Hacker News Reader

Comment by angarg12 | Hacker News Reader

> So the rise in visible homelessness is perhaps the expected result.

But this happens in the US disproportionally more than, say, many countries in Europe.

Because the social safety net in the US is almost totally absent. As an European that is one of the main things that keeps me away from ever wanting to work in the States, down there it looks like you're either a successful person, meaning you have a house on which you can afford to pay mortgage, which in turn means that you have a successful job which allows you to navigate the inevitable recessions, or you're always one-step away from being homeless, there's no in-between state where you can live an ok-ish life on a not-so-great job without having nightmares about your economic prospects each and every night.

I'm not sure what you're on about. The US does have social safety nets, and most people in America work okay'ish jobs and live okay'ish lives without constant nightmares.

Half of the homeless people in that Seattle video someone linked above should have had a roof over their heads provided by the State, either some mental-health institution or an elderly care house.

I've heard of way too many US ok-ish jobs that don't provide adequate health-insurance (just to give an example). Maybe I'm a little paranoid but I'd have constant nightmares thinking that a couple of days of hospitalization for a benign medical intervention could set me tens of thousands of dollars in debt (or worse).

I think what he is on about is the fact that even if the US has the safety nets you describe, it apparently isn't working.

He/She should have said that then.

Not sure why that would keep you away. By your definition a huge percentage of the population is successful.

As far as I know, most people are not successful by his definition. Almost everyone who is not rich is living paycheck-to-paycheck. There is no baseline system where working 40 to 60 hours a week guarantees a normal home/living/health situation.

People live paycheck-to-paycheck on a surprisingly wide range of incomes.

doubt it. there are just a few areas in the us that are really bad, but the rest of it is fine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homeless_...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com