This is freaking me out (tent cities)

[TeamCheap]

Tent cities popping up around the country.

Anyone seen these near them yet ?
my wife and I cant imagine just how bad that would be but it looks very bad to us just the same.

I dont think we'll see them here because its just to damn cold right now but maybe this summer when the weather turns perfect.

If I lose my job we may be out camping/living in our trailer in about a year or so.
The scary thing is the state is appointing a financial manager for our city and we just are not sure of what they will do.

good times................fun times..................oh boy :roll:

[mrhyak]

The local city government here in the Seattle area has been allowing tent city's for a few years now and they are nothing but trouble. Everywhere they go you hear of crime, drugs, fighting, urinating in neighboring yards....all the regular things you expect from squatters.
If the city wants to allow camping in the city, they should build a campground.

[TeamCheap]

Yeah I'm sure they are nothing but trouble but these aren't just run of the mill homeless people these are poeple that have lost most everything and are out on the street.
It's going to get worse, they are saying about 2.5 million more will lose their jobs before it starts to turn around and then it will take years to recover.

Instead of camping out in various cities maybe they should all go camp on the white house lawn.

[TheRealWorld]

Hey, if I can get out of paying taxes, I might like the idea. Can I keep my bikes outside or do I need a tent for them too.

[AZ200cc]

Some folks were bums before it was the norm, But sadly some people must resort to living on the streets. Or in tents, It is bad out there. We had a job opening for a part time delivery driver...A kids job or one for old retired farts with nothing better to do. We got over 300 applicants for this piddly little postition. I felt like crap for weeks and am still grumpy over seeing these people try so hard to get a job nobody wanted a year ago. makes me happy I have what I have...even if it is not very much by most peoples standards. But it makes me feel bad that I could not help them more........Tough times.

[TeamCheap]

Originally Posted by TheRealWorld

Hey, if I can get out of paying taxes, I might like the idea. Can I keep my bikes outside or do I need a tent for them too.

Sure you can keep your bikes up until they get stolen from you maybe get a tent with an alarm in it.


The real bums dont usually live in tents they just use whatever is around.
I bet the lifer bums get mad at the temporary tent bums moving in on their turf.

I walked up on a shack in the winter while checking hydrants this guy had his stolen shopping cart backed in (just like I do my SUV) and he had a small american flag standing out front also.

I stayed away from the shack you just never know with some people but thought it looked cool but kind of sad overall.

We, like most people are hunkering in for a long bad haul.
We have been paying off some small loans and now only have 3 left(we're so happy) and I'm thinking of selling my trailblazer. (if thats even possible)

There are so many empty homes around here that trying to sell our house is next to impossible about the only thing going for us as far as selling is our house is its livable right now.

We were going to buy a house outright but decided against that because of the amount of work it needed but more so because it was to close to a flood plain.

[Universal_Diver]

I heard this on the news the other day too.

Sometimes I wonder how our country would be if we could shut down all the doom and gloom 24/7 coverage news media and do away with those in Hollywood that obviously have never had a normal life surrounded by normal people. Just for 6 months to a year.

[winwun]

There is a culture, sub-culture, whatever, that does not posess the "smarts", "initiative" or whatever you call it to function in adverse circumstances.

I am of (by my standards) "modest" means, but by the standards of homeless, or tent-dwellers, I am obscenely rich, so before you go establishing niches, you have to figure out whose yardstick you're gonna use . . .

I do know this -- if I were suddenly stripped of everything except my clothes, tonight I would sleep in a secure bed, and under a dry roof, and I would eat sufficiently and not go in debt to do any of it . . .

There is a "hard core" of "movers and shakers", persons who have built this country, and while I do not take rank with that dubious body, I do have sufficient ambition and initiative to take care of myself without whining and begging someone else to do it for me.

Am I thankful for what I have -- you betcha, and do I help the less fortunate ? ? -- yes, but with matching funds, to encourage them to do for themselves.

[TheRealWorld]

We are unfortunately headed for hard times, far worse than anyone has conceived yet. Glad to hear some of us are getting ready. This should not have happened, but now I don't believe we can stop it. I have a plan, but who will listen to me. My plan would be to achieve energy independence, by building 200 massive nuclear power plants with the stimulus money. There is far more to it, but that would have to be the start.

[TheRealWorld]

Great comments and attitude winwon! If every able bodied person had your attitude we would not be in this mess.

[winwun]

While on its face, Nuclear is clean, free, self-generating, etc, the problem is not in the finished product (the generating station), but in the managing and construction of the plant.

If it takes X dollars to build the plant, one must put up 4 or 5 X to take care of the thievery and mis-management that accompanies such projects.

Our problem is ethics, or the lack thereof.

Saying Nuclear would take care of poor persons is like saying new robes for the choir would make a perfect church -- what good is power to those who live without anything that consumes power ?

What percentage of us would benefit by cheap power (oxymoron -- cheap power) ? ? ?

[TheRealWorld]

I have to go to work, but here is what I think and I will go through this fast so for give my errors.

I have a plan that can save us from extreme depression, and it is fairly simple. It will still leave many people struggling for many years, but we can come out of this recession in better condition than we have ever been in. This assumes that we don’t end up in so much debt that we can’t recover.

We were destined to end up in a severe recession for many reasons. We have lost personal discipline, we are in serious debt, we have lost so many jobs, and we have been on a spending spree – like there was no limit.

The reason this hit now is that the price of energy tripled over a few short years. The recession was coming at some point in the relatively near future no matter what, but it hit now because high energy prices caused many of our people who were getting along before to fall into poverty. Supply and demand left us with a large supply of durable goods, yet the demand dropped because so many people were no longer participating as actively in the marketplace because they had no money left after paying for gasoline and heat.

When you study supply and demand, you learn that a slight drop in demand can make an incredible difference in the marketplace. A good example of this is our current oil price, which is down to under $45 a barrel. By having so many people forced to spend all of their discretionary money on energy, we took enough money out of the market place to cause the economy to slow. We have heard that many businesses work all year to end up only making a profit in the month of December. In other words, 11/12ths of the year they work to break even, and then they finally make a profit in the 12th month.

The solution to the problem is to stimulate the economy with two things – the Fair Tax and energy independence. We need to get Congress to pass the Fair Tax; we owe it to our children to adopt it. This is a very complex subject, but the idea is simple. The need for the IRS and complicated annual tax forms would be eliminated. Instead of paying income tax, everyone would have a larger take-home pay. The Fair Tax would be a national sales tax on most purchases – the system to collect sales taxes is already in place, and this would mean that more people, such as illegal immigrants or those involved in the drug economy, would end up paying taxes. Furthermore, each taxpayer would get a check every month reimbursing them for a set amount of tax money, the purpose of which would be to allow everyone to not have to pay any taxes on necessities.

Energy independence is the big part of this solution. To obtain energy independence, we must invest in nuclear power. Nuclear power is the safest power source ever developed. It is also the only source that we can count on to give us independence. This will give us the only reasonable method of controlling greenhouse gases.

We need to take the stimulus money and build 200 massive nuclear plants, and have them up and running in ten years. We must do it safely and intelligently, and leave out all of the bureaucratic regulation that has tied our hands in the past. This is a must if we are going to survive as a sovereign nation.

Now here comes the real solution for our independence. We need to start heating our water with solar energy and nuclear generated electricity. We need to start heating our homes directly or indirectly with electricity. We must use excess electricity available at night to harness hydrogen. Hydrogen, along with compressed natural gas, can and will power most of our new cars. We have incredible amounts of natural gas but we are wasting it by inefficiently burning it to heat houses and water.
We will also need to build new power distribution lines, a good stimulus project, and very necessary Imagine the stimulus to the economy, when we are all driving ultra low emission cars for a fraction of the cost of today’s fuel cost. We will heat our houses and water for considerably less than today’s cost. Just the demand for the new cars will give us an incredible amount of jobs and new industry. We will have brought greenhouse gas levels down to a fraction of where they are today. Building the nuclear plants will be expensive, but it will also put many people to work, and in the long run, it will pay incredible dividends.

This plan will work. It is time to make it happen. The choices we make today will affect future generations, whether they live in poverty or whether they have the same opportunities that you and I have had. Please help make this happen by speaking out and being politically active; we owe it to our children and grandchildren.

I intend to see if I can get this published through ou the country, it makes sense tome.

[Universal_Diver]

I refuse to get political on here since I dont want to get so mad I cant come back to this board, but let me just say I think it was a lot more than just oil prices and individual spending that got us to this mess, which IMHO is not really as bad as they want us to believe it is.

That said, RealWorld all I can say is Amen on the "FairTax" and nuclear power.

[winwun]

I most definetly support a national sales tax (NST), PROVIDED it is accompanied by a reduction in bureaucracy.

The NST would take care of those who now pay little or no tax, but most importantly, a person would be taxed on what they consume, NOT what they earn, a much fairer method, IMO.

If a person earns a million and lives like a street person, then they should pay taxes like a street person.

[Universal_Diver]

Originally Posted by winwun

If a person earns a million and lives like a street person, then they should pay taxes like a street person.

Why is it so hard for people to accept/understand that simple concept ?