politics
methieu:
Please don't misstate my views. I don't believe economic
freedom automatically leads to personal freedom. I merely
disagree that you can have personal freedom without economic
freedom, which is a very different statement. And I believe
it's true; I don't think it's a tenable position to say "you
are free to do what you choose, unless it involves money";
many human activities involve exchange of some sort, and
it's very hard to find any action that's 100% non-economic.
I explained this to you over dinner the other night, so I
don't think you have any excuse for misrepresenting me.
As far as the homeless people on the streets of San
Francisco go, I do not feel sorry for them. I see a lot of
young, healthy homeless kids, sitting on the street, wearing
exspensive leather jackets, and with fancy haircuts. These
people are not suffering oppression. They are homeless by
choice.
I realize many homeless people are mentally ill or have
problems with substance abuse, but San Francisco provides a
lot of resources to the homeless that these people just
aren't taking advantage of. The city will pay for homeless
people to stay in residential hotels when the shelters are
full. There are volunteer agencies that will give you an
address and a phone number with voice mail for getting a
job.
The fact is that many of these people like their lifestle.
If they took the effort they put into begging into getting a
job, they'd have no problems at all, given the SF job
market.
Finally, being homeless in San Francisco is a pretty good
deal to being what passes for middle class in many
countries.
So basically, I do not feel sorry for them at all, they made
their life choices, I've made mine, I do not owe them.
