Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Snow and a Modest Proposal
Yes, that is correct, SNOW SNIJEG oooooj! well t least I am not out in the snow, I was with one of the housemates, we are looking for other places to hang our hats in a desultory fashion, because the Hyper-Space Parking Lot will be going in within the next couple years. We looked at a place far away from the campus of the Yakima Gulag People's Institute of Higher Re-Education, but my housemate said it looked moldy and depressing. Not my opinion of the place, I don't form a full opinion until I have seen the inside of a place. We both noted that the neighborhood was nice. It would allow a pet or two and has a big yard. Someone would have to mow that big yard and I suppose in emergencies I could deploy the scythe, just to amuse the neighbors. . . .
I read one of the big news magazines* and saw an article about a guard at Gitmo who became a Muslim. Highly interesting article. He got beat up and messed with a bit by his fellow guarda, he's out of the military now and living in Arizona. Highly interesting and it was something I actually did remark on to my friends, that if you go to war with people, 1. you do get refugees from that place or places, and 2. it will change the American culture some. Both things have been happening, in surprising ways. All I said was if you like the status quo, war will change it in unpredictible ways.
(*"Newsweek' a.k.a. 'Newspeak')
The other thing was pictures in our local paper of deserted sections of Detroit, Michigan. I know the same thing is happening in vast swathes of Flint, Michigan and Jacksonville, Florida. Banks which forclosed on houses are now walking away from the foreclosures leaving huge areas of cities without human inhabitants. Very much like the role-playing game Shadowrun.
Of course vacant land never stays that way.
I have a Modest Proposal.
The government should nationalize these areas, and then restore infrastructure items like water, gas, sewage, garbage pick-up, electricity and postal service, police patrol, etc.
THEN they should move in any person rendered homeless by the current economy and charge them either nothing or only what it takes to keep the infrastructure going. This should be the case until those folks who have been un-housed and re-housed find, or create employment resulting in income. Then they should be charged 30% of their household income as rent or a mortgage. No credit checks, allow anyone who doesn't have a violent criminal record in. That way these areas would be re-populated, people would be off the streets and perhaps it would stimulate some developement.
Just a thought. . .
I read one of the big news magazines* and saw an article about a guard at Gitmo who became a Muslim. Highly interesting article. He got beat up and messed with a bit by his fellow guarda, he's out of the military now and living in Arizona. Highly interesting and it was something I actually did remark on to my friends, that if you go to war with people, 1. you do get refugees from that place or places, and 2. it will change the American culture some. Both things have been happening, in surprising ways. All I said was if you like the status quo, war will change it in unpredictible ways.
(*"Newsweek' a.k.a. 'Newspeak')
The other thing was pictures in our local paper of deserted sections of Detroit, Michigan. I know the same thing is happening in vast swathes of Flint, Michigan and Jacksonville, Florida. Banks which forclosed on houses are now walking away from the foreclosures leaving huge areas of cities without human inhabitants. Very much like the role-playing game Shadowrun.
Of course vacant land never stays that way.
I have a Modest Proposal.
The government should nationalize these areas, and then restore infrastructure items like water, gas, sewage, garbage pick-up, electricity and postal service, police patrol, etc.
THEN they should move in any person rendered homeless by the current economy and charge them either nothing or only what it takes to keep the infrastructure going. This should be the case until those folks who have been un-housed and re-housed find, or create employment resulting in income. Then they should be charged 30% of their household income as rent or a mortgage. No credit checks, allow anyone who doesn't have a violent criminal record in. That way these areas would be re-populated, people would be off the streets and perhaps it would stimulate some developement.
Just a thought. . .
# posted by Katja R. @ 11:36 AM 
