🚀 go-pugleaf

darrow@oneillaw.com (O'Neill) writes:

> 95 percent of the homeless are not homeless because they're poor,
> but because they're insane.  Under our constitution, we cannot
> institutionalize them against their will, because that's a
> deprivation of their liberty.

If they are insane, they can of course be institutionalized in order
to protect them and possibly others from harm.

> For the most part, your scenario is not true.  To the extent anybody
> lives in cardboard boxes, it is for reasons other than the absence of
> governmental assistance.  Shelter is always available to families, and
> in most cities even to a single unemployed male.

What if you are an unemployed male not living in "most cities"?  How
is the guarantee for shelter assured for families?

> The rules on this vary from state to state, and most states now have
> some limitations.  But food and shelter are always available, no
> questions asked.  Some are sponsored by private agencies, some by
> government.

If they were "always available", where does the necessity for private
sponsorship arise?  It seems that such availability is not quite
guaranteed by the state.

> Cash payments are usually limited in time, at least for
> single, unemployed males, and it makes sense that they would be.

Of course.  If they don't manage an employment in due time, there is
plenty of opportunity for begging, robbing and mugging.  These
occupations are better left to the single, unemployed male, as he fits
in better with the stereotypes tourists and residents have come to
expect, and the risks in connection with the job are not something for
family men.

> You might not get the $10 per day if you're a single, unemployed
> male.  But if you get the food and shelter, what is the $10 for?
> Pinball arcades?  Sure there's clothing, but I don't spend that much
> on my own clothing.

If your clothing had to keep you warm and dry in all weathers
outdoors, you might.  Still, many homeless prefer to use innerly
applied alcohol for heating purposes.

And even $10 per day is not much if that's all you have to depend on
while starting to develop GNOME and/or KDE applications.  Which is
what the thread is about.

-- 
David Kastrup                                     Phone: +49-234-700-5570
Email: dak@neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de       Fax: +49-234-709-4209
Institut f�r Neuroinformatik, Universit�tsstr. 150, 44780 Bochum, Germany