Tax Dollars at Work

SheetWise · #1 02-20-2006, 02:25 PM

Apparently individuals rights do not include the right to fail.

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(An) $11.2 million facility, dubbed 1811 Eastlake, will house 75 "chronic public inebriates (CPIs)," (or "homeless alcoholics" for those less politically correct). For far less than half of any money they earn, these residents will receive housing, meals, and medical treatment. If they earn nothing, they pay nothing.

Sounds like a nice, stable atmosphere to get over alcoholism, doesn't it? Well, it might be, except for the fact that residents can still drink as much as they want. You read that correctly: The alcoholics are under no obligation to even attempt to sober up, no matter how long they choose to stay.

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Link

You can come and go, and drink as much as you like? A far cry from the accomodations the government provides if you choose something other than their drug-of-choice.

hmkpoker · #2 02-20-2006, 02:30 PM

It's still a joke compared to Bush's $1.something trillion dollar war

canis582 · #3 02-20-2006, 02:45 PM

$44 BILLION is missing from our treasury in Iraq.

The chicken hawks who got us in this war would like you to forget that and concentrate on the $11 million spent to help some drunks who spent their life savings to line the pockets of ultra-wealthy alcohol executives and lobbyists.

hmkpoker · #4 02-20-2006, 02:50 PM

Don't you love how all the anti-free market people claim that billionaire CEO's don't know how to spent their money correctly? [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

canis582 · #5 02-20-2006, 03:07 PM

Free market is good, when it benefits us. Otherwise, we will distort the market to benefit us.

There are those who know the truth and benefit from it, there are those who know the truth and can't do anything to change it, then there are those who are indoctrinated.

FlFishOn · #6 02-20-2006, 03:08 PM

Context please. This is Seattle, a progressive, sensitive, caring city. One more reason I'm so happy to be FROM there. Also quite possibly the worst weather in America.

PoBoy321 · #7 02-20-2006, 03:29 PM

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Don't you love how all the anti-free market people claim that billionaire CEO's don't know how to spent their money correctly? [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

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Of course they know how to spend their money, and they know how to spend it to maximize the amount of money in their pockets and by corollary minimize the amount of money in ours.

AvivaSimplex · #8 02-20-2006, 03:48 PM

This may actually be a very efficient use of tax dollars. Chronic homeless alcoholics are unbelievably expensive to society. There was a recent article in the New Yorker that estimated their cost at around $100,000/year in emergency room visits alone. Added to that would be other direct costs like crime, police time and other social services, and indirect costs like loss of tourism revenue.

These people are basically unemployable. In addition to their substance-abuse problems, they very often have severe mental illnesses, and rarely have completed high school. At best they could get a McDonald's type job, but they probably couldn't hold it due to the mental illness issues.

So what are we going to do about them? Ideally, we'd like them to get a job and work hard towards financial independence. That's not going to happen. Right now, we basically let them flounder around on the streets, getting picked up by either the police or the ambulance every couple of days.

This facility is an experimental alternative. If it can achieve a net reduction in social services costs of 50%, it will pay for itself in 2 years. The current strategy is obviously expensive. I think it's foolish not to try other solutions.

hmkpoker · #9 02-20-2006, 04:07 PM

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This may actually be a very efficient use of tax dollars. Chronic homeless alcoholics are unbelievably expensive to society. There was a recent article in the New Yorker that estimated their cost at around $100,000/year in emergency room visits alone. Added to that would be other direct costs like crime, police time and other social services, and indirect costs like loss of tourism revenue.

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11,200,000 > 100,000

hmkpoker · #10 02-20-2006, 04:09 PM

[ QUOTE ]
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Don't you love how all the anti-free market people claim that billionaire CEO's don't know how to spent their money correctly? [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

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Of course they know how to spend their money, and they know how to spend it to maximize the amount of money in their pockets and by corollary minimize the amount of money in ours.

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You must be smoking some truly excellent stuff.