One thing you realize is that a lot of the people on the streets have major mental conditions (usually schizophrenia, and major drug addictions or chronic alcoholism), and there is almost no way to just rehab them, and put them in a place that they can take care of themselves. Some of them are beyond the point of return and some need so much care, then only loving family can provide. Externally, you can't do much.
Other countries have both better mental care provided from the state, and especially a social net. Usually family will take care of their ill.
Be happy with what you got, do a good job, and make sure to be close to your family and have close friends. You will realize that is part of life, and once and a while you will have a need for support from closed ones, but as long as you an handle yourself well most of the time and try to live a good life you wont have to worry.
I think the point of the article is that that's fucked up, and not how the world should be. And what I suspect the author realized is that it isn't the way he or she wants to be.
That's the maturation process though: understanding that the world has been that way for all time. Look at nature, around you, some animals within any given group always do better than others. It's fine to be bothered by it, and want to do something to change it, but it's naive to think that a) you are the first person to notice and b) you can fix it completely.
[...] over time you just get used to it and don't care anymore.
The point is it's not better to accept it. It's not more grown up and responsive to stop caring about this. World is not the same as it used to be. It constantly get's more and more humane. I recomend watching http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violen...
If you accept homeless population in SF you are just closing your eyes to places that are much better to live than SF even with much less money in circulation.
(I'm not an expert on this, but as far as I know) many traditional/"primitive" societies have much less problems with homelessness and mental disorders because of stronger family support. (Of course, they have other problems that we don't have.)
Not everyone has a family, and even if they do we should be pushing for institutional changes so that the family isn't forced to make a choice between eventual bankruptcy or turning their family out on the street.
That realization is indeed part of the maturation process.
What you are talking about is both this and desensitization. The former is unquestionably necessary and a "good thing", the latter is a self defence mechanism humans have to being exposed to emotionally troubling things.
You/we could absolutely do a lot to alleviate this, it would just be a lot of work. You couldn't single-handedly solve the problem obviously, but that's a different question. I'm not even saying people have a moral obligation to act, but if you are going to decide not to then at least be honest about the reasons. It avoids a lot of painful cognitive dissonance at the very least.
It's definitely emotionally helpful to believe you can't do anything about it, but it's pretty definitively not true. Seems especially weird to suggest that here, in a community of self described "disruptors".
This is depressing.
"This is part of life." feels like a common cop-out and downplays the fact that, if some of us put our minds to it, we could successfully make it not so much a part of life (I'm not saying we'd have some utopian equality, but it could be so much better).
Twitter negotiated to pay less than its share of the employee tax in SF. More and more startups are doing the same. Yet those shuttle buses run on city streets, park at city bus stops, and pay no additional fees to do so.
Many people here won't stay, won't volunteer in the community, won't get involved with the city and fight for better Muni and safer streets. Donations at charities are way down. Newly minted millionaires aren't donating to the arts or to charity, they're throwing lavish parties and buying over priced real estate. With people like Peter Thiel insisting that Libertarianism is the way all tech people should believe, precious few actually seem to get that we are all interconnected, and that a social safety net makes the world a better, safer place.
When I made my first money in this town, and it wasn't a lot, but it was enough to change my life, I wept, because I knew at its heart it was violently unfair that I should be safe and the people on the street not. I haven't stopped feeling that way. I hope you don't, either. It was nice to see someone actually care.
I hope that everyone here can show as much faith and heart as you do and insist on voting for taxes, policies, and politicians who will work to change things, for real.
I am appalled that you actually believe this. I mean, ok, the world is not by default a fair place, but the notion of simply ignoring the moral duty to make it so... Ick.
And, to put a point on it, how unfair it is to people who are unlike me. Some members of my family express confusion as to why I find this troubling--after all, "I've got mine."
as for the schizophrenics out there, i am honestly still a little afraid of being one of them, but i'm lucky enough to have a huge support network.
Other parts of the city I think have more people that really are drug-addicted or borderline insane
* http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/43085729257/the-street-kid...
Sure, you'll hear from the guy who got hooked on drugs and pissed away his money, but you'll also hear about people who had work in construction and industry whose jobs dried up during one of many economic downturns while at the same time dealing with rising rent costs. Getting back into the game isn't easy either without clean clothes, a place to shower, or even a phone to be reached at for an interview. A lot of what we take for granted (like wearing $300-1500 outfits for interviews) simply isn't available to homeless people.