Homelessness grows as more live check-to-check

USA Today ^ | 8/12/03 | Stephanie Armour

[Gothmog]

Homelessness in major cities is escalating as more laid-off workers already living paycheck-to-paycheck wind up on the streets or in shelters.

As Americans file for bankruptcy in record numbers and credit card debt explodes, more workers are a paycheck away from losing their homes. Now the frail economy is pushing them over the edge. With 9 million unemployed workers in July, the face of homelessness is changing to include more families shaken by joblessness.

[Reagan is King]

Sounds like what I used to read in the 1980s and early 19902. Then, magically, poof! No more mentions of homelessness until the last couple of years. Now, why could that be?

Btw, any fool who claims that homelessness just suddenly ends during Democrat administrations and resumes under Republican ones clearly has never spent any time in San Francisco.

100% correct. Does anybody remember the endless shows on homelessness on Nightline and the nightly network news during the Bush Sr. run against Clinton? The problem disappeared overnight after Clinton won and the word "homeless" wasn't spoken on the networks for 8 more years.

[Tokhtamish]

The economy has been in such freefall that it only takes a steady pulse before people are yelling "recovery !"

Recovery means a sizeable dent in unemployment. The guy in the street understands that. Recovery is when he gets a job or his unemployed friends and relatives get jobs. That isn't even in sight.

A decline in filings for unemployment is nothing to crow about.

[autoresponder]

Clinton had unemployment % rates of 7%.

They also "cooked the books" by changing "reporting methods" to get it lower then during Bush #41.

I don't believe you can get any hard true #s on the actual amount of people unemployed during Clinton's administration.

Slick's % rates are probably too low also.

GW's %s are about 6.4% or so and dropping; any corrections on that?

Also GW's # of unemployed is probably more accurate also.

Don't forget, the Clintonistas also messed with the #s on the GNP and unemployment rates after the 1998 stock market bubble burst to make Slick last term and his "It's The Economy Stupid" legacy maintain and even grow.

They also did it to put alg into the WH in 2000 using cooked GNP and unemployment % rates.

Clinton WH staffers said often #s were just made up to sound good.

There is no doubt many jobs are going overseas, but illegal aliens in the USA doubled under Clinton and he let all the Visa foreign worker and student programs explode in the USA; he also pushed outsourcing abroad too.

Hard to put toothpaste back in the tube.

Ah-Noldt will find the Aunti Gunns in CA chased many firearms dealers and gun owners out of CA into NV, NM, AZ, WY, etc.

Also many other CA businesses that quit fighting CA energy costs, higher taxes, and hidden fees to cover up for Gray Davis and his love affair with spending CA taxpayer's $s on illegal aliens, foreign college students, and/or welfare scammers.

[samuel_adams_us]

I am upset that the president's way of dealing with the unemployment problem in the United States is to stick his head in the sand. His father did the same thing, guess what, his father wasn't re-elected either.

[Alberta's Child]

You're right. It is called the burdened rate.

And I'm telling you that right now this burdened rate is too damned high no matter how little I would be willing pay someone. So all work that I generate will be contracted out to someone else who is willing to deal with all that bullsh!t.

[samuel_adams_us]

Good luck!

[Tokhtamish]

A soaring economy tends to make a sizeable dent in a homeless problem, now doesn't it ?

When you are exporting skilled, high paying jobs there are consequences. Is that so hard to understand ?

[Conservative til I die]

OK, so you were there, and you can't figure out the difference between 100 and 4000 people????

Here, here's a comparison in the same ratio:

100 people
1111

4000 people
111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111

Can you tell the difference now?????

[samuel_adams_us]

Wow, you are so smart, next time I will take you with me to count, will even pay your way.

[Alberta's Child]

These are jsut some of the reasons that GWB had better get to work to take this issue away from the Democrats . . .

The problem here is that there is no issue to take away from the Democrats -- none of the Democratic front-runners is going to change this country's visa, immigration, and tariff policies.

What you are saying is that GWB had better get to work to take this issue away from Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader -- the only two people who have campaigned on it in the past. I would point out to you that these two combined for about 4% of the popular vote in 2000.

[willieroe]

I am upset that the president's way of dealing with the unemployment problem in the United States is to stick his head in the sand. His father did the same thing, guess what, his father wasn't re-elected either.

Well, mercy, you just gave $2000 to the Bush campaign last night, supposedly. You must not be that upset....

[samuel_adams_us]

In hopes he will listen, that 2k didn't come without some questions.

[Tokhtamish]

Really ?

Hey, I remember the 90's. I was there, you know ? Back in the days when the want ads were as thick as a blanket ? So were lots of people who were making more money than they had ever made before.

Now, none of those people are making what they were then. Many who had to hide from headhunters in 1998 have been out of work for months, longer than ever.

So trying to pretend that 1996 was really like 2002 but with the statistics fudged is ridiculous.

[Conservative til I die]

Maybe your friend needs to get some training or find a new strategy.

I had to attend an unemployment orientation yesterday. Total waste of time and city/state funds, but I saw a lady there, maybe 50-something who said she's never been unemployed in 30 years, and says her main problem is that no one will hire her because she has exactly zero computer skills. Now, in this day and age, I find it highly strange that this woman, who worked in a clerical position, has never used computers before. She then went on asking if and how the state will pay for her computer training. She then complained that private classes will not start until October and wanted the Dep't of Labor to somehow improve on that.

So it seems on one hand, this lady is starting to get the message the HARD WAY that it's up to her to improve her skills and certification and make herself more attractive to employers, but at the same time, still thinks it's Mommy Gov'ts job to help her along the way.

The Invisible Hand has a real nice way of smacking you on the ass to let you know it's in your own interests to help yourself and try something different when the same old same old isn't working.

[Conservative til I die]

Homelessness like this, child, has not been a problem for decades. It has gotten to be a major problem in the past three years as manufacturing has collapsed due to "free trade" policies

I hate to sound cold, but then those people who have become unemployed need to find other industries where their labor will be better allocated, for their own good and society's.

I know you're making an emotional play talking about blue collar manufacturing folk (I'm picturing a John Mellencamp video in my head as I type this, "Little Pink Houses" maybe?) but I look at the example of all those programmers being hired for huge money at the dotcom's about 3 or 4 years ago. Guess what, now that the dotcom industry basically collapsed, or more accurately, corrected itself by stripping itself to the bare necessitites (the one that laid me off 2.5 years ago actually turned an operating profit this quarter, after slashing jobs from about 170 to 20 and making their software install more automated) a lot of these programmers are either unemployed or having to take lower salaries. What's the answer? To bitch and whine? To call on President Bush to protect or subsidize (like the farmers) their jobs? Ooooooooooor, to get certification and traiing in some other type of software programming?

[new cruelty]

BTW, I hope bush can attract more than 350 people to his next benefits, otherwise it sure is going to get lonely out there for him.

Per the Denver Post, the event was attended by 375 people each donating $2,000.00.

In addition, more than 100 more donors contributed to the event but didn't show up for the reception.

The Post reported that dozens (more than 24?) of other would-be donors tried to attend but were turned away Monday morning because security agents didn't have time to do background checks.

Bush's campaign headquarters phoned former state GOP chairman Bruce Benson in June asking him to prepare for Monday's fundraiser.

Benson was quoted as saying, "They said we want to raise $1 million. We frankly didn't think we'd get that high. But things came together and we beat it".

The Posts goes on to add that the money raised Monday comes in addition to about $150,000 raised so far in Colorado, and to the $40 million Bush already has amassed for his re-election.

BTW, I hope bush can attract more than 350 people to his next benefits, otherwise it sure is going to get lonely out there for him.

[samuel_adams_us]

Wow!

[triplejake]

The first Postmaster General of the US was Ben Franklin. If I was his great-great-great-great-grandkid, it is pretty hard to imagine that Postmaster General would be what I would remember him for.

[Conservative til I die]

What do you want him to do? You seem to know the answer. Tell us. Tell us how the President is supposed to turn the whole economy around and get around 5 million people employed immediately. Do you have CLUE #1 about how an economy works?????? Please, do us the favor and *you* stick your head in the sand.

[dfwgator]

I understand what you're saying, but the way I see it that any job that can be done by computer (which implies it can be done from home) can also be done from overseas much more cheaply. Thus, would it really matter now if she went out and did gain those computer skills?