Patrick deserves a lot of credit for taking this problem on. Say whatever about naivete, but he at least fucking did something.
Most HN posters in the U.S. probably haven't experienced true financial stress. It's toxic. It makes you paranoid. Benzos don't help (and they're a terrible long-term solution anyway). You have a constant cold because your immune system is shot. And you never get used to it. It never gets better. The cognitive load is both intense and purely negative. There is no good in it. People who romanticize "poverty" are usually talking about something like grad student life (little money, little expense). Financial stress is as poisonous as ingesting paint thinner, and even a few weeks of it can permanently fuck someone up.
I think that most homeless people have severe mental illness that is not their fault (and that deserves compassion and treatment, not stigma or abuse). If they didn't have it beforehand, they'll have it after a few months of that life.
I think it's damn heroic that Leo was able to summon the cognitive clarity, after that kind of long-term damage, to build something. Unfortunately, that's not going to be enough to get him anywhere near the level of mental health that would enable him to hold down a typical white-collar job. That's a fucking long road.
> I think that most homeless people have severe mental illness
This is another stigma that's counter-productive. The real number is somewhere between 20-25% suffering from severe mental illness, which is still very high, though not so high when you consider 22% of Americans suffer from some kind of a mental illness (only 6% of Americans are severely mentally ill). Mental illness is only the third largest cause of homelessness for single adults.
To add to your point: poverty causes something like a 13% drop in the IQ, similar to pulling an all-nighter every day for a week.
20-25% is a pretty high number, especially when you compare it to the 6% of Americans with a severe mental illness. I can't find any good estimates for the percent of homeless with any form of mental illness.
A good question (which I can't find an answer to) is what is the percentage of the long term homeless population that suffers from severe mental illness?
I would argue that being homeless and under financial stress causes mental illness in people who'd otherwise be healthy. It deserves compassion, not stigma.
Most HN posters in the U.S. probably haven't experienced true financial stress. It's toxic. It makes you paranoid. Benzos don't help (and they're a terrible long-term solution anyway). You have a constant cold because your immune system is shot. And you never get used to it. It never gets better. The cognitive load is both intense and purely negative. There is no good in it. People who romanticize "poverty" are usually talking about something like grad student life (little money, little expense). Financial stress is as poisonous as ingesting paint thinner, and even a few weeks of it can permanently fuck someone up.
I think that most homeless people have severe mental illness that is not their fault (and that deserves compassion and treatment, not stigma or abuse). If they didn't have it beforehand, they'll have it after a few months of that life.
I think it's damn heroic that Leo was able to summon the cognitive clarity, after that kind of long-term damage, to build something. Unfortunately, that's not going to be enough to get him anywhere near the level of mental health that would enable him to hold down a typical white-collar job. That's a fucking long road.