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Comment by corporate_shi11 | Hacker News Reader

>"There are so many homeless Americans because our government has failed to manage the resources of our country to provide even a basic poverty level standard of living for everyone."

Americans enjoy a higher general standard of living than most others in the developed world precisely because our government has a relatively hands off approach to "managing resources".

Homelessness is the result of addiction and mental illness. The government could pour huge sums of money (even more than it already does) into initiatives focused on addressing these issues and the broken people that comprise the homeless population will still not get better.

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> Americans enjoy a higher general standard of living than most others in the developed world precisely because our government has a relatively hands off approach to "managing resources".

How can one come to this conclusion?

Does it account for the boost the US got for not being destroyed in WW2? For having tons of natural resources per capita? For having land borders with only 2 countries, neither of which can threaten it, and oceans on other sides?

I can easily see how there are more factors to the quality of life in America than the government being relatively “hands off” managing resources. Although, even that is tough to define as the US government is very hands on in many businesses.

> Americans enjoy a higher general standard of living than most others in the developed world

I'd question that. Rich americans maybe. But the average american has to deal with long working hours, poor access to high quality food, extortionate costs for healthcare, cities where you can't walk anywhere, etc.

Homelessness is indeed a difficult issue. But what about the people working 2 or 3 minimum wage jobs. They'd benefit big time from mote government support.

> But the average american has to deal with long working hours, poor access to high quality food, extortionate costs for healthcare, cities where you can't walk anywhere, etc.

I'd question that. Poor Americans maybe. But the average american has relatively average work hours[1], shops at large grocery stores or supercenters[2], and has among the highest median income in the world(adjusted for PPP)[3]

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#OECD_ranking

2. https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2015/august/most-us-hou...

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_income#Gross_median_hou...

Including part time workers distorts the average.

On average, a full-time employee in United Stats works 1,768 hours per year, or 38.6 hours per week. By comparison, Europeans work up to 19 percent fewer hours annually compared to those working in the US.. Even more extreme On average, a full-time employee in Germany works 1,363 hours per year, or 34.3 hours per week That’s the equivalent of 26 days more per year full time Americans are working.

Median income PPP is not that great of a means for comparing standards of living. The US bottom 25th percentile earn less than 1/2 the 50th percentile. I would argue for disposable income PPP after taxes, food, shelter, and medical care at the bottom is more representative as a minimum standard of living.

It would be useful to look at the median in addition to the average here. I suspect that because there are specific highly compensated professionals in the US that regularly work 60 or 70 hour weeks (Lawyers, doctors), the average may be distorted upwards.

The original comment I responded to compared the average American to the average citizen in the "developed world". I'm using OECD countries as a proxy since the term "developed" is ambiguous. But comparatively, US workers are only slightly above the OECD average in number of hours worked per year (1,781 vs 1,763).

>The US bottom 25th percentile earn less than 1/2 the 50th percentile.

Again, only considering the average American here. I would agree that it's worse to be poor in the US compared to a lot of other countries due to fewer social safety nets.

OECD is a common list for developed countries. But did you ever really look at it? It includes included Mexico and Turkey with a ~10k per capita GDP. Even Latvia, Chile and Hungary @ 15k USD seem a bit underdeveloped. Czech Republic and Slovenia at 20k per capital are borderline but probably fine. Granted things change somewhat when you look at PPP, but large PPP differences generally mean an underdeveloped economy.

https://www.oecd.org/about/document/list-oecd-member-countri...

Income is a worthless metric if getting in a moderate severity car accident means I'm going bankrupt and will be mostly unemployable the rest of my life.

>Homelessness is the result of addiction and mental illness.

Citation needed.

You're wrong, but spout long since debunked victim blaming rhetoric as fact. Apt username.

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