Comments by "P M" (@pm2886) on "DW Documentary" channel.

You can help by raising the next generation according to current and future conditions .. instead of for conditions which no longer exist. Make sure you own a paid for family home - no matter how modest. Support your kids' education to the point they qualify for high paying degrees or solid trade apprenticeships, and allow them to live at home rent free for as long as they need to save a downpayment for their own place. Be a stable, honourable, responsible, frugal, clean-living parent .. so they have a role model for survival into the future. That's what it takes now. It's especially important for families which aren't wealthy.
8
The answer seems obvious to me. It's what I would do, without hesitation. You and your granddaughter need to move in to your mother's home (which we can assume is paid for, given she's 80). You can all be a wonderful support to each other, and at the same time dramatically increasing your security, plus dramatically reducing your cost of living.
7
We don't know if it was actually the mother, who caused the problem. More often it's the homeless person who has the issues.
5
Family is your safety net. It's the only way.
4
Where are the parents when the girl is having sex at 14? Poverty is no excuse.
4
It's FAR more disturbing that their own families won't help them. Because that's the source of the problem - right there.
4
They never tell the whole story .. and they leave out the most important part - the HOW and WHY. And yes, those are absolutely the most important part. Not all homelessness is equal.
3
@tlrcarroll Family means more than just your adult kids. You can't expect them to meet all your needs - unless you have a LOT of kids. For most of us, family means siblings, cousins, close friends, etc. All the people who'll give you the shirt off their back. Something that comes about when we're a good and dependable friend/relative to those people, for many many years. We have to earn help.
3
Society is people. That's us. We did this to ourselves. We all think we can live like islands. Don't need families, or good solid friends, or property, or any of the things that have always kept the common man safe. We think the govt will save us, so we don't take anywhere near enough care of the things that matter. Then when our own mistakes come back to bite us, we cry that govt didn't save us. News flash .. govt never was going to save you. It never will. We're all on our own when it comes to feeding and housing ourselves. If we're not super rich, we MUST have solid family - bare minimum. And the poorer we are, the more people we need around us.
3
But you have a paid for family home. Why would that be a bad thing?
2
It's not their responsibility. Housing is something you and your family need to sort out for yourselves. Working cooperatively with family is even more important if you're poor.
2
@pleasetakemecanada Yes it absolutely should be! That's what a caring society is. A society in which everyone takes care of their loved ones. A socially responsible society. It's NOT a society in which no one takes care of anyone but themselves. Look at the result of people thinking they shouldn't have to be socially responsible. Disaster!
2
"I always thought that a cloud with a silver lining would always be there when I needed it" Why did you think that, though? That's childlike thinking - magical thinking. Why would a grown adult believe such a thing?
2
@Matthew2414a No, it can't happen to anyone. Many people ensure they have enough to survive illnesses and job losses. That's the whole point, after all.
2
@Matthew2414a Nope. Born into poverty, and had to drag myself out of it as a young adult. It was a choice. Like others who don't come from wealth or inheritance, I had no option but to make sure I was financially secure. I don't have family money to support me in old age .. I had to raise that money myself .. like most people.
2
Yes, we do need to do better. In previous generations, families took care of each other. When we each make sure we can support our loved ones, AND be worthy of their support in return, far fewer people fall through the net. We once saw this as a fundamental obligation, not as an inconvenient burden. We didn't imagine we had 'options' like welfare and public housing. We knew that if we didn't take care of each other, we'd be in trouble. It was only when we abandoned these habits, that people started falling through the net in droves. The end result is thousands upon thousands of people expecting govt to take care of them. Given that that will never happen again, that expectation is disastrous.
2
That's exactly what we DON'T need. Why do you think there's a housing crisis? Way too many people living alone! There should be at least three people per kitchen and bathroom. Underutilisation of current housing stock is at plague proportions. No wonder so many are homeless! What we need is people living together in groups, so that more housing is freed up. Whether it's family or friends .. it needs to be at least three per household. Living alone is a luxury the planet - and humanity - can't afford. Hogging an entire residence to yourself, is disgraceful.
2
@betsyr4724 We al have problems. It's our responsibility to not allow those problems to be an excuse for failing to be responsible for ourselves.
2
@dudarsky No idea what you're saying here, sorry.
2
@TS-rd7oy That's part of the problem. People no longer think they need to treat each other honourably. They don't care if they lose family - because they think the govt will take care of them.
2
Nonsense. Plenty of people will never be homeless. But what you say is important. We all have live our lives in a way which prevents homelessness. And the more poor we are when we start, the more important that is. We have to plan ahead for retirement, from earliest adulthood.
2
Since you feel that way, I'm guessing that if your employer was paying you 1999 wages, even though the wage for your job had tripled since then, you'd accept it because you "wouldn't want to be greedy"? Yes? No?
2
That's the main issue for most of these people. Family failure.
2
You're absolutely right that this has been caused by the welfare state. As soon as people realised they didn't have to strive, or stay together as families to support each other, they stopped doing both. This is the end result.
2
There is no housing crisis in the First World. There's a housing 'problem' caused by too few people per dwelling. One of the BIGGEST contributors is people living alone. Far too many people demand a residence entirely to themselves. That doesn't happen outside the First World.
2
CFS is depression. It is not physiological, in any way.
1
Only if they keep ignoring all the warning signs. And those warning signs have been loud and clear for at least the last five years ... if not ten.
1
@JohanTorres-q2x The loud and clear ones - of which there have been many. I live in the same world you do, and I saw them. Lots of people saw them. Perhaps you simply chose to believe things would always stay the same? That nothing bad could happen?
1
@margaretlemmon1143 Women are no different to men. If they start planning ahead for a financially secure retirement when they're in their 20's, they'll be fine - just like men.
1
How did you 'lose' everything? I'm sorry to be so blunt .. but I'm genuinely curious. Did you not inherit your parents' home? If not, why not? Did everyone else die? What about the home you owned with your husband? Did your brother not have property you benefitted from? Where are your kids? If you don't have kids, do you not have nieces, nephews, or friends who could help you out?
1
@BrotherBobby-IN Yes, they absolutely are the cause of poverty. And the suggestion that poverty leads to anti-social habits, is utter nonsense. MUCH poorer people living in developing societies, don't turn to drugs and gambling because they're poor. Genuine poor people spend as little money as possible. Obviously. They prioritise saving money - not their pleasures and bad habits. If you can spare money to gamble or drink or whatever, you're not serious. You're either lying about your poverty - or you feel entitled to waste all your money on pleasures, and thus make a burden of yourself on others. Bother possibilities are terrible.
1
@Dylanesque Right. And we all know that. It's on us to say no. If not the first time, then definitely the second or third time.
1
@phylliselizahb1041 Buying a cheap (foreclosed) house protects you from homelessness. Are you going to shame people for doing what they need to do to prevent poverty?
1
@jacqueline8559 Exactly. It's this attitude (that we can avoid buying houses just to save someone's feelings) that is a sign of privilege.
1
No we shouldn't. We have more than enough housing. The problem isn't lack of housing. The problem is too few people per household. This is especially bad in the West. We even have millions of dwellings with only one occupant. It's insane.
1
It's basically depression. There is no physiological cause.
1
@ssuwandi3240 BINGO! These solo dwellers are the cause of the housing crisis.
1
Why are you 'estranged' from your family? Surely if you're in poverty, you can't afford to be estranged?
1
No, it can't 'happen to anyone'. That's delusional.
1
What do you mean by 'neighbourhoods'? Do you mean cheap rural towns? Because no one on a low income should be expecting to live in a big city. If you can't pay for it yourself, you can't afford it.
1
@Moiratiki I live in a place where the city has ALWAYS been expensive (it was never working class .. and 'poor' people have never lived there), and today it's more expensive than ever. Guess what .... we have PLENTY of people to do those working class jobs. I realise Americans are spoiled babies and can't stand to have to travel more than 30 minutes to work, but in my country people expect to commute into the city .. sometimes two hours each way. Everyone who isn't rich has to do that .. and plenty of rich people do too (not everyone wants to live in the city you know). Furthermore, there are plenty of new (legal) migrants who have the sense to share housing in the city (thus making it affordable), who use those minimum wage jobs to start building financial security. They don't stay in those jobs ... they're a step on the ladder. The point is that Americans have been thoroughly spoiled by a recent history of cheap city housing. Cities in other parts of the Western World have never been cheap.
1
You've highlighted the source of the problem. Families are failing each other. But it's very important to remember that sometimes (actually quite often), it's the struggling individual who's done the most failing. When your kids/grandkids/siblings/nieces/nephews etc won't do anything to help you, there's almost always a reason. The upshot is that families fail their struggling loved ones .. and struggling loved ones fail their families by being 'difficult'.
1
@reader1236 It's not about ideals - it's about survival. If every member of a family understands that they're obliged to behave themselves and pull their weight (as do members of extended families in other societies), then their personality quirks can be lived with. Tolerating differences is an essential part of being pragmatic about survival. As is subduing any tendency to 'bad behaviour' in yourself.
1
@victoriasainte9625 Go ahead. You first.
1
@jarodarmstrong509 Exactly!
1
Imagine if you admitted that nothing is stopping you from seeking housing you can afford, wherever that might be. What's affordable to you, isn't what's affordable to the next person. NO ONE is so special, that they're entitled to subsidised housing in premium locations like big cities. We all have to live where we can afford.
1
@margaretlemmon1143 Sure, the parents created the dysfunctional person .. but I guarantee that in almost every case of homelessness, the homeless person is the ongoing problem. They're often unwilling to change.
1
How did you end up in your 70's, without a property? Did you work? I ask because even just 10 years ago, you could still buy houses in country towns for less than $100k. People on minimum wage could afford that, no problem.
1