Quote Originally Posted by goodz View Post
I think he brings up a good point. Due to drug abuse and other things a large percentage of the homeless population essentially chooses homelessness over having to work. I do not know many people who have been unable to find a job when actively looking. I know only 1 guy from my high school class who is actually homeless and he says some days suck but he likes it more then he liked working... but yea Unemployment in canada is around 7%, homelessness is listed as .5%. The same as the USA. I bet based on what I see on the streets here. 90% of the homeless fall into 2 groups:
1) substance abuse prevents finding a job
2) choose to be homeless
Why do people turn to substance abuse? Most of them are from poorer backgrounds. They don't have the education or connections to get nice jobs and get stuck in poorly paid crappy jobs. At some point they just can't take it anymore and try drugs to get away from it all and that's when a new junky is born.

The long term solution is to offer better education to ALL citizens so that everybody has a chance to be part of the american dream. The reality is that promising to put more people in jail is what gets politicians the most votes (criminals aren't allowed to vote) so that ends up being the policy. America, f*ck yeah!