For example, Britain’s national mapping organisation’s brand is associated in our national consciousness with going to a small shop in a quaint village to get a map showing how to walk up a mountain. It’s called Ordnance Survey. If that sounds like Artillery Research to you, that’s because the project started because the king wanted to know how to accurately bomb Scotland.
Homelessness. But I don’t occasionally think about it. I see it every day. In the richest nation in recorded history.
What country? Is it really rich if it can’t look after its citizens?
It’s always been a rich man’s country. All for one, none for all.
And the wealth of only one single manchild is enough to pay housing for them all - at least in this nation…and probably in some more. (Just looked some numbers up - world economic forum reported in 2021 that there are 150 million people homeless in the world, that would be ~2700,- per individual homeless person, taking his net worth into account -for 770. 000 homeless people in the US it would be ~525. 000 per person)
The problem is that homelessness is, weirdly, more complicated than just giving people homes. It’s also about mental health issues (many of which we don’t yet have the ability to effectively treat), community, purpose, and a ton of other things.
It’s almost like everyone would benefit from a support system or safety net put in place by some community funded entity that would have the capability of putting those systems in place.
There are other problems for the homeless, but it makes treating those problems a lot easier when they have a home.
You can’t treat any existing mental health issues while people are living on the street developing new ones.
You’re right-I didn’t want to make it look simple. I’m just constantly stunned how wealth is distributed, which is one of many reasons for homelessness. A fair distribution could finance housing and support systems.