gentrification

[John Kawakami]

At 09:28 AM 8/17/99 +1000, you wrote:
>Wojtek wrote:
>
>> A larger point is that many on the Left see symbols as more important
>than
>> reality, and for ideological reasons embrace positions that glamorize
>> poverty and find excuses for its social ills - which pushes it to take
>> abusrd positions (cf. defending the right of the homeless to squat in
>> public parks) that marginalize and alienate the Left from the working
>class
>> which has to deal with reality on every day basis.
>
>the only mob who have ever tended to glamorise poverty are the
>fransiscans and associated tendencies as far as i can tell.

Scuse me?  Many "leftists" are just people who hate the trappings of middle
class boredom.  They certainly glamourize the more glamourous aspects of
poverty (gang life, prison, living cheap, manual labor).  Centrists and right
wingers do as well.  They like to praise the worker, while withholding the
socialism.

...


>and, is there really such an easy distinction between the working class
>and the homeless, especially in the US?

Stability.  Income is another, but mainly, it's stability.  If there were
better safety nets, it wouldn't be that much of an issue that people's savings
aren't that large.  


>Angela

John Kawakami johnk at cyberjava.com