go out and make this thing happen!

 

Physical money is not important. However, what money represents is one of the most important things in the world - much more important than people give it credit for.

 

Here Here

 

I don't really feel bad for the homeless. I mean they put them selves in the position. They get money from the government... And we all know what the money goes too... And there is plenty of free health care around here, and we have tons of charities that give to the poor and homeless. I would know, because I've participated in them.

These people are homeless and poor because they want to be. Not cause they have to be.

 

^ For the most part, agreed.

 

I try not to group all "poor" into one category. That's like saying every rich person is a trying to make a multi-national world dominating corporation.

Amen brotha.

 

You can start by cancelling your ISP account and then give that amount of money to the homeless each month, go to a library and use their facilities if you need to get on the net

 

America is the land of opportunity. I've worked very hard for what I have. Greed is not defined as wanting to keep what's yours, it is defined as wanting to take what is NOT yours. What you are proposing is taking from one class of people, and giving to another class of people. If you take money from "person A," and give it to "person B," and person B owes nothing in return, you have just made person A a slave. Freedom includes the right to earn and own private property. Now you want to take that away from those who earn it?

 

Some of the responses to my post that were posted over the past few months are truly unethical and inhumane. Money is never more important than human life and human prosperity. Homeless people do not go through the suffering that they do by choice, ever. The police literally force the homeless to stay homeless because they don't let them seek shelter. Also it is illegal to sleep in many places.

I don't think that because someone gets their foot amputated because of Diabetes for example they should be forced to have to pay 15,000 dollars on top of their insurance coverage for the procedure; which might cause them to become homeless because they can no longer afford their rent or bills.

If impoverished people are artists, students, writers and those who wish to live more nomadic lifestyles (that take up too much time for them to work or make money) then they are automatically forced to behave in very specific ways by the police. They are labeled as homeless immediately and they are only allowed to sleep outdoors and in very particular locations. If they try to seek warmth by breaking into an abandoned building they could be put in jail or fined or worse in some areas. They are stripped from even basic human rights and it is time to end this type of barbaric inhumanity today.

Money (in its current state) prevents babies from getting their medicine, from going to see their doctors', from eating healthy enough foods (or enough quantity), from spending time with their often over-worked parents, from being able to live in safe neighborhoods, from growing the most healthy brains and bodies that they possibly can.

When they are older money prevents hundreds of millions of children around the world from receiving quality early education like some of their friends who come from wealthier families might. Money prevents young people from buying cars so that they can find degrading, menial, taxing, demeaning, and often strenuous jobs in the nearest cities where there might be any available job openings at all.

Gifted painters and brilliant musicians should not have to work at a fast food restaurant 8 hours a day, 6 days a week in order to put themselves through college. If they encounter any major injuries then the chances are that they either don't have insurance and therefore are forced to suffer or they end up paying tons of money on top of the limited amounts of money that health insurance companies are often willing to provide (if at all). One mistake and their entire pursuit of school is over, they would be fired from their job, they would loose their housing.

The effects of currencies are horrendous; in the United States and in most of the world. Some of the people who posted in this thread obviously care very little about the precious, wondrous, unique and incredible beings that we call human. All of the years of war and the abusive "might" of money have caused ignorant people to view each other as less valuable than themselves. Read the timeless works of Ram Dass, Krishnamurti, Gangji, Ken Kesey, Robert Hunter, Mahatma Gandhi, and others and protest the destructive force of money. It is used to control the police and to force them to enforce unjust and a few insane laws (like those that corrall and abuse the homeless and keep them that way).

Nelson Mandela mentioned in his innaugural address in 1994 that after South Africa's sick, twisted "apartheid," came to a conclusive end he hoped that the world would never see people oppressed again and that no group should be viewed as "scum." That's what I've heard in a couple of the posts that followed mine on here and it's really sad to know that so many people still believe that homeless people are scum and that it is somehow their faults. Not logical.

Peace and love!

 

To say homelessness is NEVER a choice is just wrong. In northern California it is quite a fad really to become homeless. I know people, people that I talk to, that have made the choice to be homeless.

That aside, I do feel bad for homeless people that have had a really rough life or who are mentally ill. I'm just saying that sometimes it is a choice and sometimes it is not.

 

I've known and have interacted with people who you (Antithesis) claim "choose" to be homeless out in California for many years and I guarantee you that the manner in which they are forced to live after they become homeless is not by choice. They mostly just don't want to take part in the day to day grind of a nine-to-five job and they don't support the system that working supports. When people are ethically opposed to the antiquated, inhumane expectations that are forced on them from the times they are born, then I believe they still have the right to sleep in a warm place where they are sheltered from cold and precipitation that could be life-threatening or just horribly uncomfortable.

Many of my close friends and family have "chosen" to be homeless for years and they are all some really wonderful people. Most are artists and all are brimming with compassion and unity. Read about F.D.R.'s updated "Bill of Rights," that he detailed soon after he left office. After World War II he and many others knew that certain injustices (like the current state of anti-homelessness, and anti-poor people laws in the United States) should be banned for all time.

The wonderful, enlightened homeless people who decide to leave their mundane, drone-like existences would never in a million years actually choose to undergo some of what they have to just to stay alive or to be relatively comfortable and to stay fed. The mentally ill and others who feel that they can't work either permanently or temporarily should be permitted to seek some kind of shelter or to at least build fires and to eat.

I understand your perspectives on this but imagine a world in which all people have the right to exist comfortably in a happy and healthy way. If you ever are able to go to a Rainbow Gathering you will see how everyone can get food, everyone can have clean water, and every single person is has access to medical coverage either on site or they will get people to a hospital one way or another...I've seen a helicopter come in once...

So just consider that the day to day life of an enlightened "homeless" brother or sister would not consist of the events and activities that they do if they could really choose their fate. The world's addiction and attachment to money is literally forcing them to live how they do. Most American cities used to allow thousands of settlers to set up tents all along the edges of town with little police intervention. Even 100 years ago people were a little more humane to the impoverished. Money is simply a scoreboard in a game that was designed many years ago by cruel, uneducated, ignorant, uninformed, un-advanced, and foolsih people. It's time to revise our concepts of wealth and poverty. I'm not a Christian but Jesus said it very, very well and I'll close with that. Instead of perceiveing "the kingdom of heaven," let's interpret those portions of the quote from the book of Matthew in the bible as bringing a more humane, just, and heaven-like world into existence.

"Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God"

Here is a relevant quote from Nelson Mandela's inaugural address in 1994:

"Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all.
Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.
Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfill themselves.
Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the scum of the world.
Let freedom reign."

 

I know people that are choosing to live the way that they do. Believe it or not, there are all kinds of people on the planet.

And if they are choosing to not be part of our economy by refusing to take a job... why should I support them? It's their own choice to do that just like it's my choice to support myself. I'm barely making it through life so I'm not helping someone that's not even trying. I don't want to do some mundane job either so I have to find other ways to keep myself afloat... but I also don't expect anyone to take care of me.

I will give food to those who are truly in need however.

 

I might be cynical, but I have been tricked too many times by people hanging around pretending that they are homeless. So I give them money or food and then later I see them get into their SUV talking on their cell phone and eating some expensive food. Making the choice to use their parents money while refusing to work and mooching off of the rest of us is also a great pastime in Northern Cali.

But again, I feel bad for people with honest problems.

 

Hey again Antithesis! I didn't mean to seem harsh or judgmental of you as a person or of your history or anything else that could be perceived as a personal attack. My main point is that if any of us who have enough money to get by were to actually live our lives in poor people's shoes we would be so shocked at the utter oppression and inhumane circumstances which so many people find themselves in.

In your example of the people who go back to the SUV and use cell phones and things you mentioned that they're impoverished to the point where they feel the need to ask for money; maybe their SUVs are all they have to live in, or to work in, or maybe even to raise their families' or to make their art in. Their cell phones might be their only lifelines to find work or to keep in touch with the financial aid offices at their Universities. Who knows what anyone else's circumstances truly are by looking at them. Perhaps most of us who are able to make plenty of money to support ourselves need to imagine true poverty to be able to become rich in spirit and wealthy in our capacity for compassion.

There will eventually be a critical mass of people who believe that dignity should be a right for all people and who believe that every human being who ever enters this earth should have the right to eat a meal every single time they're hungry, to sleep in a sheltered environment that is warm and comfortable, to find adequate, plentiful, and tolerable work that has been stripped by law of all indignity and inhumanity. In other words if a system is forced on us by the police at gunpoint as it currently is then all people should be entitled to be able to find work and to find work that meets the criteria that I've just mentioned and more. Not just jobs for those who don't smoke marijuana and for men who are willing to cut their hair short and to never show their real emotions or they barely ever express their beliefs or values while at work. Or the many women who feel compelled not to show their true emotions and personalities at work because they also have to constantly impress their bosses because they could be fired...and then what? A lot of the time people either become homeless or they're forced to stay with family and friends. Sometimes it takes many months to find any work at all.

People are not work-beasts, we deserve better than this cruel animal-like treatment that we are forced by law to accept. As soon as many of us get our paychecks most of our money goes to bills and food--almost 99% in some areas of the United States. It seems very similar to the labor that is forced on horses and other "work-animals". It's time to bring dignity back into this world. How about we all start by realizing that 99.9% of the time homeless people do not choose to live they ways that they do. And also 99.9% of the time when people ask strangers for money, they damn well need it. We all are forced at gunpoint via the threat of police violence, arrest, fines or incarceration to use currency and to break our backs and our spirits to get it at all costs even if it kills us and/or causes extreme suffering. Anyone who doesn't have compassion for the homeless regardless of what their stories are or what they look like, has very little compassion and is most likely unable to put themselves in someone else's shoes. It's never a choice, this unethical system is forced on us by the police who obey insane, inhumane laws. Plain and simple.

I accept all other views of course but I feel as though I'm expressing what I believe deep within my heart and soul. Human suffering and unnecessary deaths are the most awful tragedies that persist on this earth today. Please help us all by extinguishing the dark fire of discrimination via laws that mandate police officers to corrall and to capture and punish human beings for not believing in or occassionally from playing this antiquated and often fatal game called currence (in its current state). People should not have to walk 3 miles every day in the cold just to work at a demeaning job because it's often their only option.

Just think it through and ask yourself this question. If you were to suddenly become homeless and you didn't have any friends or relatives to help you out how would you feel and what you would do? Now imagine a world in which every precious human being who is ever born into any society, in any country never has to worry about where the next meal is coming from, they never have to sleep outside in the cold and shiver until the dawn when the sun brings they shaken bodies and minds back from the brink of death. Let the sunrise of deep, meaningful compassion rise over all of those who are blind to the fact that human suffering is something that needs to be phased out of existence as soon as possible. Most people suffer at work so their change our workplaces to fit the station that humans have actually evolved to deserve. Because we are born we deserve shelter, complete medical treatment, and other essential and non-essential staples of life until the days that we die. Beyond that almost every single person WANTS to work but but some are ethically opposed to the current corrupt, foolish, inhumane system that mobilizes the police to force us all to submit most of our time and efforts for mostly mundane and unnecessary businesses.

Redwood trees have remained untouched for sometimes a couple thousand years and no police officer has ever threatened to put them in jail for sleeping on city property because of any sort of backwards law. WAKE UP! Look up the original definition of the word Namaste. Mr. Gandhi used it all the time and let's move forward.

 

People can only be homeless if they are denied sanctuary. All persons have a home by right in nature.

 

There is no charity in spare change then. The moocher is married to the reluctant giver.

I feel good when I eat a candy bar.

 

Rather than complain about money and how poor people can be you have to look at the bigger picture. The world does revolve around a pretty conspicuous economy, so regardless of what anyone thinks you have to abide.

Rather then, than being less money focused. People should be just more focused on money and where it actually goes.

 

We all must make sacrifices and compromises, it's mind boggling these people choose to be homeless and not to work. Nobody wants to work, but everyone does it anyways. I mean unless they're killing/growing their own food they stay alive because of an infrastructure built up by everyone else.

Also how did FDR work on anything after office, he died in office?

 

Hey Madcapsyd,

I meant that F.D.R. provided details about his "Second Bill of Rights," soon before he left office, i.e. before he died of a cerebral hemorrhage...

Here is an important excerpt from the proposed second bill of rights that would have most likely been ratified if he had not passed when he did:


"The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation; The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;


The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;


The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;


The right of every family to a decent home;


The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;


The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;


The right to a good education.


All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens."

 

And here is a relevant quote by Mario Savio who was one of the loudest and most ethically sound voices of the early psychedelic, etc. movements of the mid to late 1960's. Here is an excerpt from a famous speech that he gave in Berkeley California in front of thousands of people and on film:

"There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part, you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, the people who own it, that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all."