this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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United States | News & Politics

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We are constantly told that solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing poor and working class people in the U.S. do not exist. Meanwhile, billions taxpayer dollars are being used to fund the genocide of Palestinians.

That very money could have ended homelessness in the United States.

Money for our needs, not the U.S.-Israeli war machine!

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[–] yesman@lemmy.world 29 points 4 days ago (2 children)

For those with a skeptical nature, I hunted down these numbers.

The US has spent ~$18B on direct military aid to Israel since October 7, 2023. They've also spent ~$5B for operations in the region, mostly in the Red Sea and Yemen.

HUD does not provide numbers to "end homelessness", they report on the state of homelessness including an estimated census of the homeless.

Some annalists have taken these numbers and multiplied them by the cost to imprison someone, or the average cost of American housing. These estimates come out to $11-30B.

So the numbers check out. The only fault I could find with this meme's claims is that they are slightly misleading in suggesting $20B could "end homelessness" without the caveat that that's only for one year.

[–] Zron@lemmy.world 19 points 4 days ago (6 children)

20 billion could go a long way to curbing homelessness.

20 billion invested in high density, low rent housing units could make housing more accessible to millions of people, including the homeless.

Remember, not all homeless people are completely jobless. Many are couch surfing or sleeping in their cars, have stables jobs, and just can’t afford rent where their job is. An apartment they can afford could do a lot for these people.

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[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 36 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

We barely kept from defaulting on disability payments to our own veterans at the beginning of October. But we've got all the money in the world to create more suffering. Including putting our own troops in harm's way.

FFS.

[–] RogueBanana@lemmy.zip 14 points 4 days ago

But if they don't send them to Israel then what will the poor arms manufacturers do? Some still haven't bought a yacht for this month.

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 19 points 4 days ago

This implies that they care about the homeless issue. 23 billion is a rounding error in the budget. They just don't want to fix it.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 12 points 4 days ago

Why would you end homelessness though when you can simply criminalise it and send them to prison to work as slaves?

[–] PanArab@lemmy.ml 22 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Biden just wants to see more dead children

[–] arxdat@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I don't know about all that, but I do believe he has been captured by the MIC/Corporate influence and has no choice or control at all. But, I might just be naive in my thinking, lol.

[–] PanArab@lemmy.ml 23 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Biden? No. Here's him in 1982 wanting to kill women and children:

Begin said he was shocked at how passionately Biden supported Israel’s invasion when Biden “said he would go even further than Israel, adding that he’d forcefully fend off anyone who sought to invade his country, even if that meant killing women or children.”

https://theintercept.com/2021/04/27/biden-israeli-invasion-lebanon/

[–] arxdat@lemmy.ml 11 points 4 days ago

Yikes, thanks for sharing that. I’ve not seen anything like this. I have seen him say other pretty asinine things in his past, but nothing like this.

[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 10 points 4 days ago

Unbelievable, but at the same time, being the USA the military hegemony it is, unsurprising too that these are words said by their leader.

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[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 19 points 4 days ago (1 children)

American democracy in action.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago

Homelessness isn't a bug in the system, its a feature. Employers need the threat of homelessness to push wages down and artificially inflate the labor supply. They need high rents to segregate portions of the community into "worthy" and "unworthy". They need car-culture to keep people isolated from one another in between work and home. They need student debt to trap people into corporate jobs, rather than setting out on their own as entrepreneurs, co-operative partners, and social workers. They need mass media to keep people more afraid of "crime" and welcoming of the "police" than they are welcoming of neighbors-in-need and hostile to state surveillance and harassment of dissidents.

The $26.7B we're sending to Israel is money towards an experiment in regional social controls and ethnic domination. If the Israelis can do it over there, the plutocrats back home can do it over here.

[–] friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

http://costofwar.com

The site design could be better though. Human brains don't understand how insanely large those numbers are without a visualization.

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[–] itsathursday@lemmy.world 18 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Need poors so that the middle class can think they will become the billionaire class and continue to support their needs

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 11 points 4 days ago

Classes aren't income divisions, but social relations to production. The US, since WWII, has always been thoroughly dominated by the Imperialist Bourgeoisie.

[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 16 points 5 days ago (22 children)

By all means, vote independent in state and local elections. We need more choices than a two-party system offers. If the candidate seem qualified, then help new parties establish themselves. Once they build enough followers to make a difference, we can start electing senators. Then the presidency becomes a serious option.

Unfortunately, there aren’t currently any third party candidates with a realistic chance of winning. The only responsible thing we can do for now is choose the lesser of two evils.

[–] macabrett@lemmy.ml 15 points 4 days ago (2 children)

You should be using your voice to pressure Democrats to change their stance on genocide, not shaming voters into becoming complicit in the genocide. This is the one time you have any power and if you back down now, it will not end. You are a coward if you continuously put yourself above the project of ending American empire.

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[–] davel@lemmy.ml 24 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (34 children)

Unfortunately, there aren’t currently any third party candidates with a realistic chance of winning. The only responsible thing we can do for now is choose the lesser of two evils.

I don’t know anyone who thinks this is about winning. Everyone knows their third party vote isn’t going to result in a win for their candidate, and their candidate also knows this, and they know their candidate knows. When you lecture someone on what they already know, all you do is annoy them. You’re not going to get far with them if you don’t understand what their reasons really are. I can’t tell you; you’ll have to ask them.

One reason for some, that I think you can easily understand, is that unless you live in a swing state, it costs nothing to vote left of genocide. There is no downside, and it may make the Democratic party sweat enough to move slightly left. The party isn’t going to move left if they know you’ll always vote blue no matter who: all that does is make you a reliable and politically irrelevant punching bag.

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[–] itsonlygeorge@reddthat.com 3 points 3 days ago

If there are no homeless, how will the corporations scare the middle class into wage-slave labor?

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