Won't someone think of the exploding homeless?

sweetmelissa31: Let them drink breast milk.

Subbies are starting to think "repeat" means the opposite of what it really means. You just keep repeating that word incorrectly, and soon everyone will repeat you.

They're going to "Minnesota" it up - turn what was once a successful conservative state into the social program nanny state that makes it as crappy as California only without the kickass weather.

Tell me about the rabbits again.

I think I'd head out Californee way to look for jobs. Screw North Dakota.

tnpir: Can we safely assume this problem corrects itself when the winter North Dakota temperatures drop below zero to somewhere around "FARK IT'S FREEZING"?

Mmmm...homeless popsicles...

"That's the beauty of it. When winter comes around, the homeless simply freeze to death."

There's low unemployment because people GTFO if they don't have a job and a warm place to live. It's farking cold.

Gonna get me a chicken-fried steak!

Do people not realize that the reason unemployment is so low there is because there is simply no other reason to stay there unless someone is already paying you? You don't just wait around hoping for some great opportunity to appear in Grand Forks or Minot. You get the hell out of there!

As long as they don't come to California.

what_now: Texas is facing this problem as well. People are simply packing their things and abandoning their homes because they won't sell and there are no jobs in a 100 mile radius.

I see a partial solution for the homeless problem in that statement.

tnpir: Can we safely assume this problem corrects itself when the winter North Dakota temperatures drop below zero to somewhere around "FARK IT'S FREEZING"?

Mmmm...homeless popsicles...

No, stupid Christians keep giveing the homeless places to sleep for the night, blankets and clothes, but sadly no boot straps.

WrestlerManager: what_now: Texas is facing this problem as well. People are simply packing their things and abandoning their homes because they won't sell and there are no jobs in a 100 mile radius.

I see a partial solution for the homeless problem in that statement.

squatters!

Actually, this story give me some renewed hope. People willing to move to N Dakota for work. NORTH DAKOTA is cold and boring. I know most people don't want to sit on their butts and do nothing, but still.

FTFA: Michael Carbone of the North Dakota Coalition for Homeless People says half of North Dakota's homeless are employed.

If only there was an industry that could employ people and build shelters for homeless people with money... at the SAME time... boy, that would be somethin'.

Did you just say busket?
Put down the busket.
Put the rag in the busket.
Give me the busket.

dobedobeDUE: As long as they don't come to California.

I don't think many people would make that mistake.

Ha!
My brother has been working in North Dakota, so I suppose I should be getting a kick out of these replies...

dobedobeDUE
As long as they don't come to California.

You know what the mortgage for a cardboard box is going for in Cali?

Something tells me there won't be any landmark works of literature written about the Great Inward Schlep.

Why the HELL would homeless people go to North Dakota? Unless said homeless come with coats of heavy down, you'd freeze your ass off!

gonna get me a piece of the bottom land

LeroyBourne: Did you just say busket?
Put down the busket.
Put the rag in the busket.
Give me the busket.

fuzzycuffs: Why the HELL would homeless people go to North Dakota? Unless said homeless come with coats of heavy down, you'd freeze your ass off!

Because someone told them there were jobs there.

/If ones definition of homeless consists an incoherent alcoholic/drug addict sleeping in a pile of his own vomit, it's time to get a bigger perspective.

I think you mean a repeat from actual history as opposed to a repeat from a novel based on history.

I'm getting a kick out of these... In Bismarck we hit mid 20's a couple days ago, and there were instantly a couple homeless on the I-94 overpasses. (For those of not familiar, ND does have homeless, but you RARELY see people living on the street, -40 tends to clean that up quite nicely.)

Yes, our unemployment really hasn't changed, our home values haven't tanked, and our government has a bigger surplus than it can even spend. Nothing to see here, move along!

madgordy: I was at my local farmers market,, where the fresh fish dealer had a large display of Lutefisk.


a very small elderly lady came up to the shop and said, while pointing at the vile mass of lye soaked rotten fish...

"Is it Fresh?"

it was quite jaw dropping. I stood there waiting for the sales person to reply, "No ma'am". and then the little old lady, "good, I'll take 3 lbs."

Lutefisk...if it hasn't been soaked in gasoline for 3 weeks, then it just won't have that authentic Swedish flavor

demonfaerie: madgordy: I was at my local farmers market,, where the fresh fish dealer had a large display of Lutefisk.


a very small elderly lady came up to the shop and said, while pointing at the vile mass of lye soaked rotten fish...

"Is it Fresh?"

it was quite jaw dropping. I stood there waiting for the sales person to reply, "No ma'am". and then the little old lady, "good, I'll take 3 lbs."

The stuff isn't bad if it is not over cooked. Plus my god is that stuff expensive. It goes for like 14 bucks a lb in my local grocery store, and that is cheap.

I've never seen lutefisk in a grocery store, but then I live in the South. I'm guessing you don't have gator in your stores.

I'd kinda like to try it, but just the idea of fish in lye grosses me out.

Nuclear Monk: Do people not realize that the reason unemployment is so low there is because there is simply no other reason to stay there unless someone is already paying you? You don't just wait around hoping for some great opportunity to appear in Grand Forks or Minot. You get the hell out of there!

so much this. I live in this wonderfully boring, cold state and the local newspapers just keep reeling in the fact that the town I live in has a low unemployment rate. People here HAVE lost their jobs, it's just that when they lose it, they move somewhere else very quickly regardless if they have a job there or not.

I know one company who 2 years ago had 110 people (that's a lot for a town my size) and today they have like 53. That would certainly make the unemployment rate go up here, right? It doesn't because when those people got laid off, they moved and a lot of them moved out of state. Had those people from that one company stayed here and waited for jobs to show up, our unemployment rate would be a lot higher.

I don't care how many homeless they have, they can't hold a candle to the amount we have here in Florida

If you must sleep outdoors, it's at least warm here.

And since the economy took a dump and rolled over, there are twice as many.

Though quite a few are just lazy bastards that have no desire to work. I guess if you can make better than minimum wage hanging out with a sign, there will be people that do it.

Minot's other problem is that the Air Force just brought in several thousand more people with no place to put them on the base, so they rent apartments downtown.

Passive Aggressive Larry: I think I'd head out Californee way to look for jobs. Screw North Dakota.

I actually left L.A. to move to North Dakota (via Minneapolis) and do much better here than I ever did in Hollywood. There's a lot less competition for me, and I can keep my prices way lower than union shops while still paying my guys a lot more money than they would make in a bigger market. As a result, I now have a crew of guys from all over the country who love it here, and excel at what they do. It's seriously the best production crew I've ever worked with. As far as living in ND - sure, it's cold, and I don't have the options of doing the things I used to have options for in L.A. like theater and sports, etc. But when I lived in L.A., I could never afford those things anyway. Now, I jump on the Allegiant flight out of Fargo and I'm in L.A. 4 hours later for $160 round trip. I get to thaw out, and do all the things I could never afford to do when I lived there.

Logic FAIL. The reason N.D. has a low unemployment rate isn't because it's got such a thriving economy - it's because you can't live there without a job. It's brutally cold in the winter, no public transportation, no public services to speak of, the locals hate the jobless, and all the young people up and leave as soon as they possibly can.

When the snow is 40 inches deep and it's 30 degrees below zero, the unemployment problem kind of takes care of itself.

tnpir: Can we safely assume this problem corrects itself when the winter North Dakota temperatures drop below zero to somewhere around "FARK IT'S FREEZING"

Nope.
A number of states give 'cast-offs' one way tickets to end of the line (Maine) on Greyhound, and they get off right next to the homeless shelter (Bangor, ME). They are still around. they don't just pack up and leave in the summer because it is too cold in the winters to stay.

Sad but true. I live in Grand Forks, and I've started seeing a lot more people standing around at street corners begging. Used to never see that at all, I've been up here for about 7 years now.

With the cold snap we just got though, they all disappeared, to go hibernate in some cardboard box until spring thaws them out again.