Homeless in Spain and elsewhere

Last Friday I came across this headline: "Wave of Evictions Leads to Homeless Crisis in Spain."

Wondering how the 2008 financial crisis has affected folks, I started looking around for information.  Wikipedia has a list of tent cities in the U.S.  According to The Telegraph (U.K.), "'Tent cities' of homeless on the rise across the US (2013)." Here's a picture of one in Reno, NV.

It seems to me that as wealth inequality increases, so does homelessness.  To get an idea of how deep the inequality is in the U.S., take a look at this video, featured at the New Economics Institute.

For some perspective on the distribution of wealth, worldwide statistics are available at Global Finance Magazine.  For an idea of what happens to a person or family that becomes homeless or is likely to become homeless, take a look the National Alliance to End Homelessness' Issues page.

Believe it or not some people choose to be homeless. This quote and more facts about being homeless are posted on Anawim Christian Community's page of Myths and Facts about Homelessness:

Homelessness is almost no one’s choice. In one estimate, approximately 6% of the homeless chose that as a lifestyle. But the point of fact is that it is not so much that people choose homelessness, as some refuse the demands made upon them to maintain a house or apartment. To live in a house or an apartment requires on to work for 40 or more hours a week at minimum wage, just to pay for housing, food and utilities. Those who are excellent at keeping a budget might be able to also afford a car. But most of those on the street suffer from some kind of limitation on their ability to do that kind of labor. It could be mental illness or addiction, or it could be a social limitation, or it could be an inherent refusal to do that much work for so little gained.

Me, I'm haunted by the vision of the future depicted in Max Headroom.  From The Pop History Dig comes this image of the streets and the following quote:

But the “big evil” at the center of this world and throughout the series is corporate domination through television.  The setting is not pretty.  Satellites monitor all activity.  At every street corner “securi-cams” monitor the population.  “Electro-democracy” has arrived, but it is controlled by the networks which rig “instant tele-elections.”  Still, the world has 4,000 TV channels, and that’s what the corporations are fighting about.  Among their battle techniques – and those also used occasionally by the underground – is “zipping,” or computer hi-jacking/interrupting of satellite signals.  But mostly the networks are just greedy; primarily interested in controlling viewers for commercial gain and power.  Ratings and advertising are monitored minute-to-minute in real time, and executives are called on the carpet immediately for any slippage.  Television sets, in any case, can’t be turned off  — and they’re everywhere, even built into the sides of trash cans.

-- Marge