Homeless man › Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

« Back To Picture of the Day Top

YURIKO NAKAO/REUTERS

Friday 30th January, 07:36 AM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 59 Total Comments Show All

tkoind2 at 03:33 PM JST - 30th January

tmarie. I don't care how much of your but you have worked off, you don't need an 150million dollar salary. And a society that thinks that is ok is sick. How can you justify having one person make 150million a year while tens of millions live on just a few dollars a day and will never earn even a 10,000 a year?

And society does not have to be haves and have nots. Just because that is how it has been, does not mean it should continue to be so. We have entered a new age, one with econological and economic limitations that will require difficult changes to address. We cannot go on feeding an ultra-wealthy tiny class while the masses of the world go without. It is immoral and it can no longer be tolerated.

Societies must address our collective global problems. Poverty is one of the issues at the top of that list. The wealth to improve the world, address hunger, disease etc... exists. But it exists in the hands of a tiny few. When it should exist in the hands of societies where it can be used for change.

Our environment will not allow us to keep making mass year on year profits in a viral consumer culture. So get used to and plan for change. We are seeing more and more people fall through societies cracks. As those numbers grow they will find the voice to demand change. It will begin with a plea, but left unheeded it will become a roar that will be a lot harder to ignor and lot more consequential to calm.

Tmarie it begins with empathy for a homeless man on a bench. From here we can address problems and allow you to keep much of your priviledged world in tact. But then that one becomes hundreds of thousands, the risks will be far greater than paying a little more tax today.
tkoind2 at 03:47 PM JST - 30th January

One more thing. There is a moral right and moral wrong. A person in need should be helped. This is a moral right. Whether your morality is secular or religiously motivated, helping others is the right thing to do.

Ignoring or dismissing the suffering of others is equal to supporting it. If we fail to help those who need help, the how can we face ourselves?

I don't feel superior to you or to anyone. But I know a moral right from a moral wrong when I see it. And tossing a homeless person off a bench because you pay taxes for it is a moral wrong. As is societies failure to assure he didn't end up there in the first place.
tmarie at 03:48 PM JST - 30th January

I am not justifying it. I am merely pointing out that many of thise who make that much money didn't get to that point just by sitting on their butts.

Soceity does "need" to have the haves and have nots. Darwinism if you want to call it that. I am not saying it is fair but this is how society (and the animal kingdom) works.

Please don't get me a lecture on empathy. I certainly don't need any sort of lecture from someone who fails to understand the workings of society. Again, I'm not saying I agree with it and I would indeed like to change it and make it better (I think I do indeed do my part and probably a heck of a lot more than those pointing their fingers at me feeling smug about themsleves) but you will never create a classless, equal society. It isn't the way we work.
semansco at 03:51 PM JST - 30th January

Empathy cannot be explained to a heartless person. It is like describing colors to the blind.
tkoind2 at 04:27 PM JST - 30th January

Are you really playing a Darwinism card?

Once upon a time the tribe with the best capacity to kill the other tribe had more to eat. Is that what you think a modern society should be?

As for understanding how society works. I know very well how society works. Let's talk about an increasingly common reality model shall we?

I know a woman in her 30's who could not afford to go to college. Despite that she's worked her but off learning new skills and spending the last 12 years working long unpaid OT hours to help make a big company profits so their investors would be happy. When the company's poor investments tanked she was dropped off to fend for herself.

Out of a job she got right to work trying to find a new one. But you know what? She's now in competition with a lot of other unemployed people. Many of whom are younger or have higher degrees of education. She has not even been able to get some low paying part time work because even those jobs are highly competitive today.

So she swalled her pride and moved home with parents to run a small restaurant and have done so for 40 years. But they are suffering too. Their customers are also losing jobs and worried about money so they don't come in and the family is on the brink of losing everything.

But it extends beyond them too. The guy they buy produce from is on the brink, the mean shop, the supplier for restarant goods. All are suffering.

Meanwhile back at the company where this hard working woman spent so many years, the top brass are still raking in millions every year.

So this is your Darwanism at work. This is your perfect ideal world? One where empathy is out and live and let die is the way things work? Without regard for downstream consequences?

That is how we've ruined the planet. And that is what led to the collapse of the current economy. This kind of narrow thinking is why we need change and why someone has to explain empathy to someone like you.

We can and are evolving beyond the laws of the animal Kingdom. We have to if we are to survive as a human race. You say I don't know how things work. But I have a strong deep grasp of history and I can demonstrate just how long cycles work. And they do not bode well for your thinking. Human beings adapt and change. Most often with painful lurches back and forth before taking a step forward. Most often in violent upheaval.

My wish is that we can take a step with choice and direction to care for all of the people in society and not just for the few. The reality that history shows us is this. If we fail to address our problems. They will come back and address us, usually in a violent and deadly way.

You may be right, there may never be a classless equal society. But there must be a better more equal society and we must work towards one. Maybe it isn't they way you work. But it is the way more and more people globally are demanding that it work. And that voice will become more and more difficult for you to ignore. Count on it!
tkoind2 at 04:34 PM JST - 30th January

One more note. It would be far better for us all to pay more and sacrifice more to create the required improvements in social welfare, education and healthcare needs, than to suffer decades of an divided society or to wait for angered masses to erupt in war, revolution and social conflict.

If we live by your Darwin rules, then the poor should rise up and take what they need from you. Afterall they have the numbers on their side. And isn't that how your world works?

Better to give and to build by choice. Don't you think? Let's retire the animal kingdom and move on to a better and more just human world.
Mayuki at 04:44 PM JST - 30th January

tkoind2 - bravo/brava!

tmarie - "And if anyone here is being "smug" I suggest you look in the mirror. You're "smug" comments to me suggest that you believe yourself to be better than I - merely because I don't agree with your opinion - and yet, I help out."

How is it exactly that you know I don't help others? There is no possible way for you to know what kind of contribution I make. There was nothing snide about earlier my comments. Nothing snide at all. I was merely asking some questions about your attitude, because I found it astonishing.

Oh, and P.S. "Your smug comments" not "You're smug comments". (That might have been a bit snide, but I couldn't resist, sorry.)
UnagiDon at 08:25 PM JST - 30th January

tkoind2 - well said! Tmarie's comments really highlight the petite in petite bourgeoisie
AlfGarnett at 08:35 PM JST - 30th January

I agree with tkoind2, Mayuki and UnagiDon: The comments made by the aforementioned poster would lead to them being called a snob in my manor.

If you don't have sympathy in your heart , then you aren't a real happy human being yourself like. NOBODY dseserves to sleep on a bench these days, strewth, there is plenty of money in this world, some is need to help the real needy.
bishamonten at 10:48 PM JST - 30th January

The man on the bench was a burglar that was released from prison about six weeks ago. The crimes he committed were extremely violent, he has also been extremely violent towards his own family, possibly because he is a heavy drinker & drug user. Help has been offered in the past & been abused &/or refused. It can of course be reasoned that this man has some very serious mental health problems, but under the law he cannot be forced to accept treatment & when offered help & treatment he has always reacted aggressively & rejected any help. If you really believe that you can help man & feel that you can get through to him I would warn you to be careful about trying to talk with him, he has an irrational temper & can be dangerous.

How do I know all this? I don’t. None of the above is true. But it equally fits with all the other above posts that have this man a poor unemployed soul deserving of our empathy. It is just as likely to be true.

Some people live in a very black & white world.

Yes, there but for the grace of what-not go any one of us. But let us not get carried away to the point of seeing a social revolution on the horizon because there are some people that sleep on park benches, because there will always be some people that sleep on park benches. They are social misfits that society does not want & cannot accommodate.

tkoind2

The picture is really so much bigger than the one you want to blackmail us with. The CEO on 150mil a year should be a thing of the past, but not because of this man on the bench, but because such people have brought our economy to the edge of ruin & brought us all that much closer to that bench. THAT we agree on. What we cannot ever agree on is this naïve idea of a safety net for the poor, safety nets create more “victims” than they rescue & somebody (you, tmarie & I) has to pay for them. Ask the wise old Alf (above) for some of his wisdom about how the UK is doing with its safety net. I think he will give you a very depressing picture of what happens when the state starts to take care of everyone.
cwhite at 10:24 PM JST - 31st January

seesaw: how much do you need to save up to feel secure?
rurika at 03:48 AM JST - 1st February

I would like my money to go towards things that I need - health care, schools, pension... I pay for these things and I would like those improved.

tmarie, the taxes you pay aren't just for YOU and the things YOU need. We all pay taxes for some services we don't use (and services that we hope we'll never need).

Hopefully this crisis will mark the start of a new way of living where we all become more caring towards each other. The ever-growing gap between the rich and poor is creating no end of social problems. It's clear that the kind of divided society we have now doesn't work. We need to create an inclusive society which cares for everybody.

In many countries it has become more lucrative for people on live on unemployment benefit than work for low wages. If we create a more equal society with more equal wages, people will want to work and they will regain their dignity. We will all be better off for it.
grafton at 08:49 AM JST - 1st February

rurika at 03:48 AM JST - 1st February

“Hopefully this crisis will mark the start of a new way of living where we all become more caring towards each other.”

That’s a nice thought, but totally out of keeping with what is known of human nature. Given any crisis humans are just not nice people, the ME in me becomes all that is important. People have been killed for their park benches before now.
tkoind2 at 08:56 AM JST - 2nd February

bishamonten: No one is asking for a welfare state. Now you are being black and white.

Just because one program failed, does not mean all such programs will fail. If democracy fails in one place, do you abandon it as futile and flawed for all places? This is not rational thinking.

We need to evolve the concepts of social welfare so that they are providing a net to catch the falling, but then taking it a second step to have programs to get those people back on independent ground. This can be done through retraining programs, goverment work programs and micro-economic loan programs that have built strong micro economies in other nations.

There are many potential solutions. And it is not naive to see the programs that do work.

I'm a product of a working program. My father died when I was very young and my stay at home mom had a hard time in the years following. But through programs that helped empower her, we managed. Later those same programs gave me my first job that taught me responsibility and self reliance. And educational benefits allowed me to obtain a degree and start a respectable career.

Now I can give back through taxes, volunteer work and support for social program. If someone had used your logic, maybe these opportunities would have been lost.

We need to have more faith in people. That is one of our greatest social failings. And we need to be more charitable in how we work with those less fortunate than ourselves.

Programs can and do work. Some don't. But we don't toss them all out because some fail. We find better programs and better ways to achieve the necessary goals for a humane and caring society. It is our moral, and should be our humanitairan, duty to do so.
jmarc at 10:18 PM JST - 2nd February

you know.. might be hard to imagine but some people just prefer to live on the streets and stay poor all their life.