Are many parts of the US like this?

[AntsyVee]

In LA, there are some really bad blocks of Hyde Park, Skid Row (San Pedro and 5th), 4th and main, some parts of Huntington Park, but I don't think they are bad as the "ghetto" section in other cities. I live in one of the poorest zip codes in my county, but I have a nice house and we have some nice neighborhoods, but we have homeless too. Other places that you see on the news, like the corner of Normandie and Florence, where the riots happened in 1992, it's not all ghetto and scary like it's portrayed. It looks like any other street corner.

North LV Blvd/Fremont area in Las Vegas; main street right through downtown Dallas, TX; the Chandler Park area in Detroit...those are much worse in my opinion. Certainly that neighborhood in Philly is...

I've been to Tijuana and Guadalajara in Mexico, and their slums are way worse than ours in the US. Then again, I've also been to Toronto's "slums", and they're a lot better than ours.

Parts of London may not be as bad as that area in Philly, but you all still have your share of homeless people.

I don't think our homeless issue simply comes from the fact that Americans don't care about each other or we want to keep labor costs down. Yes, there are some Americans who think like that, but there are also a lot of Americans that do care and do want to raise the standard of living for people. But the issues are complicated. We have a very broken health and mental health system here. We don't have a fully private system; we don't have a universal system. We have a half-assed combo system that isn't working. Republicans think a universal health care/mental health system will make us all into a socialist welfare state and Democrats think that if we stay on a private system, doctors and pharmaceutical companies will treat our health like a business. And neither side gets anywhere or works together. So where do the drug-addicted and mentally ill go? On the streets. We're also a lot bigger and have a lot more people than you do. California and New York together, just our two biggest states, equal your 65 million in the UK. It's not just about people not being paid enough for a minimum wage.

[ankietyjoe]

I don't think our homeless issue simply comes from the fact that Americans don't care about each other or we want to keep labor costs down. Yes, there are some Americans who think like that, but there are also a lot of Americans that do care and do want to raise the standard of living for people. But the issues are complicated. We have a very broken health and mental health system here. We don't have a fully private system; we don't have a universal system. We have a half-assed combo system that isn't working. Republicans think a universal health care/mental health system will make us all into a socialist welfare state and Democrats think that if we stay on a private system, doctors and pharmaceutical companies will treat our health like a business. And neither side gets anywhere or works together. So where do the drug-addicted and mentally ill go? On the streets. We're also a lot bigger and have a lot more people than you do. California and New York together, just our two biggest states, equal your 65 million in the UK. It's not just about people not being paid enough for a minimum wage.

I certainly wasn't trying to imply that at all, but unfortunately it only takes a small percentage of Americans (or any group of people) who are in control of policy to keep that system in place.

Even if 95% of the population cared (which I'm sure they do), they still can't do a lot about it as they're busy earning a living to pay for their medical bills. Know what I mean?

[Pamplemousse]

Now have a look at the favelas in Brazil - one of the most notorious was divided by the road to the airport in Rio and it wasn't unknown for cars to get caught in crossfire across that road.

Brazil had the second highest number of murders per year (next to India) at one time.

[AntsyVee]

I certainly wasn't trying to imply that at all, but unfortunately it only takes a small percentage of Americans (or any group of people) who are in control of policy to keep that system in place.

Even if 95% of the population cared (which I'm sure they do), they still can't do a lot about it as they're busy earning a living to pay for their medical bills. Know what I mean?

Yes, I understand what you're saying. It's why I have so many issues with our two-party system here. In several areas of our society, it's simply not working. How many people have to die before we start to overhaul certain areas? Covid (like any natural disaster) high-lighted the inequalities in several aspects of our society, but not enough for everyone to be in favor of reform.

[Pamplemousse]

Yes, I understand what you're saying. It's why I have so many issues with our two-party system here. In several areas of our society, it's simply not working. How many people have to die before we start to overhaul certain areas? Covid (like any natural disaster) high-lighted the inequalities in several aspects of our society, but not enough for everyone to be in favor of reform.

Unfortunately Vee, whilst your barbaric and monumentally selfish country remains wedded to ideas of state-sponsored murder, inappropriate levels of gun ownership and viewing ANY effort by the state to help its less fortunate citizens as tantamount to Communism, your country is finished.

My only worry is what other countries the US will take with it when it collapses; because the increasingly stupid British public love aping you...

[WiredIncorrectly]

Now have a look at the favelas in Brazil - one of the most notorious was divided by the road to the airport in Rio and it wasn't unknown for cars to get caught in crossfire across that road.

Brazil had the second highest number of murders per year (next to India) at one time.

Woah, you wasn't kidding:

[Fishmanpa]

Woah, you wasn't kidding:

No kidding!

FMP

[AntsyVee]

Unfortunately Vee, whilst your barbaric and monumentally selfish country remains wedded to ideas of state-sponsored murder, inappropriate levels of gun ownership and viewing ANY effort by the state to help its less fortunate citizens as tantamount to Communism, your country is finished.

My only worry is what other countries the US will take with it when it collapses; because the increasingly stupid British public love aping you...

Please try to have a little hope and not write us off yet, PM. I still live here

[Lencoboy]

Unfortunately Vee, whilst your barbaric and monumentally selfish country remains wedded to ideas of state-sponsored murder, inappropriate levels of gun ownership and viewing ANY effort by the state to help its less fortunate citizens as tantamount to Communism, your country is finished.

My only worry is what other countries the US will take with it when it collapses; because the increasingly stupid British public love aping you...

Or much rather the 'increasingly stupid British public' love aping anything that is 'edgy' and 'beyond the pale' simply for the sake of 'attention-seeking' and for their 'fifteen minutes of fame'.

A typical example was the toilet roll stampedes in March last year just prior to our first national lockdown, and that 'craze' allegedly had its origins in Australia, then much of the rest of the world suddenly started 'aping' them!

We also had it with the English city riots within our own shores nearly 10 years ago where pretty much every other major city (and a few 'larger' metropolitan towns) suddenly started aping London within under 2 days!

Typical pack mentality!

[WiredIncorrectly]

No kidding!

FMP

Good old Monty Python. FWIW the Python programming language has its roots in Monty Python.

Why is it called Python? When he began implementing Python, Guido van Rossum was also reading the published scripts from “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, a BBC comedy series from the 1970s. Van Rossum thought he needed a name that was short, unique, and slightly mysterious, so he decided to call the language Python.