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VersoBooks.com. Zócalo on KCRW » Blog Archive » Homeless Services Don’t End Homelessness. Homelessness is often described as a problem we must solve—and Los Angeles city and county now have expensive plans to do so.

Zócalo on KCRW » Blog Archive » Homeless Services Don’t End Homelessness

Homelessness is also an industry. And as George Mason professor Craig Willse shows in his book, The Value of Homelessness: Managing Surplus Life in the United States, that industry is designed to manage costs rather than challenge the mechanisms that create and maintain homelessness. Why you can’t afford a home in the UK. Once banks reach a certain size, governments are forced to bail them out when they run in to trouble because of the risks they pose to the wider economy — they are ‘too big to fail’.

Why you can’t afford a home in the UK

This creates a perverse incentive for such banks to take more risks than they would otherwise, a key cause of the financial crisis of 2008. Andy Haldane, the Bank of England’s free-thinking Chief Economist, described this relationship between modern banks and the state as a ‘doom loop’. Haldane pointed to the late nineteenth century creation of limited liability corporate structures as an important driver of banks’ excessive growth. These structures encouraged risk taking by capping the losses facing banks’ shareholders.

But banks can also limit their losses by securing their loans against land. Profiting off of chaos: How the U.S. privatized its war in Afghanistan — Antony Loewenstein on “Disaster Capitalism” “The corporation is now fundamentally more powerful than the nation-state,” writes journalist Antony Loewenstein in his new book “Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing out of Catastrophe.”

Profiting off of chaos: How the U.S. privatized its war in Afghanistan — Antony Loewenstein on “Disaster Capitalism”

“Many ongoing crises seem to have been sustained by businesses to fuel industries in which they have a financial stake,” he explains. “Companies that entrench a crisis and then sell themselves as the only ones who can resolve it.” Loewenstein, a columnist for the Guardian, traveled the world in order to understand just how multinational corporations profit off of such chaos. The Australian-born yet decidedly cosmopolitan journalist devotes the meticulous and daring tome to reporting on the foreign exploitation he witnessed in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and the destructive mining boom in Papua New Guinea, along with seemingly dystopian prison privatization in the U.S., predatory for-profit detention centers for refugees in Australia and ruthless austerity in Greece.

The secret life of a homeless outreach worker: we put up with abuse that no other profession would. I’m an outreach worker for a well-known homelessness charity.

The secret life of a homeless outreach worker: we put up with abuse that no other profession would

If I meet someone new and tell them about it, you can guarantee they will say, “That must be rewarding.” Mystery surrounds 'Buy More Pointless Stuff' advertising board in Ealing. A mystery "mobster" has apparently turned four Ealing advertising boards into his own street art with the message "Buy More Pointless Stuff".

Mystery surrounds 'Buy More Pointless Stuff' advertising board in Ealing

On Wednesday (February 10) Met police officer Dave Loveday posted a picture on Twitter of four advertising boards in Acton , Ealing. The boards, in Uxbridge Road, neatly display the message "Buy More Pointless Stuff" and led PC Loveday to describe it as the work of a "mobster". Seattle's Forgotten Homeless: Couples Who Want To Stay Together. Lisa Sawyer and Steven Drogosz have been together for about six years.

Seattle's Forgotten Homeless: Couples Who Want To Stay Together

They met volunteering at a food bank, they noticed each other and one thing led to another. At first Sawyer was shy. She pretended to be interested in a book Drogosz was reading. But it became apparent pretty quickly that’s not where her interest was. Filmmaker Reveals the Truth About Subliminal Messages. Alex Pietrowski, StaffWaking Times The reality is that we are all being conditioned to think and believe certain things without any rational explanation through subliminal messaging in advertising, music, film, television, political propaganda, and military psychological operations.

Filmmaker Reveals the Truth About Subliminal Messages

Profiting off of chaos: How the U.S. privatized its war in Afghanistan — Antony Loewenstein on “Disaster Capitalism” Why Are Corporations Hoarding Trillions? Photo There is an economic mystery I’ve been struggling to understand for quite some time, and I’m not the only one who’s confused: Among financial experts, it is often referred to as a conundrum, a paradox, a puzzle.

Why Are Corporations Hoarding Trillions?

The mystery is as follows: Collectively, American businesses currently have $1.9 trillion in cash, just sitting around. Not only is this state of affairs unparalleled in economic history, but we don’t even have much data to compare it with, because corporations have traditionally been borrowers, not savers. The notion that a corporation would hold on to so much of its profit seems economically absurd, especially now, when it is probably earning only about 2 percent interest by parking that money in United States Treasury bonds. UK Government To Fine Homeless People £1,000 For Sleeping Rough. Homeless people in London could be fined £1,000 for sleeping rough, under tough new rules introduced by a London council.

UK Government To Fine Homeless People £1,000 For Sleeping Rough

Despite the fact that the homeless are unlikely to have the funds to pay the fines, Hackney Council have introduced Public Space Protection Orders which bans people from sleeping in public spaces. Metro.co.uk reports: Homelessness charities have condemned the move, saying that it turns rough sleepers – who are often escaping lives of abuse – into criminals. A similar protection order was proposed by Oxford City Council, but the council backed off after a petition against the move garnered 72,000 signatures. A Note on Call-Out Culture. Call-out culture refers to the tendency among progressives, radicals, activists, and community organizers to publicly name instances or patterns of oppressive behaviour and language use by others.

A Note on Call-Out Culture

People can be called out for statements and actions that are sexist, racist, ableist, and the list goes on. Because call-outs tend to be public, they can enable a particularly armchair and academic brand of activism: one in which the act of calling out is seen as an end in itself. What makes call-out culture so toxic is not necessarily its frequency so much as the nature and performance of the call-out itself. Especially in online venues like Twitter and Facebook, calling someone out isn’t just a private interaction between two individuals: it’s a public performance where people can demonstrate their wit or how pure their politics are.

Indeed, sometimes it can feel like the performance itself is more significant than the content of the call-out. Chomsky Interview: ‘The US is One of the Most Fundamentalist Countries in the World’ Noam Chomsky, professor emeritus of linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Credit: Donna Coveney/MIT Cambridge, MA (US): The United States is a very fundamentalist, religious country – one of the most extreme in the world, says Noam Chomsky, arguably that country’s best-known political dissident of our times. What Does the New Economy Look Like? Here’s What Our Artists Did With Your Ideas. Last summer, YES! Magazine and the New Economy Coalition set out to solve a problem both of us kept encountering: Why don’t we have better images to tell the story of the new economy? Both of our organizations tell stories about the new economy all the time. But key movement concepts like localism, shared wealth, and cooperation are hard to visualize.

We found ourselves falling back on images of windmills, farmers markets, and community gardens. Do what you love mantra devalues hard work. Most work in the world is done for income, and income alone, and love doesn't get a look-in. Photo: Louie Douvis For a long time I had a copy of a famous Steve Jobs speech on my computer without knowing I did. You may have too. It was a hidden file on Macs, there to find if you suddenly needed some work-life inspiration from the late Apple boss. The speech was there whether you wanted it or not – kind of like that U2 album on iTunes​. The Perfect Country. Soaring rents in Portland lead to more evictions and homelessness. A city of bridges, Portland is full of places where people who are homeless can find dry, covered shelter from the Pacific north-west downpour. But lately, Portland is facing a housing crisis of a different sort as shelter for the homeless has become anything but discreet.

New communities of vinyl pop tents and makeshift camps have been popping up everywhere, with many spilling out into city parks. As a quick fix to address the prevalence of homelessness, Mayor Charlie Hales announced a plan this week to manage “camping” throughout the city for safe sleeping. Homeless people will now be allowed to sleep overnight on sidewalks, with a sleeping bag and a tarp, while tents will be acceptable in certain areas from 9pm to 7am. Up to 10 city-sanctioned campsites with a couple of hundred disaster-relief pods will be established through nonprofit service providers.

Though largely experimental, the plan has been given a six-month trial run. Meanwhile, in Portland, the figures continue to grow. Healthy News and Information. By JOHN VIBES A number of stories have recently come to light, showing that McDonalds allegedly has a new policy which is preventing customers from buying food for homeless people. Cognitive Dissonance, Conditioning, and Reality Creation. Brendan D. The Great Global Slowdown: What’s Next? By Paul Mason / blogs.channel4.com. California to throw adults in JAIL if they refuse government-mandated vaccines. Cat Funerals in the Victorian Era – Mimi Matthews.

Google’s New Algorithm Will Only Show You ‘What They Say Is True’ Journalist Reveals Tactics Brainwashing Industry Uses to Manipulate the Public. Yanis Varoufakis: Capitalism will eat democracy. Zygmunt Bauman interview: Zygmunt Bauman: “Social media are a trap” 7 Paths to Development That Bring Neighborhoods Wealth, Not Gentrification by Marjorie Kelly and Sarah McKinley. This article was adapted from Cities Building Community Wealth, a project of The Democracy Collaborative, for New Economy Week. What L.A. can learn from a Portland homeless encampment. My hometown, Portland, Ore., has a serious homelessness problem. Centrelink is designed to fail the most vulnerable. Another-kind-of-girl. Dangers for Female Prison Guards - Video.

The Problem With Society Isn't Greed. Greed Is a Symptom of a Deep Need Going Unfulfilled. By Charles Eisenstein / charleseisenstein.net. Were you born between 1935-1965? Here’s why we’re the lucky ones! Palestinian Performance Poet Speaks Powerful Truth to Power: 'We Teach Life, Sir' Mommy, Why is Our World So Screwed Up? Why Generation Y is unhappy. Why Are We Still Working? On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs. Wake Up Project - Photos du journal. Kelly Williams - Téléchargements mobiles. Philly’s invisible youth. Conditions in the Eureka Homeless Camp ‘Heart Breaking’ – Redheaded Blackbelt. Homeless in America's tent cities. Hunger, Homelessness on the Rise in US Cities.

22 Mayors Weigh in on Escalating Levels of Homelessness and Hunger. What those homeless camps along L.A.'s freeways mean for a public space once above it all. Gary Neville's Homeless Hotel: What Happened Next. World Citizen Solutions Crowdfunding. CARE Norway: Dear Daddy, I'm Going to Be Called a Whore. Apocalyptic Capitalism. No, poverty is not a mysterious, unknowable, negative-spiral loop - Sociological Images. The Origins of Terrorism are Geopolitical, Not Religious. People of Nowhere. Danish parents know: happy families practice “hygge” Endless Economic Growth is Fundamentally Unsustainable. How the Elite Deal With Sparks of Revolt. Man Who Was In Prison For 44 Years Reacts To Today’s Technology [Watch] Grieving could offer a pathway out of a destructive economic system. Dying To Live: Unity And Oneness, Or Corporate Rule? Should the Basic Income Become a New Human Right? This Video Explains What It is in 3 Minutes.

This 81-Year-Old Wrote a Dictionary to Save Her Tribe's Dying Language. Moloch: Allen Ginsberg's Critique of Capitalism and Industrial Civilization. Farmers' markets face legal challenge in Adelaide development court. Debts worth having. Emotional abuse to become illegal under new domestic abuse law - BBC Newsbeat. Peter Brinsmead. These City Buses Are Now Showers for the Homeless in San Francisco. How The Elite Stay In Power. Gil Scott-Heron Explains the Meaning Behind 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' Idealism Isn't Just for Dreamers. Instead of Meaningfully Contributing to Society, Many People Are Stuck In Bullshit Jobs They Hate.

Rising Rents are Destroying the Social Fabric of Our Cities. Disturbing (But Amazing) Pictures Expose The Absurdities Of Modern Culture *Warning: Graphic Images* She's lived off grid alone for over 30 years - Page 2 of 2 - Homestead Notes. Could Produce on Wheels Be the Answer to America’s Food Desert Crisis? Old and new powers are working together to create conscious movements for impact. Homeless-led walking tours give an alternative view of London. Souveraines: Stunning photographs capture what societies run by women look like.

The Chain of Obedience. “Don’t Let It Happen”: Orwell’s Prophetic Final Words On The Madness Of The Modern World. VIDEO: These Ten Failed Revolutions Could Have Changed The World Forever. Watch Kings Point Online. Girl Who Fought Off Israeli Soldier Is Leading Protests In The West Bank. HUMAN POSTCARDS. Welcome to Forbes. Activists Place Party Hats On Surveillance Cameras For George Orwell’s Birthday. This Video Will Change The Way You Look At Privilege. 182. A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM: Life’s pursuit. The Sad Truth: Nauseatingly profound illustrations of what the world is turning into. Brilliant Comic of Banksy's Call To Arms Against Advertisers. Media Brainwashing - News simply repeats the same taglines & phrases OVER and OVER. Rapper-poet Akala: 'Slavery Was Foundation of European capitalism' How a Land High in the Western Himalayas Can Help Us Understand The Crisis of The Modern World.

10 Protests That Changed The World. The Other Great Chaplin Speech - On The Tyranny of Authority. Boy Threatens Girl With A Gun When She Rejects Him. But She Never Expected This Reaction.Heartwarming. Kids Who Die: A Tribute to the Movement. Cut the Working Week to a Maximum of 20 Hours, Urge Top Economists. Subvertising Posters Counter Police Propaganda in London. Your Power Bill Is Not Real.