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#76 2018-02-11 22:56:53

RobertDyck
Moderator
From: Winnipeg, Canada
Registered: 2002-08-20
Posts: 7,928
Website

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

Terraformer wrote:

America needs to strike down zoning. Build traditional cities, connected by rail, and housing and transportation costs will plummet.

What is a "traditional city"? Here in Winnipeg, we have houses. I live in Winnipeg, a city built in the prairies. It started with homesteads out in the middle of nowhere. Here, independent houses are traditional. Two hundred years ago, houses were smaller. Just when I grew up, houses were smaller. I live in a lower income neighbourhood, not the lowest in the city, but certainly not new. New houses are much bigger, built on tiny plots of land. When I lived in Toronto in the late 1980s, "monster homes" had started. Now they're here in Winnipeg too. According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, average house price here is now $293,856! yikes When I bought my house it cost $46,500 (Canadian dollars). One neighbour laughed at me; she said the previous owner paid $36,000, and the owner before that $24,000. But the assessed value for property tax is $113,000! And I described what it is. News claims this city still is among the lowest housing prices for the country, but what?! That's low?

Vancouver has the highest housing prices in Canada. Many people are converting their detached garage into a laneway house. That's a small detached house where the garage would normally go. Zoning in Vancouver permits it.

You can build a laneway house on any lot 32 feet or wider in any RS single family zone.

Terraformer wrote:

Also, Americans need to relearn the virtue of restraint. There is no valid reason for consumer debt to be so high, not with the median income what it is.

Um, yea. When I lived in Miami, Florida, I took a certification course in Fort Lauderdale. Others taking the course scoffed at me for driving a muscle car. They claimed "everyone" now drives an SUV. Conspicuous consumption as status symbol. You have to have more to just be socially accepted.

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#77 2018-02-11 23:00:42

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 7,777

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

While the suffering of the weak is an important issue to consider, I don't see any evidence yet of a major collapse.

The stock market was just going up too fast, reality had to stop by.

One factor that I have run across is that bonds are beginning to offer more, and so the stock market suffers.

Some theories (From wild theory places) indicate that there may be an effort to sour the economy to make Trump look bad, since they have not been able to otherwise knock him down.  Don't know.

In terms of relative economics, four economic entities could be mentioned.  China, Foreign Oil Producers, the USA/NA, Europe.

Of these the USA/NA would seem to have the upper hand on a planetary basis.  China is running an export Ponzi-loan scheme.
Oil Producers have USA Shale production against them.  Europe is supposedly a mess.  Italy for instance according to Peter Zeihan has proportionally 80 times the amount of non-preforming loans as did the USA at the beginning of the "Great Recession".

The USA/Mexico are reshoring jobs in a big way.  In quite a large part because Mexican labor is higher quality to China labor at a lower price, and because USA natural gas is being routed to Mexico.  Unfortunately we seem to be at a probable point of friction between the USA and Mexico.  I was expecting it.  Here it is.  But maybe even with that the partnership can work in a weird way.

The point is capitol is exiting places like China and perhaps Europe, and coming here, also to places like Australia, N.Z., Canada, possibly UK.

The world is very possibly going down, but not so much us.  So, in relative terms, our poor have better chances than poor in some other places.

Last edited by Void (2018-02-11 23:13:51)


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#78 2018-02-11 23:24:54

RobertDyck
Moderator
From: Winnipeg, Canada
Registered: 2002-08-20
Posts: 7,928
Website

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

Southern Ontario does an inter-city commuter train system. Some people do use it go get to work. However, southern Ontario is not like most of Canada, it's densely packed similar to New England. In Canada, CP rail and CN rail both sold their passenger rail service to a new company. VIA rail is now the only long distance passenger rail. Price costs about as much as an airline ticket, but train takes much longer. Winnipeg is a big beautiful city surrounded by miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles. The nearest city with a population over half a million is Minneapolis, MN. That's an 8 hour drive one-way. And that's without delays at the border. The closest city that size within Canada is Calgary, 14 hour drive. So we fly.

I have driven straight from Winnipeg to Toronto, it was 23 hours with a muscle car when I was in my 20s and able to drive all night. Highway 17 north of Lake Superior is undivided, one lane each way, twisty up-and-down through rocky terrain. Visualize a rock cut, around solid rock with a sheer drop if you drive over the edge, no street lights, with 18-wheel trucks driving 120 km/h (75 mph) the other direction. Could you drive that at 120 km/h with posted speed limit of 90 km/h (55 mph)? I could then, don't think I could now. When I returned from Toronto to Winnipeg, I drove a 3-ton moving truck; U-Haul brand. It was intended for one-way trips, it barely had enough km on the odometer to get from the factory to the rental place. I took it on its first trip. It had a governor which restricted it to 90 km/h. Took me 28 hours to get home.
system_map-900x695.jpg
Checking fares: Winnipeg to Toronto round-trip, booked 2 weeks in advance, cheapest class, including taxes. VIA rail $445, Westjet $318.

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#79 2018-02-13 19:28:37

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

Bill and Melinda Gates, the world’s foremost philanthropists, are rethinking their work in America as they confront their unsatisfactory track record on schools, the country's growing inequity and a president they disagree with more than any other. Bill and Melinda Gates describe how they argue, why they stay optimistic about the world even when you see that they are a couple of 25 years and not afraid to tackle the hard topics at home with each other either.

Bill and Melinda Gates: Trump budget could lead to millions of global deaths

Bill, Melinda Gates turn focus to U.S. inequity, question Trump's worldview

couple said they're concerned about President Donald Trump's "America first" worldview. They've made known their differences with the president and his party on issues including foreign aid, taxes and protections for immigrant youth in the country illegally.

And they said they're now digging into the layers of U.S. poverty that they haven't been deeply involved with at the national level, including employment, race, housing, mental health, incarceration and substance abuse.

"We are not seeing the mobility out of poverty in the same way in the United States as it used to exist,"

The Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation employs more than 1,400 people and has distributed $41.3 billion in grants since its inception in 2000, according to its website.

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#80 2018-02-17 02:42:42

kbd512
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Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,826

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

Billy's stock dividends won't be affected if some farm boy working in a Cobalt mine in Africa to make solar panels or nuclear materials for one of his business ideas dies from malnutrition or disease.  He's never lived in a place with a window, thus has no pressing need to buy the latest version of Microsoft's Windows software for a computer he'll never own because his mother is burning what their last meal became to cook their next one.  If they think they know better than everyone else how our money should be spent, then perhaps they should run for office.  It's always a simple matter to heckle from the VIP Box.  The man in the arena has an entirely different task set before him.

They can question President Trump's worldview all they like.  I question the Gates' worldview, given some of his statements.  It is not the taxpayer's job to cater to every desire on the part of other people to spend their hard earned money on every pet cause known to man.  It's not their job to coddle illegal aliens or their offspring, either.

The President's job, first and foremost, is to do what is in the best interests of all of his people.  Since he's President of the United States of America, not the whole world, "his people" would mean the American people.  I know former President Obama and the rest of his fellow regressives are stuck on their "citizen of the world" nonsense, but the rest of us aren't.  It is not in America's best interest to spend our money on other people without result.  Places like Africa and the Middle East have been poor for generations, they'll be poor long after America is but a memory, and there's not a damn thing that you, me, President Trump, or Bill and Melinda Gates are going to do to fundamentally change that until their cultural and societal problems have been adequately addressed by the people who live there.

Regressives will always complain about what President Trump does or doesn't do, no matter what he does or doesn't do.  They're spoiled children who can't accept that they don't always get their way.  Some people never really grow up and that perfectly describes the mentality of every regressive I've ever met.  It's like all these supposedly "smart" people can't figure out that not everyone on the planet shares their view of how the world should work.  It must be crazy to live in a world where everyone else's ideas don't match your own.

The solution is always education, but we never even started that process in what is purported to be the most advanced country on the planet.  Government bureaucracy neither teaches people to think for themselves nor does it do anything to encourage the same.  It can't because its very livelihood depends upon having a general populace that is weak, ignorant, and co-dependent on government from the cradle to the grave so it can "control" them.  Raising a child is not a "village affair".  It takes two committed partners doing the best they possibly can with what they have and what they know.  How could that process flourish when half the people both in this country and on the rest of the planet are busy worshipping sky wizards and the other half are busy worshipping government?

Any time a bunch of evil dimwits get together, no matter how much window dressing is applied to the occasion, the result will nearly always be evil and stupid.  If that's not exactly what happens, then you can be sure it's a freak accident.  Evil dimwit get-togethers, aka government, aka religion, aka nearly every "ism" known to man, are not things to rely on to achieve a better result for humanity.  Humanity achieves better results in spite of those obstacles.  Humans everywhere need to end total dependence on other people to fix their problems.  When you fix your own problems, real learning begins and the end result is nearly always better.

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#81 2018-03-02 18:43:56

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

EDIT: This as how bad it is could be called "SpaceNut's calamity" much like the one by Clark for Mars but at the point where earth is different from Mars we depart after the assessment of do we have oxygen on mars as earth has that redundancy that mars does not. After that we would be in the same struggles to survive.

So when we go to school and graduate you would think that we as americans would be capable of housing with all the necessities for a good life but its would seem that school left it up to the parent or parents to teach a lesson while they worked....

Joshua Tree couple arrested on cruelty charges after kids found living in filthy shack

https://twitter.com/morongobasinstn/sta … 92/photo/1

Large images:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/nixle/uploads/p … 111-media1

http://s3.amazonaws.com/nixle/uploads/p … 112-media2

Looks like they lost there home from everything that is around the shelter....

During the investigation, deputies learned the three victims have lived in the large rectangular box, (approximately 20 feet long by 4 feet high by 10 ft wide) for approximately four years.

"His family,  they lived not too far from here and they lost their house. So he bought that lot and bought that trailers and moved up. There were living there, and his goal was to build his dream house," Reynolds said. While the property didn't have running water or electricity, Reynolds doesn't see that as a crime.

"We're in the desert. People come up here to get away from it all. People come up here to live off of the grid," Reynolds said.

He also said that the children looked healthy and safe. He said his neighbor might have been poor, but he wasn't a criminal.

"There's people out there in the gutters raising their kids in less environment, in cardboard boxes and having to go to the bathroom in the gutters and they don't get arrested. They need help but they're not getting arrested." Reynolds said. "My goodness, he's living on his own property."

The bell curve is against a family when we are young and when we are approaching retirement age as we see. The amount of income while we can survive within it with the second income still working it does not once that second income is not available. You will fall on hardship.

So trying to live within the financial means over a 4 year duration is now a crime, when the agencies will not help??? Yes its a hard life when you can not provide for anything beyond the shelter and some food. To which it appears that they started out in the camper before building what they could out of scrap...with many of the things they have being ruined by the weather over time. They probably also started with a car or truck as well until it became unrepairable.

It also seems that there respective age is also a factor for what they can do as well...
So you would think that if they have any money they could have done a bit better on the property to get electricity or water.

Not sure of the vehicles ability to move but for a bit this could have been a power source so long as they could afford to buy the gas to be able to run it. Even the solar powered lawn lights would be a plus from a dollar store to start for inside lighting. With each passing days morning brining them outside to charge and back in once the sun goes down.

It looks like water was not on the site for use meaning that bottled water would have been used for a period of time as well. To which if you use a catch barrel come to mind with all the totes for rain water collection but they need to build something better to keep it clean once gotten. They could pump the water into the empty gallon bottles and use the single serve to take with them.

So how were they preparing food for the daily meals let along clean dishes to cook and eat it out of? Sure while the camper was useable they could have been using a propane stove to cook on but that is until they could not afford the fuel. Once they can not cook and keep food cold the amount of money for food needs goes up.

It was said that fece was all over the place which means a pit with a small outhouse should have been built unless this is from the cats or other animals. Which makes for any animals going to mars that are not for food to be neutered a must.

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#82 2018-03-08 21:24:34

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

Tent cities are not the way to house the homeless but Igloos provide shelter for homeless population in France

Quick set up shelter:
france-homeless-igloo-02-abc-jrl-180307_21x13_992.jpg

france-homeless-igloo-04-abc-jrl-180307_4x3_992.jpg

Geoffroy de Reynal, a French engineer, designed his igloo-like shelters from Polyethylene foam, a material that can retain body heat. The shelters are covered in aluminum foil and “the temperatures inside the igloos are about 60 degrees Fahrenheit higher than outside. And it is also waterproof,

This would mean that the homeless person during the winter would be in better health than being out in the cold.

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#83 2018-03-09 08:41:00

Palomar7
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2017-12-20
Posts: 81

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

The word "Democrats" come to mind (thanks to Latino husband and Latino in-laws, who woke me up).

I'm registered Independent, if anyone's wondering.


Original registration - May 2002

[i]I want that Million Year Picnic on Mars[/i]

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#84 2018-03-09 09:51:36

clark
Member
Registered: 2001-09-20
Posts: 6,374

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

First world countries have a poor appreciation of actual abject poverty. It is a thankful ignorance to have.

Altruism and morality aside, those that "have" get two choices: (1) a percentage of their resources are used to establish a power structure that protects them from the "have nots", or (2) a percentage of their resources are used to establish institutions and processes that help to diminish desperation in the "have nots"

This is why you are better off as an individual helping your neighbor in a time of need, because desperate people do desperate things. So your alternative is rather terminal for one of you.

Geo-politics aside, most people are not against helping others, they are against helping by degree, by method, or by priority. In essence, we quibble.

As to why do we have poverty in America? Because the majority of Americans choose to not involve themselves in solving this particular problem. Poverty is not so significant yet to impact a critical mass of people and their day to day lives.

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#85 2018-03-09 11:21:32

RobertDyck
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From: Winnipeg, Canada
Registered: 2002-08-20
Posts: 7,928
Website

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

In post #4 of this thread I asked "what is poverty"? There will always be unemployed. Social security is supposed to cover periods between jobs. If you want more, then what do you think of "basic minimum income"? Justification is it replaces social security, welfare, food stamps (or whatever America has now), and any other social program. Total cost is supposed to be lower.

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#86 2018-03-09 11:58:18

clark
Member
Registered: 2001-09-20
Posts: 6,374

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

"What is poverty?" is a subjective question, and is contextual based on the frame of reference.

What is called poverty in America is not what poverty is in other areas of the world. There is poverty of health and healthcare, poverty of food, poverty of choice, poverty of education, poverty of opportunity, poverty of freedom, poverty of housing. Which elements or combination define "poverty" in the global sense?

No one can say definitively, so we quibble.

As for social programs like welfare or food stamps or social security, etc. see my item (2) above. These are designed to lessen desperation and thereby increase social stability. A basic minimum income is just a different methodology for attempting to solve the same problem, no better or worse than the current forms out there.

Most see it as an unearned entitlement that negatively rewards anti-productive behaviors.

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#87 2018-03-09 12:33:06

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 7,777

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

Agreed Clark.

I would like to present a case I know of I will not mention a name.  This person is not someone who I have had dealings with but I have information on the basis of associates who know her.

She is apparently incompetent but has children and neglects them to the extent that they get taken away from her.  The last one she had because she wanted to get social help for it.  Well they tricked her, and took it away immediately at birth.   She has been set up in apartments, but looses them because she might do things like collect cats but have no cat litter boxes.  I am sure she is impossible to employ in any gainful manner.

And she "Couch Surfs".  That is she tries to find someone who will take her in so she can sleep on their couch.  She reportedly is almost impossible to get rid of from that point.

So, she is breeding with all sorts of shall we suppose less than perfect men.  She might be making someone happy who adopts a child.  It is just possible that two wrongs could make a right in breeding.  Just possibly whatever it is she lacks is supplied by one of the presumably less than angelic men she breeds with so lets suppose 1 out of 4 of her children will accidently end up being normal.

I don't really care. She can have 100 babies as far as I should care.  I will likely be dead in 20 years.  It's not really my problem.  But how do you keep such a person out of poverty?

Done.

Last edited by Void (2018-03-09 12:40:16)


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#88 2018-03-09 21:07:13

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

Clark wrote:

There is poverty of health and healthcare, poverty of food, poverty of choice, poverty of education, poverty of opportunity, poverty of freedom, poverty of housing.

When all is totalled up in cash for each we can now compute a value to what is poverty in America.

Post 1 was guide line table of income that constitutes poverty with each state having there own local adjustment to the numbers
post 24 defined what a welfare person would recieve in benefits for each of the categories
post 29 showed current income brackets that define low to high groupings
post 39 wage tables of hourly payments with links to local adjustments
post 48 defined the breakout of income to each category from your earned wages
post 50 defined a local cost of a cold weather shelter run in emergency due to power outage for all levels of poverty to prosperity.

voids and other examples from members show that there are and is abuse of the system that it is meant to help all.
It means that the system needs some more checks to balance the abuse from it.

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#89 2018-03-14 19:52:45

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

This will not help the homeless unless its used as shelters but the tiny home market is were cost for housing can be expected to be lower.
70 Most Impressive Tiny Houses You've Ever Seen

71  slides of home images.
The second slide is for Adorable A-Frame Cabin, cute 80-square-foot guest cabin was built in just three weeks for $700 less the cost of land, water, waste treatment....
BBK8qJq.img?h=373&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f
Natural lighting as well as some solar on the roof....

Some slides are with greenhouse areas while others are tow behind trailer beds....

If you want something more with curb appeal

BBK8tdQ.img?h=373&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f

or combined screenhouse porch

BBK8maH.img?h=373&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f

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#90 2018-03-14 21:14:03

kbd512
Administrator
Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,826

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

SpaceNut,

I want to know why we can't design pre-fab housing that doesn't require lots of expensive labor to erect.  It should be something that can be built in a day with an instruction booklet.  Someone from the city can come to verify the electrical and plumbing is hooked up correctly and then certify the structure as a dwelling.

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#91 2018-03-14 22:43:56

RobertDyck
Moderator
From: Winnipeg, Canada
Registered: 2002-08-20
Posts: 7,928
Website

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

Hmm. Flat-pack house. When I was a teenager, my father built a few garages with my brother and I. We erected garage framed walls by hand. Concrete pad was poured with bolts, drilled holes in the base plate of the wall to match. Slid the wall onto the bolts, tightened washers and nuts. We built from lumber, took a while. Let's see. Pre-assembled walls with 2x6 studs on 24" centre, with OSB sheathing, vapour barrier, and vinyl siding pre-installed. Windows not only roughed-in, but finished, but glass panes not installed. Electrical and PVC plumbing already installed. Insulation separate, but "Comfort Batt" that you just push into the wall cavity. That's rock wool, completely non-flammable, but same insulation as fibreglass. And "Comfort Batt" is stiff, with softened edges to make it easy to install. With fibreglass you have to be careful to keep it fluffy, don't compress it. Could you do this with galvanized steel wall studs? They don't hold as much weight, but if the roof is light enough, you could do it. Steel is non-flammable, and less weight for shipping.

Would require some sort of interior wall panel, not drywall. Drywall requires plaster, tape, time and some skill. I've done it, but you want something that can be installed quickly and with just an instruction booklet. The house would have to be assembled without interior wall panels installed, because city inspectors will want to look at electrical and plumbing inside the wall. I'm thinking of something like Star Trek TOS Briefing room. Notice walls have panels that look like 8' tall by 4' wide, but seams are covered by a strip. In this case, the strip is shiny metal, but could be something else. I'm thinking, use a cordless drill with screwdriver bit to install drywall screws at the edges, then cover the screw heads and seam with a snap-on plastic strip.
USS_Enterprise_briefing_room.jpg

What about the foundation? Up here in Canada, you need a basement. Foundation has to be at least 4 feet below grade level to ensure frost doesn't get beneath it. In winter, if ground beneath the foundation freezes, that will lift the building causing cracks in the walls. In southern climates where ground doesn't freeze solid, you could install piles. When I built garages with Dad, we spent a lot of time digging, levelling, and pounding the clay to compact it. We built forms for the concrete, laid gravel, installed rebar, etc. It's a lot of work. But you want a house that can be erected in a day. What are those tiny homes mounted on? Is that concrete deck blocks? Would you need at least piles? I guess the foundation is the tricky bit.

I could go on, but you get the idea. It is possible to assembly a flat-pack house. However, the larger the house, the more robust it must be. Foundation, roofing, etc. Utility hook-ups.

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#92 2018-03-15 10:11:55

Terraformer
Member
From: The Fortunate Isles
Registered: 2007-08-27
Posts: 3,904
Website

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

Could you make a trench of rubble, and use that to stabilise posts to build the house on? In the same way that ballast is used in railways to keep the rails stable. Water would still be able to get into the gravel and freeze, but the idea is that the gravel would move with it, rather than breaking the foundation posts.

Of course, all this is meaningless if the government doesn't let anyone build affordable housing...


Use what is abundant and build to last

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#93 2018-03-15 17:50:13

RobertDyck
Moderator
From: Winnipeg, Canada
Registered: 2002-08-20
Posts: 7,928
Website

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

In 1989, I worked for Beaver Lumber. As an employee, they emphasized their house kits. They were lumber, siding, insulation, etc. Everything to build one house. They had a catalog of existing house designs, but they also had an architect on staff; you could bring a design in on a napkin or whatever, he would draw a blueprint and produce a list of parts and supplies. The kit could be delivered to your construction site. You would have to buy the land, arrange someone to build the foundation, then the kit would provide everything else you need. Of course it was a lumber company, so this was a way to make a large sale. Not just lumber but electrical, plumbing, appliances, etc. Other companies do provide this right now. But it'll take a lot more than a day.

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#94 2018-03-15 18:01:06

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

kbd512 wrote:

SpaceNut,

I want to know why we can't design pre-fab housing that doesn't require lots of expensive labor to erect.  It should be something that can be built in a day with an instruction booklet.  Someone from the city can come to verify the electrical and plumbing is hooked up correctly and then certify the structure as a dwelling.

I agree that it should be simple but it is not.
Each state has its own regulations on land use, to which each city or town then places its own spin on regulations that limit and restrict what can go on it. The states also regulate the laws on electrical work, plumbing, septic installation and well construction and even solar arrays. There are boards of zoning, building and code boards, ect to which they look at land topology, wetlands, set back requirements, driveways ect. to which engineering plans of the construction and all other information is required to get the building permit for the property. If wetlands are involved then you might need to go in front of a conservation board. The state might also be required to approve the septic system and driveway location as well. If you are not located within an electrical pole distance then you will face the charges of installing what ever amount of poles are required to get power to the property. Building on the site may also require a temporary service being installed.

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#95 2018-04-08 18:28:30

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

Some confirmation of what this topic is about in Rents have risen nationwide, making it tough for potential homeowners to save

Rents have risen nationwide, making it tough for potential homeowners to save. “People trying to buy are not finding anything or being outbid — and, as a result of that, they're renting longer,” explained one industry expert. Homebuyers in the grip of a tightening housing market have yet more cause for concern: Against the backdrop of higher mortgage rates, new data shows that rental rates continue to climb.

Real estate platform Zillow.com reported that rents in February increased by an annualized 2.8 percent, the fastest growth rate in nearly two years. The median rent nationwide is now $1,445, and renters are squeezed on both ends: Sluggish wage growth means their paychecks haven’t kept up with rent increases — which have been climbing since the recovery began — and saving for a down payment becomes harder if their housing costs continue to rise. According to Bankrate data, both 30- and 15-year mortgage rates are on the rise. While still low by historical standards, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage is currently 4.33 percent. Bankrate says this calculates out to monthly payments of $496.63 for each $100,000 borrowed.

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#96 2018-04-09 19:58:44

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

The deficit will pass $1 trillion two years sooner than previously estimated, as tax cuts and spending increases do little to boost long-term growth. Which will be going the wrong direction again back towards another resession to which the job lose is already being felt in parts of the country.
I would rather see this in another location but this is what is happening as Homeless residents brag about makeshift 'mansion' near Seattle's famed Space Needle taunting local politicians: "If you can live on the street and not pay rent, then why would you pay rent?"

With the only reason to not want to pay is because its to high to begin with.

Seattle has been under siege by an exploding homeless population since at least 2015, when ex-Mayor Ed Murray declared a "state of emergency" over the crisis. The city has struggled to play catch-up and is now beset with shelters at capacity and illegal encampments, such as the Space Needle "mansion."

Burns recently moved to the new camp with others after the city forced the group out of a nearby park.

"We've got the doors, the couch, the table," she said. "We've got the living room here, which is a mess right now because we're still constructing, but we're putting up the vinyl to cover it up, make it more attractive."

Burns said the sprawling abode is made of tents, wood pallets, chairs, umbrellas, tarps and whatever else people can put together. She conceded it's not a "discreet" construction.

"Some people are cheering us on, and some people are really angry about it,"

officials have inspected the site, and will continue to monitor and evaluate it. Mental health teams are also working with Seattle officials to figure out if there’s any way to convince the people living in the camp to go somewhere else.

Spokesman Will Lemke added the city has no immediate plans to remove the camp, but that may change in the future if there is a problem or safety concern.

So look to see what is needed to be able to move these people to a more distant location that has all the convences that they are able to walk to.....get them into a better structure than the tents and continue to police the location for safety and health

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#97 2018-04-15 09:34:30

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

The condition of being on poverty has another effect in the people must chose on being able to eat of get healthcare. The life style changes with the lack of money.
The states where disease and death are highest: A visual guide state-by-state differences are when it comes to how diseases, injuries and risk factors impact America's youth, adults and older populations.

http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fu … .2018.0158

"The top five risk factors -- diet, obesity, elevated blood pressure, tobacco and physical inactivity -- explain an awful lot of the differences across states," he said. "Why those causes are getting worse in some states and not getting worse in the other states, I think, deserves more investigation."

The researchers examined the data from 1990 to 2016, taking a close look at state-by-state trends and calculating the probability of death among three age groups: 0 to 20, 20 to 55 and 55 to 90.

"Long overlooked and underinvested, public health programs currently receive only an estimated 2.5% of US health care dollars, and prevention programs (broadly defined) receive only 8.6%.

"Clinicians and policy makers can use these analyses and rankings to reexamine why so many individuals still experience preventable injury, disease, and death. Doing so could move the entire nation closer toward a United States of health,"

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#98 2018-04-15 20:34:35

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

Something to go with my earlier post #89.. Its not a heliostat but it is solar for hot water.

http://theselfsufficientliving.com/12-d … rgy-bills/

http://www.builditsolar.com/ has tons of solar projects...

Many things can be used to make something that works....

Of course the homeless will need lots of other stuff

http://theselfsufficientliving.com/cate … -solution/

https://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/ is another site that specializes in the DIY or self help

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#99 2018-04-19 22:26:37

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 29,428

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#100 2018-04-20 00:21:17

clark
Member
Registered: 2001-09-20
Posts: 6,374

Re: Why do we have Poverty in America

I often look at problems I cannot solve. I too feel better for saying something about it. Nothing changes.

Somewhere an electron died in this telling. I'm not sure what to tell its family.

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