Just a little (link) love: I can dog! edition
April 20, 2017
CAREER + MONEY THINGS
Amsterdam’s new approach to helping the homeless
Maggie knows there’s a good kind of boring to be.
HAPPY THINGS
I loved Brooklyn Bread’s experiment with slow living.
Gwen moved! And agrees with NZMuse that minimalism can suck.
THINKING THINGS
Adopted years ago, thousands learn they’re not U.S. citizens
This infuriates me: How does the VA continually keep failing our veterans?
The Yakuza’s involvement in the nuclear disaster at Fukushima
I can dog (no I can’t)
Cats don’t always make the best dogs pic.twitter.com/CUVx9PgAmQ
— Luv Kittens Daily (@LuvKittensDaily) April 4, 2017
I have mixed feelings about Amsterdam’s new approach for dealing with homelessness. On the one hand, I really like it because I never carry cash anymore. I would willing give a dollar or two if I had it on me, but I never do. I wonder about the homeless in my town when I see them pan handle because I don’t know anyone who carries cash.
But on the other hand I feel like it infantilizes adults. I understand that people experience homelessness may have made poor decisions, and may have addiction problems. But to say you will only give them help as long as you get to choose and direct what type of help YOU think is most needed rubs me the wrong way.
I am glad this exists, though, because it certainly will help people stay fed and warm.
Jax recently posted…Weekly Accountability-Tax Time Edition
I get a bit of that icky feeling too, but I also feel neutral-conflicted about the infantilizing. The reality is that some of my family members would be homeless without the help of the rest of the family and they chose to be that way. As in, they had opportunities and they made bad decision after bad decision, and they put themselves in a position where they wouldn’t be hireable, and chose to squander what money they did earn in various unwise (related to addiction in some cases, not in others).
I wouldn’t paint everyone with that same brush, but it informs my feeling that while it might infantilize some adults, other adults like my sibling deliberately refused to be adults and chose to be no better than an infant in what he’ll do for himself, no matter how hard I pushed him to at least provide for himself. In that case, I do refuse to help unless it’s specifically for what I designate because I KNOW from hard experience that it will be thrown away if I don’t do that.