Obviously some homeless are that way because of economic conditions. But I'd say overwhelmingly they are drug addicts or schizos.
Anyone that lives in SF or to a lesser extent NYC knows what I'm talking about. They're in the corridors of the BART station shooting up heroin in a puddle of piss, they're masturbating on street corners, flinging poop at people, hurling obscenities at passerbys that don't give them money.
Now those type of guys will refuse treatment, and even if you gave them a home to live in, they would refuse that or use it as a drug den. How can these people fit in a society where as Lenin put it "He who does not work shall not eat". Would they be forcibly rehabilitated? In my city at least, the liberals in charge are absolutely pussyfooting around the issue, or worse add on to it by providing "shoot-up free zones" and free needles (which understandably is good for public health, but attracts more of them)
It seems like a very difficult problem, and I know some leftists are on the complete opposite side and see no problem with this and would prefer to legalize ALL drugs and have no restrictions on public usage. I'm no policy expert but that sounds like a terrible idea.
Once socialism is established people won't suffer from mental illness or addiction anymore.
Brayden Brown
Yeah, because people become drug addicts or schizos just for fun. They choose this lifestyle simply for the lulz, not because they are poor and desperate, while society rejects and despises them. XDDD
Evan Morris
Are you being purposely dense? In the case of drug addiction it always starts as something benign, like taking pain killers after an injury and becoming addicted.
I never implied that mental illness is a choice, only asked how it is to be dealt with.
America is not a good example because the American empire will never take care of its mentally ill, it goes against the American ideals of individualism, free will, "pull yourself up by your bootstraps", psychology-exists-in-a-vacuum Jordan Petersonism, etc. There has to be an economic depression, a revolution and massive cultural revolution even more thorough than the one attempted in China which failed because Mao died too soon for it to be possible in the US.
Grayson Howard
ok if they only use it for a while in order to drop all drugs forever i guess it's fine
William James
We wouldn't need to, drug use is heavily correlated to wealth inequality You know like most bad things in the world are lol
To use a somewhat relevant real world example, the amount of prostitutes in the USSR had dropped 90% by 1928. Keep in mind that in 1928 they were barely getting things on track again (in the 1930s is when they really started making huge gains in industrialization and literacy) yet you still see this flight from prostitution just by giving women the option to do other work and/or go to school. And once this reduction had been achieved, they actually banned it. So 90% is give or take (keep in mind imperfect conditions) the amount of natural rehabilitation that occurs just by giving people better options. Fixing housing, educational, labor, healthcare etc. problems on a macro scale would net great gains, leaving just a handful of people who are really broken too much and require more hands-on outreach. There definitely are homeless people who would reject jobs, education and housing offered to them under socialism and would thus have to be forced to re-integrate but I don't see it as a huge problem.
Jason Walker
I imagine that nowadays the workers will leave something aside for those who refuse to work. Basic food and shelter can't be too difficult to arrange. They wouldn't get any luxuries or agency over what they're provided, but they'd be kept alive. Their living standards could be expanded as production improves.
This is good and we should do it under socialism as well. Also provide them with unconditional free shelter. It would be difficult to keep crime low in such places, but having these people collected in a place we control makes pushing them towards further help infinitely easier.
Landon Russell
Hospital Rehabilitation program, then work camp if necessary
Logan Rivera
Abolish illegality
Connor Stewart
Most drug users are not dependant even less so addicted. Casual and recreational drug use is widespread among all sects of society. But drug abuse is overall prevalent among people with low living standards as some anons have pointed out. Inside an established socialist society i advocate for overall legalization with a few exceptions like crack and other bottom of the barrel drugs with shitty trips.
Ethan Johnson
t.ancap
Nathan Wilson
I like 's post.
I think broader reforms would improve things a great deal - those who can be housed should have housing available, and it should be good housing and there should be work available for them, too.
I only believe in forced rehab if an individual goes far enough - just-violent-enough behavior like throwing feces would probably qualify. Although I'm skeptical of how much these extreme individuals (provided they're not just on lotsa drugs) could be helped.
