Reply #99: some people more-or-less choose the lifestyle

[harmonicon]

... or at least they choose it due to some level of mental illness. I knew a number of homeless people in my neihbourhood when I was in college. One guy sometimes had jobs, went to visit his mother and disabled brother every few weeks, had kids with an ex-wife who he kept in touch with, etc. He'd been to college and was a smart guy, but there was just something about him and the way he lived his life and viewed the world that forced him into that situation. He would walk off of jobs to get high, and of course get fired. I would assume he was similar as a husband and father as he was an employee. The thing is, he always knew what he was doing - a really strange guy who I none-the-less considered a friend. I knew another guy who was extremely well educated, and even moved away for a job in Florida for a year or two. Then one day I saw him on the street by my apartment. He said that he'd moved back (where he was homeless or living at the Y) to Chicago, because there wasn't much work as a translator (he spoke a number of languages, but mostly worked as a japanese translator) in the off season. There are all sorts of people in this world, and I'll never understand most of them.