Old DVDs

Yeah, I agree. In the US we closed a lot of the institutions in the 70s. Those places had tons of problems of their own but alternative treatments since then has left a lot of unfortunate people with just nowhere to go. You can't put them in prison because most of them have really committed no crime, you can't keep them in shelters because they misbehave and those places aren't designed to provide that kind of help, and you can't keep them in general hospitals because the psych wards are meant for short-term emergencies. They really need long-term rehabilitation centers. The problem is you need to run them correctly and also fund them. And a lot of people are going to have a big problem using millions of tax dollars to house mentally ill homeless people for free.

I always used to think that the US should have any of the able-bodied homeless population be enrolled in the army, but as I grew older, of course, you realize that most are not in, how do I say this, good shape either mentally or physically. It's sad that most of our leaders have just given up on these people, for both those individuals and the populations that have to deal with it on their own.

Many of them aren't people you necessarily want having that kind of access to weaponry or whatever. I'm not opposed to something like a version of the Civilian Conservation Corps where they could work on simple infrastructure, cleanliness programs, stuff like that. It's honest work. The problem is that a ton of the homeless population just isn't fit for any kind of work at all. And there's never going to be anything done about it because there's nothing to be gained politically from it. Yeah, politician X could say they cleaned up the streets but everyone knows it's going to be on the taxpayer's dime, and most people I know would rather deal with a few homeless every now and then than pay even more in tax.

So true. It should've never gotten this bad, but now that it is what it is, there is no way to fix it without everyone being of the mindset to do so while knowing the costs. Personally, I would be more for that than blowing trillions on extreme green measures, especially when the US was the greenest it had been in decades just, I don't know, a year ago while still keeping and creating jobs in fossil fuels.

The world is in a mess, I'm seeing the same thing in Europe. People just literally sleep outside shops and in parks in sleeping bags. The other day I had to go to the bank late at night to draw some money out and there was a guy sleeping inside the bank. I apologised for waking him up, I couldn't get to the dispenser because he was in my way. I feel sorry for these people, it must be awful.

That happens a lot here too. Especially in subway and bus station stops, cause a lot of times they are heated. Towns have started ripping out the benches. Can't say I've ever seen anyone sleeping in the little ATM room though.

What I do see a lot of now is Africans selling fake designer gear to tourists at the sea front. Most days you will see a long line of these guys selling their stuff making the place resemble a market. Fake football shirts and fake Nike trainers get snapped up. It makes me laugh because the Africans have all the sizes available, they literally run their little individual patches like a proper business. I personally will not buy from them, for me it has to be the real product or nothing. I don't feel comfortable wearing fake gear for some reason even though it looks more or less the same. The police don't even bother moving these guys on now, they know they'll just be back.

I've never lived in any cities with actual bus stations or a subway, so it's always been parks where most homeless people sleep. Most of them usually sent up a tent on the outskirts in more bushy areas.

Do you get gypsies in the US. I think they like to refer to themselves as 'travellers. Large families or clans that travel around the country together in their caravans and mobile homes looking for a nice area to set up camp and ruin. Their favourite food is roast hedgehog.

I've never seen any of that. New Mexico dealt with caravans of people trying to cross the border and group of homeless in given areas, but never anything like gypsies.

Lol, no, we don't have gypsies here. It does make me laugh every single time when I hear Europeans talk about them though lol. It really seems like the average European will talk like they've abolished racism and laugh at "dumb racist Americans" but if you say the word "gypsy" the mask comes off. I've never heard more racist talk than from a European talking about gypsies. And if you call them out on it they say "well it's different, here the gypsies are actually bad/thieves/murderers/rapists" etc. Always good for a laugh when you point out that that's exactly what many Americans say about black people and they really don't have a response.

Now that Dennis mention gypsies, I can't get a number of early Cher songs out of my head. XD

No gypsies in the US, there must be, surely, just under a different name. What's a hobbo or a drifter in the US?

Gypsies in the UK are just nuisances, they find a nice piece of land and the area turns into chaos with a mass of caravans parked there, the residents try and get rid of them, the police can't do anything and in the end they get a bad name. They are basically people who have their own culture and don't want to be a part of society. I don't have a problem with them personally, as long as it's not my back garden they decide to set up camp.

Eh, I don't think we have anything really like that. We've got hobos and homeless people like we've been talking about, but there's no real shared culture/ethnicity like you've got with the gypsies. Like you'll see the occasional person living in a van just travelling around the country but definitely not groups of them in caravans.

The closest thing we've got, I think, - and it's not really the same at all - is Amish people. They live in their own communities and have their own way of live completely different from other Americans. But they also run shops and are polite and don't commit crimes or bother anyone, really they're more of a tourist thing than anything else. Known for woodworking, furniture making, crafts, old-style cooking, that kind of stuff.

I'm amazed there are no gypsies in the US.

What would happen if thirty caravans suddenly appeared in a field right next to where you live. Would the police move them on or just leave them alone?

I saw a documentary once about a state I the US that has an area solely inhabitated with covicted paedophiles.Literally hundreds of them all packed together creating their own little community. Is this common in all states? I thought it was some kind of sick joke to begin with but when the documentary explained the reasons why it kind of made sense. I just remember thinking at the time that I wouldn't want to live within a thousand miles of that place.

I actually don't know what would happen. I just can't think of a reason why or how that would even happen here. A random field isn't going to have electrical or water hookups, they would have none of the necessities. There's just no culture for it here. I guess if I owned the field I would definitely call the police. The closest thing is maybe random big parties that happen sometimes in the summer. People will gather in a big group and make a big bonfire. A lot of times they get left alone but if they are loud or disruptive the police definitely get involved. I just have no frame of reference for gypsies specifically.

We do have a "caravan" culture, though. We call them "campers" or RVs. It's a common vacation thing, every state has campgrounds you can take your camper too and park it kind of like a hotel. It's cheaper than flying somewhere for vacation. My parents actually own one and use it in the summers. But again, totally different from the gypsy type of thing.

As for the pedo community, I'd never heard of it. Just looked it up and I think that one is literally the only one in the country. There is an island off the coast of Washington state that used to house a federal prison and now holds a detention facility for violent sex offenders. There's a really, really interesting video about that place if you're interested, a guy kayaks to the island and breaks in and explores the abandoned buildings - https://www.youtube.com/wat...I1hZdltw

Thanks for the link steelersrock01, I'll watch that. I like wierd and wacky historical videos that blow your mind.

No problem. That guy's youtube channel is really interesting. His main thing is travelling super cheaply, he'll go to a country and try and live as cheap as possible, sleep in abandoned buildings, that kind of thing. But he has a couple other videos like that one and one with a bunch of raw footage from the riots in Seattle last year.

A pedo community? Eww.

Not enough room in prison???

I guess it is people that committed crimes and served their time. It does make sense in a weird sort of way.