I was shocked to find my country has slums (US)

[Smooth Operator]

My family is going to Europe and my parents seem to be very concerned with the gypsies. Is that concern warranted?

That would be highly dependent on specific countries, but usually not unless they decide to visit their village or move close to one permanently. Gypsies keep to themselves more then anyone else, but if your house is located to one of their camps then your shit quickly starts disappearing in the night and you might find your water/electric bill jump tenfold.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

My family is going to Europe and my parents seem to be very concerned with the gypsies. Is that concern warranted?

That would be highly dependent on specific countries, but usually not unless they decide to visit their village or move close to one permanently. Gypsies keep to themselves more then anyone else, but if your house is located to one of their camps then your shit quickly starts disparaging in the night and you might find your water/electric bill jump tenfold.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Briantb]

Is it ironic that we have such poverty in the "richest nation in the world"

No not really the US is considered the richest in the world but it is also the most in debt of any nation in the world. Do a little bit of research and you will see that the united states has had "slums" for a long time.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Honestly, are you surprised about that? There are few developed countries with more inequality than the US.

Here in the Netherlands the Housing Law was passed in 1901 to make an end to bad unhealthy living conditions nationwide. It took until the 1970's to take full effect, but since then there haven't been any slums here.

Personally I think a social system that values income equality is at the basis for proper housing. The Netherlands is one of the countries with most equality in that respect, and rising much slower than even most developed countries.

(OECD report on the subject [http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/OECD2014-FocusOnTopIncomes.pdf])

 

[Marovus]

I don't get why anyone would be surprised we have slums as one of the top 5 nations in both land and population. It's impossible to keep the standard living high for everyone in a nation of this size. The countries that appear wealthier on average have low populations like Luxembourg or the Nordic countries. You would have to compare the European Union as a whole with the US and the EU does include Romania.

 

[L. Declis]

Is it ironic that we have such poverty in the "richest nation in the world"

No not really the US is considered the richest in the world but it is also the most in debt of any nation in the world. Do a little bit of research and you will see that the united states has had "slums" for a long time.

I'm surprised you didn't know. You have heard of Detroit, yes?

Everyone knows that America has as much wealth disparity as China; you've got the mega rich, a small middle class, rich cities and everyone else gets to eat shit.

Welcome to capitalism.

As far as I'm aware, the UK doesn't have any slums, with a long tradition of the state providing housing the least well-off can usually fall back on council-let accommodation, though they aren't exactly luxury. Most of the UK homeless live in those, with a small minority on the streets who have fallen through the cracks, usually due to mental illness, drugs or because they're an illegal immigrant.

Have you been to Birmingham? Or Manchester? Or some parts of London? Or Ipswich? Or Newcastle?

We have a lot of very shitty places and a lot of very run down areas. Although we have begun a massive push to rennovate those areas, we've got a long way left.

 

[L. Declis]

We do have gypsy villages, that is as bad as it gets. And we did try to help them out of their situation, problem is they don't want help, they love living exempt from law and responsibility and have proclaimed this shit as their cultural heritage. So if anyone tries to enforce laws in their area they cry cultural prosecution and shit...

Now if they want to live like that I have no problem with it, becomes everyone else's problem however because the only way a village doing no work can survive is theft, i.e. they are leaching on the entire surrounding community. So they aren't just taking everyone's stuff but the police is also powerless to do anything because that is culturally insensitive, complete fucking mess.

It has become the sad part of the U.K. that the police are completely powerless and the only people willing to do something about it are the chavs, who are willing to keep the gypsies in check.

But legally, it's a massive fucking mess. They break laws constantly (not even criminal ones; they break civil law), they have been proven multiple times to drastically increase violent and property crime in the area while they stay, they tend to have some serious animal right violations, they lower the tone of the neighbourhood, they leave the area a fucking mess after they eat everything they can off it.

 

[briankoontz]

Certainly, though I'd question how much this is done on a conscious level. Given that the pattern often goes for generations, the people doing it idn't plan their part out, the winning moves are just the same ones over and over.

Master chess players can play by instinct, since they've experienced the condition of the board so frequently that they "know" the situation without having to mechanically calculate.

It's indecent at best to consider culpability based on what's conscious. It would be like a police officer only giving a speeding ticket to someone conscious of his speeding. The consciousness is not the point - speeding has a reckless effect *regardless* of the awareness of the driver, and the ticket is based on the potential effect of the speeding, not on the "suspect conscious choice" of the driver. It's not the world that has to react to our consciousness, it's our consciousness that has to react to the world.

 

[elvor0]

As far as I'm aware, the UK doesn't have any slums, with a long tradition of the state providing housing the least well-off can usually fall back on council-let accommodation, though they aren't exactly luxury. Most of the UK homeless live in those, with a small minority on the streets who have fallen through the cracks, usually due to mental illness, drugs or because they're an illegal immigrant.

Have you been to Birmingham? Or Manchester? Or some parts of London? Or Ipswich? Or Newcastle?

We have a lot of very shitty places and a lot of very run down areas. Although we have begun a massive push to rennovate those areas, we've got a long way left.

Don't forget Luton! I wouldn't really call them slums though. They're definitely shitty, but not slums.

OP: This....shouldn't really be surprising. The US has some real fucked up wealth disparity and a fucking awful welfare system that tells you to go die in a ditch and stay bankrupt for the rest of your life if you so much as fracture your arm through no fault of your own.

 

[JoJo]

As far as I'm aware, the UK doesn't have any slums, with a long tradition of the state providing housing the least well-off can usually fall back on council-let accommodation, though they aren't exactly luxury. Most of the UK homeless live in those, with a small minority on the streets who have fallen through the cracks, usually due to mental illness, drugs or because they're an illegal immigrant.

Have you been to Birmingham? Or Manchester? Or some parts of London? Or Ipswich? Or Newcastle?

We have a lot of very shitty places and a lot of very run down areas. Although we have begun a massive push to rennovate those areas, we've got a long way left.

Shitty places yes, I have yet to see anywhere in the UK I would legitimately describe as a 'slum' though, even run-down council flats still have electricity and running water.

 

[Thaluikhain]

The Australian government is about to take water and power from Aboriginal communities (those that have them), so we'll be getting more soon.

The fuck?!?! Is your government really that backwards to deny the original inhabitants of the country basic need like water and power? Who voted them in?

The current government is exceedingly unpopular. Now, I'm not unbiased, I've never been a fan of the Liberal/National coalition, but their last PM, Howard, he knew what he was doing. The current bunch seem to want to be almost ridiculously bad, putting forwards one cruel or foolish idea after another.

The only thing I can think of that Abbot has gotten right was his response to the Lindt Cafe siege, where he (surprisingly) avoided demonising Muslims, and spoke of the entire country standing together against terrorism.

The saddest part is there has always been neglected communities like this in very rural Australia but until now many Indignenous and otherwise Australians haven't known about it till now.

I disagree there. Well, sorta. Every few years it seems there will be a media outcry about it, large segments of the general public will call for something to be done, and then forget about it all. Hopefully, before anything gets done, because the people in charge of the response seem to like ignoring the advice of anyone actually affected by the problems, and going for dramatic action that's useless at best.

Master chess players can play by instinct, since they've experienced the condition of the board so frequently that they "know" the situation without having to mechanically calculate.

It's indecent at best to consider culpability based on what's conscious. It would be like a police officer only giving a speeding ticket to someone conscious of his speeding. The consciousness is not the point - speeding has a reckless effect *regardless* of the awareness of the driver, and the ticket is based on the potential effect of the speeding, not on the "suspect conscious choice" of the driver. It's not the world that has to react to our consciousness, it's our consciousness that has to react to the world.

Oh sure, I'd agree on that (though I might excuse some level of ignorance, but mostly it seems we get willful ignorance, which is not the same thing). It's just that your original wording could be interpreted as implied a set plan to it all.

 

[LauriAJ]

Well, that's life for you...

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I live in the rural south of the US so while there aren't exactly slums like you'd see in NYC or Detroit, there is the odd shack that looks half-collapsed which some poor soul calls home. I don't understand how the US can call itself a super power when there are still people who are homeless, people who live in plywood lean-tos and, people who are one bad day or one bad pay-check away from being homeless.

 

[Shiftygiant]

In the UK we have slums, there mostly in the North and are old housing estates and Mile Highs built in towns that had one source of employment that was removed by the Government in the 80's. Prime Example is the town of Greenock in Scotland. Unemployment is higher than the Scottish national average and it's famous for it's drug issues.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Is it ironic that we have such poverty in the "richest nation in the world"

Nah, not when you look at how wealth is measured for the past 4-ish decades now. You should've heard one of my old teachers hear about the awfulness that is Miami, for instance. The rise of the Chicago school of economics, aka neo-liberalism, throughout the world made for some fucked up situations nearly everywhere.

Funnily enough it took quite a bit of time for Chicago economics to really install itself in its home country, but after it took off shit really went sideways for a whole lot of folks in the US. It's been wracking havoc all across the globe ever since. Truly America's most destructive export ever, the atomic bomb pales in comparison to what neo-liberalism did to the world.

 

[Zhukov]

... but their last PM, Howard, he knew what he was doing.

It's funny, back then I couldn't wait to reach voting age so I could help vote that old prick out of office.

Now though? Now I'd get on my knees and beg to get Howard back.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

Yeah, America has a problem with Slums and Ghettos. Every country has these problems, even those with Free Housing and better Income Equality then the USA. It's a Global Problem, not just an American one. The only true attempt (That I can think of) to create Equal Housing for everyone simply caused all neighborhoods to be Ghetto-like (The USSR And the Communist Block). It's sadly a hard problem to fix.