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The effects of homelessness on society
The effects of homelessness on society
Homeless people stereotypes
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More handpicked essays just for you.
The effects of homelessness on society
The effects of homelessness on society
Homeless people stereotypes
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
This opinion piece, titled “why are we really ashamed about Melbourne’s homeless crisis?” written by Jamila Rizvi for the herald sun, takes on a concerned tone while discussing the issue of homelessness in Melbourne. Various persuasive techniques have been used to make the reader question their belief. The article is aimed at people who are around the homeless often, tourists coming for the Australian Open and commuters in the CBD. This piece makes us question why we are actually ashamed of the homeless in Melbourne.
The story “Unemployed and Working” from Simon Wykoff shows his conventional thinking by writing to influence readers to reimagine the stereotype of the “lazy bum” commonly given to homeless people. The author explains how homeless people work to accomplish the most important job to humans, surviving, which can be just as difficult as a conventional job. Wykoff gives his own personal testimony about the life of his homeless father and the daily struggles and process he went through. He first explains his father’s decision of not using services for homeless people, and how he coped with that while living on the streets. He then goes through each task done by his father in a day, starting with saying how there was often a good chance that something of his was stolen while he was asleep and elaborating on how his father would buy himself food if he had made enough money, but if he had not then he would have to check dumpsters to satisfy his hunger.
According to Aykanian and Lee (2016) individuals who are homeless are often “common targets of policing when their behavior, especially behavior performed in public spaces, is viewed as offensive and deviant” (p. 184). A related point to consider is that some who experience homelessness do engage in criminal activities, but one shall not combine all members in a generalization. Hence, the image of having individuals who are homeless is not ideal for the people in communities, but it does not take into account people who are experiencing
(128). Jason’s stereotypes make him think that all homeless people are uneducated. In another instance, Ian’s class discussed the homeless and some students called homeless people “‘Drug addicts” as well as, “‘Crazy as a Loon’” and “‘Worthless’”
In Jeremy Waldron’s “Homelessness and the Issue of Freedom,” Waldron presents the argument that homeless individuals are less free than those with homes and other material resources. Waldron’s argument is based around the notion that every action must be done somewhere, and if a homeless person is not free to be anywhere (be it other’s private property or public property) then they are not free to do anything. In what follows, I will use Robert Nozick’s description of a free society in his “The Entitlement Theory of Justice,” to first argue that Waldron adequately defends his contestation that homeless people are less free than those with homes and other material resources because of their need to be heavily dependent on the government as central distributors for their income and physical properties. I will then describe how a homeless person’s inability to effectively partake in voluntary actions and exchanges with other individuals is due to their inherent lack of goods and education. In the third section, I will refute the idea that homeless people are equal to those who are not homeless, as argued by Friedrich Hayek in “The Atavism of Social Justice.”
Sandi Vidal states in her article “Shared Vision Is a Must for Solving Homelessness,” that the homelessness problem in America is one that has made itself an unignorable issue. People in a community need to work together to address this problem. While individuals can help to slow down the rate of this growing issue, it can not be reversed unless a community is proactive and decides to make a change together. Vidal uses many rhetorical strategies to stress her stance on homelessness. Her use of persuasive appeals build her argument and helps defend her point of view.
According to the most recent statistics from the United Nations intergovernmental organization, there is, alarmingly, about a hundred million people of which are without a home throughout the world. And concerningly, it is found that myriads of people who are free of financial hardships feel that it is not their business or responsibility to help the penniless. As Anna Quindlen has stated in her essay, “Homeless”, the majority of society is choosing to ignore those sleeping on the hard pavement of the sidewalk, merely going around the problem, instead of facing it and endeavoring to find a solution, or even contributing help on a small-scale. A prime example of this is included within the short story of “What Do Fish Have To Do With Anything?”,
We’ve all been down on our luck before, but some are dealt a worse hand than others. Usually in these situations no one is to blame, and yet this mode of thinking doesn’t seem to extend to the homeless: a person becomes homeless due to their poor decisions. But why do we blame homeless people for being homeless? Negative stereotypes regarding homelessness are pervasive in our culture. In today’s society, it is too easy to look down upon those who’ve lost their houses and livelihoods.
More people suffer from homelessness than we realize. We often take for granted having a home to go to. I completely agree with Anna about her feelings on homelessness. I often see the homeless on the side of the road and I normally refer to them as homeless people but what I fail to realize is, that “homeless person” has a name, that “homeless guy” is a human being just like the rest of us longing for certainty, stability and privacy. Those “homeless people” are human beings without a home.
It’s been one day with Donald Trump as the United States President Elect and the amount of fear flowing through our collective hearts is sickening. No human should have to fear for their life, but Americans especially should not have to fear. Our forefathers created a nation in order that we would not have to fear. But think of all those who have feared for their lives in America, all of the minorities in race, sexuality, and belief- all of those people who are in a nation that preaches protection and equality.
Homelessness is not a new issue as it has already existed for many years ago and the existence of homeless people is often being ignored. The reasons why they end up sleeping on the streets is largely because of individual factors (Main, 1998), which is contributed by structural factors (Cyndy Baskina, 2007). It is unsure whether homeless people choose to end their lives in this way or are among the victims of situations? Many researchers contribute homelessness to structural factors but advocates of human rights debunk this and highlights that the main reason for homelessness is due to mostly individual
When mentioning about the word “homeless”, the images of children and youth rarely appear in people’s mind. However, in real life, when walking in downtown, we always see some young people who are wearing layers of clothing with a cup or a small box, trying to solicit money; also, at night, some individual sit or sleep out the cold in front of a store or a bank. They attempted their best to survive each and/or every day. Did you ever think of the reasons why or what had happened that make them choose to live in the street? There are many different reasons that may contribute to this problem, including poverty.
One social concept that heavily affects the homeless population is that of dehumanization. Dehumanization is the deprivation of human rights from a person or group with the intention of undermining the individual being represented by a specific situation. In the case of the homeless population, they are often segregated from society and abused in various forms. The segregation of homeless people from society is often given two arguments as to why they are a “class apart”. These two arguments are that homeless people have done or are doing things that society sees as morally unacceptable and that homeless people have received help from their social community and have not made efforts to make connections.
In her essay, “On Compassion”, Barbara Lazear Ascher analyzes the idea of compassion and the -------- of the homeless by the those more fortunate. She presents two instances in which homeless people are gifted with money or food items and ponders the motivation behind these acts. ----------------------. Targeting a broad audience, specifically people belonging to a higher socioeconomic standing, Ascher emphasizes the need for awareness of the adversity of the homeless, establishes that one must learn “compassion” for the homeless and less fortunate, and poses the question of whether the motivation for the “compassion” is relevant.
Homelessness is a product of social inequalities. Karl Marx stated that the capitalist society produces two prominent classes which are in conflict with each other, bourgeoisie and proletariats. The bourgeoisie are the oppressors who own the means of production and the proletariats are the oppressed workers who labor for the bourgeoisie. Capitalism is distinguished not by privilege but instead by individuality of property ownership and that those who create the conditions of the oppressed group express this power in the form of laws that function to serve the bourgeoisie’s interests (Marx, 2004, p.129).