2010 Census

[PaddingtonBear]

I never thought much about the census until I recently encountered a police officer (that I often see in my neighborhood) who went off to me about how important it is that I get counted, because homeless people are usually not represented in the census. I was kinda surprised that he said "homeless," because I always thought squatters were different from homeless people. Anyone without a permanent home is a homeless person to him and he went off on this very professional definition of his. He made me start thinking about whether being a homeless person is the same as being a squatter. I thought too much, and my head started hurting. To me, I know there is a distinction, but when I tried explaining it to the officer, I had the most difficult time. So, I'm posting up here to get your guys' thoughts on this matter. I want to create a good definition for him, so I can explain it to the officer when I bump into him again.

 

[Pheonix]

what I thought this whas going to be about the 2010 census. who care what a cop defines you as. homeless, squatter, transient, criminal, dipshit to him their all the same and there ain't nothing you can say to change his mind so why bother.

oh and the real reason they say the census is so important is because the higher the population the more congress members that state is allowed to have. I live in a republican state with makes me not want to fill out the census cause they don't need any more representatives.

 

[PaddingtonBear]

Usually, I don't care much about it, but this officer argues not being counted may mean less funding for your state. Now, that's what got me, because I know a lot of ppl out there are surviving with the state's help. I may not need help, but I'd hate to see the family that lives a couple floors below me get cut off from foodstamps and what not. I guess that's why i told my buddy to count me in his form.

Anyway, I'm pretty new to the squatting scene. I started in London last year, but since I've moved to the states, I've been more of a couchsurfer and living at my friends' flats and what not. I'm just confused. I feel like the squatting scene in the states is very different from across the pond. Nowadays, I feel more like a couchsurfer than a squatter. Like labels or not, I just thought it was interesting topic of discussion, since there is a group of social workers (and an officer) trying to do a census on the homeless pop. in my area.

 

[Pheonix]

yes that's probaly true but one thing you will notice about this country is our politicans lie alot. they falsify research, turn lies into truth and vise versa, they change statistics in order to benifit their own agenda, what I'm trying to say is if they want the money they will find a way to get it regardless of what the numbers say. I think what they really want is the number of homeless people even thou the will lie about it anyways to back up their claim that there is not a homeless problem in this country.

 

[Wolfeyes]

yes that's probaly true but one thing you will notice about this country is our politicans lie alot. they falsify research, turn lies into truth and vise versa, they change statistics in order to benifit their own agenda, what I'm trying to say is if they want the money they will find a way to get it regardless of what the numbers say. I think what they really want is the number of homeless people even thou the will lie about it anyways to back up their claim that there is not a homeless problem in this country.

The only problem with that logic is thinking it's localized to the US only. It's like saying "The difference is, the snakes in this country are reptiles". Other than that it's spot on.

 

[Pheonix]

that's true but our snakes are bigger and they eat other snakes haha

 

[Mr. Expendable]

just don't give em your name and address on the cenus.... hahaha.... oh no they already got you..... I had some drunk ass mother fucker on the bus try to convince me that I was society's scum because i had my geer.... then he started puking everywhere and i started laugh thinking "your one to talk".... it looked like he had diarrhea out of his mouth.... fucking great.... then he forced me to take four cigarettes... which i was thinking "fuck it i need a smoke iright about now" aaaaaah i think it's funny as fuck when people puke on the bus cuz then everyone is force to deal with it