France's "right to housing"

[eagler]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070103/ts_afp/francepoliticshomeless_070103183244

[951-Riverside]

1. ...okay.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

14. Yes, it IS okay. Don't you agree? -nt

[illinoisprogressive]

2. oui! France tries to care for her citizens.

civil rights and peoples' rights are really big there. I know. my mom is from france and I have tons of family there.

[unkachuck]

3. if those nasty French....

....can do this, why can't we?

[philosophie_en_rose]

4. Protecting the dignity of the homeless and working poor.

I wish it wasn't such a radical idea.

[Psephos]

23. Good idea, bad implementation

Dignity is tough to achieve when one is living in a government-supplied room, with no personal choice or stake in the arrangements. As FDR wisely realized, the issue is not having a dry bed, but a title deed.

Ownership, or some form of equity or control in the arrangements, is the difference between living in an ant farm and living in a home. Were the lessons of 60s and 70s public housing forgotten that quickly?

Cabrini Green, anyone?

My opinion, nothing more, nothing less.

[damntexdem]

5. Oh, that Commie French government --

err, I mean Conservative French government! ;-)

[Vidar]

6. Vive la France!

[Hieronymus]

7. France does take care of their own.

The article mentions that Scotland guarantees housing as well.
France's healthcare is rated #1 by the World Health Orgaanization, and they spend about half of what the US spends in administering it.

[xchrom]

8. now THAT'S how you do it.

[Apollo11]

9. Instead of smashing up other people's countries ...

let's first concentrate on fixing what's wrong with our own country.


Or, as FOX NEWS would put it: "Big government spending your hard-earned money on helping bums and losers"

[Tyo]

10. Big deal

Do the French have an Office of Faith-Based Initiatives? Do they? Do they? What about
"Compassionate Conservatism"? That's a 100% American concept, buddy. You won't find that over in GAY Paree. Hey, some people have 10,000 sqaure feet in Lake Forest and a little place outside of Scottsdale and some people have a refrigerator box or a sleeping bag under a bridge. That's just the way God intended it to be. God bless America!

[HuckleB]

11. This is good.

But let's see what happens in action. There have been homeless people on the streets of Paris, in at least as much abundance as in NYC, in my years of travel there. We recently returned from a holiday trip, where the numbers were clearly skyrocketing from years past. Tents along the Seine were commonplace. It was very cold late in December in Paris, and yet there seemed to be no place for these folks to go. I know we don't treat them any better here, and we don't have the guts to even try to implement such legislation. I give the French kudos. But let's not get ahead of ourselves with praise just yet.

[Paschall]

12. ..."in at least as much abundance as in NYC"...

While there's some quibbling over the actual figures, according to the Washington Post story on this issue, there are 86,000 homeless in France. In the same story, the Post stated that this is the number of homeless in Los Angeles. France has a population of about 69 million; the population of Los Angeles County is just over 10 million. There's abundance and then there's "abundance."

[Mizmoon]

13. I guess I was mistaken

I was under the impression that because of an enlightened mix of capitalism and socialism that France had a fabulous social services system in place already. I'm aware that jobs are fairly scarce there but thought that due to the extensive social services in place people didn't end up homeless or hungry. non?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

15. No, wait, let me guess: you still call these "freedom fries."

[Mizmoon]

18. *sigh*

What about my question seems freeperish? I've been a member here for a very long time, you know. I don't appreciate being insulted when I ask what I think is a relavant question.

Haven't you heard it said that Western European countries have more egalitarian societies than we do without as much of an income gap as ours because of their fab social serivices? I've been to Europe several times but I didn't really ask about that stuff - I was busy looking at paintings and old buildings. And truthfully I didn't see any homeless when I was there but I see plenty in Manhattan where I work. So why would people who have great social services have a big homeless population? Why is tha a crazy question to ask?

[pitohui]

17. they have a dole so i don't know what to think

the homeless i observed in paris appeared to be substance abusers so i suppose the dole just goes directly to paying for their habit

certainly they were not as obnoxious or abundant as, say, the homeless in albuquerque, who also all appear to be substance abusers but perhaps it's the time of year i went

i have to admit it always annoys me when a beggar in europe asks me for money, i'm thinking hello you almost certainly have a higher monthly income than i do

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. What is a "dole?" -nt

[Mizmoon]

20. everyone knows what "the dole" is

I'm on unemployment right now and I like to joke that I'm "on the dole". It means getting free money from the government. THere's nothing wrong with the term, I think. Do you think there is?

[TroubleMan]

16. It should be like that here - housing, food, water, & clothing should be rights.

nt.

[suston96]

21. Should be rights? They are.....

....the Right to Life? Oh, they left that one out of the Bill of Rights. I am wrong. There is no Right to Life. Now where did I see the Right to Life?

[1932]

22. Historical perspective: according to Jonathan Alter's book on FDR,

FDR's administration considered treating housing as a right and providing government-owned housing to people who couldn't afford a home.

Instead, his administration decided to do what it could to promote home ownership. Alter says that ownership is a major reason that a large, secure middle class formed. I think he's right. I've read development economists who argue that ownership of land is one of the best ways to lift people out of poverty because it gives people a second leverageable asset that is greater than just labor alone (land+labor=magnified ability to create wealth).

Interestingly, it seems that now that the Bush administration has abandoned responsibility for protecting the middle class from rapacious lenders and has built an economy on people's inflated sense of what their homes are worth (rather than by increasing the value of their labor), home ownership might result in overwhelming economic jeopardy for America (and it might turn the middle class into debt slaves).

But isn't that just the story of the Republican party over the last 30 years. They are exploiting everything FDR did to create a wealthy middle class in order to shift middle class wealth to a few at the top.