Lauchs

Hey, playing chess is absolutely productive!

I've read Bulk Barn sources mostly Canadian stuff.

Absolutely! And in fact, pretty good time to do so. A lot of ppl are transitioning from school to work at your age, so finding new interesting friends etc.

That being said, making and nurturing friends is work and you may be a bit out of practice. No worries, just be ready to feel a bit out of your depth or nervous at times, knowing is half the battle. Plus, I think your cohort/age group are way more open with talking about enotional intelligence and friendship and the awkwardness of making new friends, which is super helpful.

Fair, I could have been more precise in my wording. But from context, I think it's pretty clear I'm talking about what is more accurately called social or subsidized housing. (Low income is just anywhere poor.)

And the point is that subsidized housing for the most destitute comes with huge costs. Not being able to admit and somehow confront these costs is a serious issue that makes it all the harder.

I think about my buddy, a good progressive, lived here for decades. Kind of neighbourhood where we're proud of our supervised on street harm reduction unit. But no one wants to raise their kid somewhere where, upon getting to the playground, your toddler has to wait while daddy frantically checks the playground for needles and other paraphanalia.

I don't have an answer and we need solutions but at the same, ignoring reality endears us to no one. If you're right about affordable housing alleviating the need for subsidized housing, then whatever makes it easiest to make more affordable housing is crucial. Maybe we get more neighbourhoods on board with more affordable and less subsidized housing offers? Though that seems cruel to those who need it... Hence the whole dilemma...

I love the encouragement and positivity!

Percentage wise, buddy with the late pull downs is KILLING it. That's a 30% increase! If I could up anything 30% at the gym, I'd be in hysterics! (One of the nice things about starting at the gym is those wild gains at first, watch how fast you're stacking 45s on the squat rack!)

Selfishly, I'm kind of stoked people are gone. Congrats to those who stayed but having so much of the pool and gym back... So nice.

Outside of America, I don't think a lot of things come with a made in America sticker and brands are a little tricky.

If that's rhe best there is, sure. But especially for digital services some sort of community would be useful. Think non American game studios, browser alternatives (I guess duck duck go might be a decent option?) etc. Heck, even publishing companies etc.

The more of the world that's able to hit back the better off we all are.

Sounds like a great opportunity to seek out some therapy and/or career counse.

It's likely free or available through an organization in your area, if you share a region I'll happily find you some resources.

I don’t know the answer either, but I think making a judgement that all low income housing attracts only people struggling with drug addiction or mental health is not quite right either.

Oh you're absolutely right. But the ones that stand out in people's heads are the ones that are incredibly visible. There's a recovery house down my block, almost no one would know it exists if someone didn't tell you. BUT that also means that the people who are concerned about these places probably don't know or think of those ones.

Heck, a senior citizen I know lives in what would be a really nice socially supported building but, it is on arguably the worst street in Canada. You wouldn't know from the interior (or the exterior if you couldn't see the street) or most of her neighbours that I've met but she's also been in the hospital after being assaulted for her purse.

I think that's part of the hard part with socially supportive housing, if we can't or don't have the means to differentiate between the ones that are likely to bring serious issues and the ones that are going to be unobtrusive, the default position for most people will be fear and suspicion. Not that that's a solution but that's where the issue is.

Ehhhhhhhhh. The things that people notice as getting worse (climate change, political polarization, erosion of democratic norms) are indeed getting worse.

That being said, the lives of billions of the most poor among us are indeed getting, on average, better by almost every conceivable metric.

Even just a casual look into it and you are absolutely right! I'll be trying to set it up sometime tomorrow I expect, thanks!

Thanks! I go back and forth on UBI... If nothing were to change and you could direct it entirely to the homeless etc, probably the easiest policy answer in a strictly "solving this problem" sense.

But, the second order effects are what kind of throws me. I've known a good number of stoner/harder slackers. I wonder how many people scrubbing toilets and floors or dealing with psychos late night at McDonalds wouldn't swap their job for a guaranteed $25K a year (or whatever it ended up being for basic necessities, noteworthy most studies only look at giving a small amount of money, 1K etc.) And we'll ignore any inflationary pressures at the bottom end of the market) I think of my buddy from high school who is still bagging groceries, living in his parents basement essentially waiting for them to die and then he'll inherit the house. Breaks my heart to watch but he'd be on that 25K in a heart beat. I can't imagine he's alone. So, at that point you either have to drastically increase the wage for almost every job (or suffer wage compression, which the middle class tends to hate) and eat a bunch of inflation.

I don't know what the answer is, I just know that UBI is one of those ones where I have difficulty seeing it being implemented and more difficulty not seeing it spiral into absolute sketch town.