FTFA: "The money saved from fewer emergency room visits, nights in jail and other social service interventions - more than $1.7 million - has not reached the total cost of the program"

Reading comprehension is a valuable skill. Suck it, subby.

ShillinTheVillain: FTFA: "The money saved from fewer emergency room visits, nights in jail and other social service interventions - more than $1.7 million - has not reached the total cost of the program"

Reading comprehension is a valuable skill. Suck it, subby.

To subby's defense, it's hard for him to read when people let him drink all the booze he wants.

Okay then. Let's all quit our jobs, move to Seattle and live off the grand benevolence of the State.

/wooowooo!

wow, 160 people cost $3.2 million a year.

wow.

The interesting thing will be what happens in 3-5 years when people 'on the edge' see what they can parachute into. The problem with a service like this is that they only work if people don't just give up and take the freebie ...

example: the NHS in the UK was supposed to reduce medical costs because preventative care would stop people from getting sick in the first place. Instead, what happened was that loads of people who just sort of suffered through the daily insults of life sought 'free' medical care and total costs soared in the post-war era.

They're spending $20K per person if 160 people are costing 3.2mil... that's insane...

ShillinTheVillain: Reading comprehension is a valuable skill. Suck it, subby.

It entirely depends on if he meant "Seattle" as in the city government, which would be unlikely to make back much of it's $11,000 a year/person investment or "Seattle" as in the city's health and social services, which seem to be saving quite a bit of money.

They don't really tell you how much the program costs. They saved 3.2 million by reducing social service interventions costs by 1.7 million and medical costs by 1.5 million. That is where the total savings of 3.2 million comes from.

No where do they actually produce any figures on how much the program cost in the past and now in the present. The only thing I can deduce is that it was and is more than 3.2 million because that is just the cost savings.

Its most likely significantly greater than the 3.2 million for 160 people. Otherwise they would state the actuals.

dameron: It entirely depends on if he meant "Seattle" as in the city government, which would be unlikely to make back much of it's $11,000 a year/person investment or "Seattle" as in the city's health and social services, which seem to be saving quite a bit of money

please, that's not a black and white answer which is hard for a knee-jerk Farker to swallow.

Huskadoodle: No where do they actually produce any figures on how much the program cost in the past and now in the present. The only thing I can deduce is that it was and is more than 3.2 million because that is just the cost savings.

They say the construction alone coast $11.2 million so yeah, it'll be a while before it pays for itself. There's really not enough information in the article to tell if it's profitable in the long term, I'd expect from the tone of the article that it probably is, just poorly communicated by the writer.

dameron: There's really not enough information in the article to tell if it's profitable in the long term,

It's a public service that collects no money except from taxes and donations. It will never be profitable. Just maybe less expensive somehow.

Think of how much we could save if we housed all the neocons and allowed them to invade one another's rooms whenever they liked.

Cool...

You want out trash too?

and, of course subby is further wrong in that this plan was developed and promoted by neocons.

I have lots of friends working this, so I find this thread amusing.

//legalize the crack, so we don't need the prison
//tin hat is on

You know what would be even cheaper? Let them die the next time they show up at an emergency room with alcohol poisoning.

Someone should summon the libertarians.

The key is that these people would be costing the city more without the initial investment in facilities. You need to look at it in terms of return on investment.

$1.7 mill on $11.7 mill, a little better than 14% ROI. Better than the bonds cities sell.

And considering that a chunk of the initial investment came from NGOs it's even better for the city.

And as I told my ex when we found a dog outside a shop in a warehouse district "You can't save them all"

bimalc: t happened was that loads of people who just sort of suffered through the daily insults of life sought 'free' medical care and total costs soared in the post-war era.

While medical costs in the US, the only industrialized nation without a universal healthcare system, have barely budged!

I'm going to have to come back after work and run some of my own numbers.

It sounds like saving 3 mill over a year is like driving 20 miles across town to save $.02 on gas.

GaryPDX: Okay then. Let's all quit our jobs, move to Seattle and live off the grand benevolence of the State.

/wooowooo!

man your life must really suck as it stands now...

They'd have saved more if they'd slipped a little arsenic in the booze.

oldebayer: Think of how much we could save if we housed all the neocons and allowed them to invade one another's rooms whenever they liked.



Hopefully this guy gets a room between Bush and Dick.

Glad to see some sense in this thread across the board.

Farkers get it. You can't have a society without people working, you know, making stuff and doing stuff for other people. The more people who do absolutely nothing and sponge off of the ones who are working, the less stuff the workers are going to get in return for working. It's not complicated.

I'd love to see submitter try to explain why neocons would be against this. Submitter, don't use the word neocon unless you know what it means. Really that applies to all words.

Headso: GaryPDX: Okay then. Let's all quit our jobs, move to Seattle and live off the grand benevolence of the State.

/wooowooo!

man your life must really suck as it stands now...

Well yeah. Anyone who has to actually work for a living has some suck in their lives. Luckily, we can all change that by moving to Seattle and picking up a 40.

EdNortonsTwin: Hopefully this guy gets a room between Bush and Dick.

*facepalm*

Nice.

There is a simple way to save even more money...




/Your dog wants Soylent Green, and he wants it NOW

Arnold T Pants: Submitter, don't use the word neocon unless you know what it means. Really that applies to all words.

THANK YOU!

Words like "conservative", "liberal" and the like have been ABUSED and MISUSED to the point that they don't even MEAN anything to me anymore! That's why I try my best not to use them.

Neoconservatives have a domestic policy? Subby, you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

They'd save even more money if they just disposed of the homeless in a painless and quiet manner.

Soylent Green, FTW!

jcooli09: They'd save even more money if they just disposed of the homeless in a painless and quiet manner.

Soylent Green, FTW!

I should have read the thread before posting

Isn't this the wheel coming back round?

When the state mental institutions were emptied in the early '80s (for a variety of reasons, some sound, some not) most of the former inmates became the kind of crazy homeless people with substance abuse issues we see today.

So now we set up an institution where they can be cared for and monitored by the state again.

Seems like we could have saved a lot of time and money by simply revamping the old system all those years ago rather than destroying it.

jcooli09: I should have read the thread before posting

At least I now know who will be sitting next to me on my trip to Hell.

First class, window seat...

matthew8762: Isn't this the wheel coming back round?

When the state mental institutions were emptied in the early '80s (for a variety of reasons, some sound, some not) most of the former inmates became the kind of crazy homeless people with substance abuse issues we see today.

So now we set up an institution where they can be cared for and monitored by the state again.

Seems like we could have saved a lot of time and money by simply revamping the old system all those years ago rather than destroying it.

Yep, that Reagan guy. He was so full of trickle-down Alzheimers.

you know who else enjoys public housing:

Subby, the stats were released by the mayor's office.

You FAIL at watching The Wire.

You can end homelessness by giving people homes?

BRILLIANT!

groovyjman21: A neocon is a socialist, zionist , warmonger. The "con" refers to con jobs fundamental to Straussian malfeasance, not conservatism in any way.

Amplified that for you.

If they REALLY want to save money, implement the "Free Drugs and Booze" plan for addicts.

Give addicts free housing, "three hots and a cot" style, and all the mind-altering substance of their choice they can use. They're confined to a "campus" area. They have to ask to get in the program, but once in they're IN until they can manage to not take their daily dosage for (say) 30 days in a row. Med care is free, but only basic and for non-drug-issues like colds, flu, whatever - no free liver transplants, for instance.

It's basically assisted suicide.

Morally, it's not so hot a program.
But fiscally, it's gonna save the taxpayers a fortune for every addict not assaulting & burglarizing to support his/her habit.

Hi, my name is starsrift, and I'm addicted to Fark...

Gamer Grrrl: matthew8762: Isn't this the wheel coming back round?

When the state mental institutions were emptied in the early '80s (for a variety of reasons, some sound, some not) most of the former inmates became the kind of crazy homeless people with substance abuse issues we see today.

So now we set up an institution where they can be cared for and monitored by the state again.

Seems like we could have saved a lot of time and money by simply revamping the old system all those years ago rather than destroying it.

Yep, that Reagan guy. He was so full of trickle-down Alzheimers.


To be fair, there were a bunch of touchy-feely types on board with shutting down the homes.

They had the idea that instead of institutionalizing indigent crazy people and making them take their meds, it would be better for them to be out in society so they could get the skills to reenter it.

Unfortunately the reality was that, without supervision and monitoring, a lot of the crazies decided being bat-shiat insane was better than feeling sedated but "functionally normal". So they self-medicated and lived on the streets for all of us to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of.

But that's a parallel issue to the straight up winos and bums this program seems aimed at.

Tommy Moo: Glad to see some sense in this thread across the board.

Farkers get it. You can't have a society without people working, you know, making stuff and doing stuff for other people. The more people who do absolutely nothing and sponge off of the ones who are working, the less stuff the workers are going to get in return for working. It's not complicated.

Wow, I'm sure glad that primal cilivisational crisis we've been dealing with as a species for over 5 thousand years has been solved. By you. In two lines of text.

Thanks for coming out, I guess you don't need to think anymore.

/.......monad

didn't solve it, Chuck. just pointed out that it was there.

action, now that would solve it.

Nothing frustrates me more than when an able-bodied person is begging near a huge shopping complex with about 25 "Now Hiring" signs in the window. They often have signs saying "Will work for food"

Call them on that bluff. They write that with the hopes of donations only.

Nemo's Brother: Nothing frustrates me more than when an able-bodied person is begging near a huge shopping complex with about 25 "Now Hiring" signs in the window. They often have signs saying "Will work for food"

Call them on that bluff. They write that with the hopes of donations only.

Umm, to be fair, a lot of those folks you see are unemployable for jobs like the stores are offering.
Non-retail people make fun of retail workers, but the stores prefer you to be (1) not insane or otherwise in an alternate reality state, (2) not pungent, and (3) able to show up on time.