Nomads from Cyberpunk 2020/2077 were not on my bingo card for this year.
this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2024
832 points (97.3% liked)
Memes
45581 readers
1 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
Obligatory:
The sad thing is that a Cyberpunk dystopia is nominally interesting. Violent, terrible, and impoverished, yes, but also fastpaced and exciting. Our world is dull, programmatic, largely predictable, and extremely boring unless you have disposable income. We all have cellphones, yes, but that doesn't make it cyberpunk.
That's because people in cyberpunk settings actually have the volition and guts to make change happen, and to put themselves through adversity against all the odds. People in the real world probably won't attend a peaceful protest in their area for something they support if they aren't in the mood.
The characters the story is written about do. The people living in it that the main character doesn't even interact with don't. Nobody cares about salaryman #97543784 who, at the beginning and end of the story is still pushing pencils but maybe reads about an office explosion in the news.
This is true of any work of fiction. People in works of fiction - at least works of sci-fi or fantasy adventure - are typically more risk taking because that's interesting to a reader/audience and the author knows this.
I appreciate the text file in the image
This isn't even new, just getting worse faster than it used to.
But think of the profits from squeezing finite resources trying to achieve infinite growth.
Think of the prevalence of van lifers
It's been gaining popularity as it gets harder and harder to own anything
You know it's getting bad when this news isn't shocking to you anymore...
You better start believing in cyberpunk dystopia. You're in one!
I was homeless for 8 years and a good portion of that I lived in my car
What I wouldn't have given to have a safe place to park each night during that time
It's better than a tent, but not by much
Honestly, this is a lot better / more hopeful than other stories. These people are doing far better than the homeless in tents. In winter.
Like these poor people: https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-nenookaasi-homeless-encampment-packs-up-and-moves-three-blocks-south/600332431/
the land is being developed, and crime was getting out of control. and they only had to move three blocks to a different one, supplied by the city. to cite the very article you posted:
There were more than 100 emergency calls for drug use, sex acts, theft, vandalism and unresponsive people in and around the camp. A number of neighboring American Indian nonprofit organizations urged the city to close it.
it’s a little more nuanced than mean people kicking out poor defenseless citizens.
I agree that the situation in the article is complicated and that these homeless people were not exactly saints.
My point above is that these homeless people living in tents in an empty lot in January are worse off than the homeless people in the article that OP references. Those homeless people live in cars in a protected lot which I think is a big improvement from tent life.
tru. at least it’s been a pretty mild winter in mn so far, fingers crossed.
Is jesus f***ing christ incest?
Jesus and Christ are the same person so it would be more like masturbation
Stigmatasturbastion.
so selfcest
More likely masturbation
I think step one is universal healthcare. For many reasons that we all are familiar with by now. (being tied to a job that has income limitations because you need the healthcare(ish) it provides, becoming bankrupted by healthcare costs, getting kicked out of your housing due to medical costs)
The revolutionary silver bullet to begin increasing housing availability is to eliminate the ability to depreciate assets via the tax code if they are single family detached homes. Many of these rentals are already fully depreciated and will remain rentals. But recently purchased (within 10 yrs.) rentals will likely be sold and importantly they will not be purchased by 'investors'. That shift will provide a flood of homes into the market which will apply downward pressure on prices. More people being able to afford to purchase those homes will free up rental availability, thus applying downward pressure on rental affordability.
Now that only addresses single family homes; there remains multifamily housing to be addressed which will be more complex. A robust government regulatory agency for housing is not something we currently have in the usa, obviously. (see picture) Reforms of those regulatory bodies are needed whereby penalties they assess would have actual teeth. I imagine penalties that remove ownership. I also imagine the countless tax incentives used in constructing and rehabilitating these structures being negotiated quite differently, to include public ownership.
Just a few thoughts here; I haven't all the answers. I'm curious when the last housing project was built in the usa.
Totally normal fucking country we got here
They have cars? Must be fucking nice! /s
We call them outdoor people.
We didn't make big cars because we wanted to drive big cars. We knew we'd need them as small homes.