I sometimes get a little peeved when people in other countries--and even here in the United States, believe it or not--think that all Americans are "rich." Yeah. Pull the other one.
Latest stats: (and these are just the one's that were actually able to be counted, the true figure is very probably much, much higher): In 2005 there were counted, here in the good ol' USA, 744,000 homeless--40 percent of which were actually living on the streets, and not in a shelter or temporary housing.
Experts attribute the number one reason for this: lack of affordable housing. Number two reason, was inadequate mental health care, number three reason was drug and /or alcohol abuse. Number for was lack of jobs and /or living wage jobs in many areas. Number five reason: sky-rocketing healthcare costs driving many people--including the elderly--out of their homes. We don't have NHS, and the USA has some of the most expensive healthcare and medicines of any industialilzed nation on earth. No joke. These are just some of the reasons--the reality can be much more complicated than that, of course.
MrFlighty
Yet the administration is prepared to spend ( or should I say waste) billions of dollars on Iraq.
I find it totally crazy that any country doesn't put it's own people first. Money should be spent on education, housing, health and not on defense (so called, and wrongly in my opinion).
Government, big business and the 'rich' have a lot to answer for. Not that they seem to care very much, if at all, for the plight of such people.
I'm a Brit and it's just the same here in many ways. It sure is a crazy world that we live in sadly.