#hope2015

Well let's see.

-There's no such thing as a career anymore because so many companies treat employees as cost centers instead of assets so people get fed up and the ONLY option they have is to leave their company for a meager raise.

-Student loans have reached the point where it's now obvious that they will be a major player in the next recession. If they haven't yet, student loans have eliminated any and all benefit to actually going to college in the first place. Assuming you can actually find a decent job where you make more than a high school graduate, every last dollar of that increase will go back to the loan companies for the next 10/20 years leaving you in the same damn place.

-Housing and rent is at a level that patently absurd. I look at prices and rents around my city and I don't know how people do it other than simply being lucky enough to have purchased their home over 10 years ago.

-Unions have been almost entirely eviscerated and the mere mention of a "Pension" to a millennial is met with stares of confusion because they will never know what it's like to have one of those.

-Medical care is no longer paid for by most employers and even when it's partially paid, it's still far more expensive than it ever was 10/20/30 years ago. Not to mention that if anything serious does go wrong that insurance will only cover a fraction of what it once did and you're on the hook for far more. Also, need a vacation or you get sick...too bad because we seem to be going for the same business culture model that the Japanese are.

-Young people can't buy houses, they can't buy cars, and many need roommates or are forced to live with their parents. If they do have the finances to get married and live as a family, they're lucky if they can afford kids before 30. Then the nuclear family has fallen apart because divorce rates are at 50% or more, which creates more financial setbacks.

Peachy, isn't it?

No...it's like The Comedian said in "Watchmen" (which was set in the 80's.)

"What happened to the American Dream..? It came true! You're looking at it."

For young people, the American Dream has come and gone. It's dead. The only way forward is to stop looking back and thinking that any semblance of the old ways and solutions are possible. They're not. We have to, hopefully, use the incredible technology at our fingertips to come up to solutions to solve these problems. Also, it's sad to say but very few of those solutions are going to come from the older generations and politicians. The world is just changing to quickly and they already got theirs. Best case scenario is they're not out to fuck you any WORSE than you already have been.

If you own a business, put some faith in young people that are willing to work. Spend time with them. Mentor them. Viciously hit them over the head with the reality of personal responsibility if necessary. Give them raises. Don't just talk about how to treat customers with respect and high levels of service....provide that high level of service and respect to your employees and they'll take care of your customers by default. Be loyal to them, earn their loyalty, and promote from within.

The only way out of this is to stop thinking that change is going to come from anyone but ourselves and our ability to work with each other in recognizing that we're either all going to move forward together or we'll all be fucked together.

Every year Robin Hood gathers with its supporters to participate in the HOPE Count for the Department of Homeless Services (DHS). This annual event brings more than 3,000 volunteers together to canvas the streets, parks and subways in NYC to help DHS gain a more accurate understanding of the amount of individuals living unsheltered in the city. 

This past Monday, Robin Hood supporter Eamon Harkin joined other Robin Hood volunteers to lend a hand. He recounts his experience below.

Last year my DJ partner, Justin Carter, and I announced that 10% of our net profits in 2014 from our Mister Saturday Night and Mister Sunday parties and record label would be donated to Robin Hood to contribute to their fight against poverty in our hometown of New York. By announcing our plan publicly, we hoped to inspire people in the community around our party and label to think about giving back in some way in their own lives.

"Volunteering comes with immediate, personal rewards and fosters a deeper level of understanding about the issues at hand."

More recently we've been talking about non-financial ways of helping fight poverty, and I've been searching for a good opportunity to dedicating some personal time and energy to help. Volunteering comes with immediate, personal rewards and fosters a deeper level of understanding about the issues at hand. When we got the invite from the good people at Robin Hood to participate in this year's HOPE Count it was an easy decision.

Before we set into night, there were two things that struck me in particular. The first was a video the Robin Hood folks showed us that highlighted the anonymity of homeless people and how, as New Yorkers, we've become very skilled at NOT seeing them wen we pass on the street and subway. The other thing I hadn't quite realized was that we weren't just counting homeless people; we were going to interact with every person we saw and, if they wanted us to, we'd make a real effort ot help them find shelter that night. These are real people who, because of circumstances very often outside of their own control, do not have a bed to sleep in on a regular basis. As I prepared to leave the training center I really wanted to ensure that each interaction was respectful, kind and humane and, if at all possible, that it would make a difference.

"He'd made the decision that being on the street in below freezing temperatures was less stressful for him than being in a shelter."

The three-person team I was a part of counted seven homeless people over the course of the next three hours. We interacted with three people at length, but it was the interaction with one particular gentleman that touched me the most. He was an African-American man in his mid to late 50s, articulate and gentle, and he called himself Steve Harvey (he'd been told he resembled the comedian). He said he wanted shelter but that he was afraid of being around lots of people. He liked quiet and solitude, and I quickly understood that his fear of being in large spaces with a lot of people was very real and extremely difficult for him. He'd made the decision that being on the street in below freezing temperatures was less stressful for him than being in a shelter.

We spoke with him gently and eventually persuaded him to talk though the option of a shelter with an on-call van driver (who would have better answers to some of his questions than we did) to see if there was the possibility of placing him in a situation that was acceptable to him. Unfortunately, by the time the van arrived to pick him up (it took less than five minutes), he'd changed his mind and wandered down the street. We followed after him to try to persuade him to speak with the driver, but he'd made his mind up and quickly disappeared into the cold night.

"they all had something holding them back from taking shelter on one of the coldest nights of the year."  

Of the seven homeless people we came across that night, we weren't able to persuade any of them to come into shelter. It was disappointing. The gentleman in question seemed to have a mental condition or illness of sorts, which was holding him back from taking shelter. The interactions with the other people we meet were quite similar: they all had something holding them back from taking shelter on one of the coldest nights of the year. 

It became clear to me Monday that the subset of homeless people in New York who don't avail of their legal right for shelter are a difficult group to reach, but we came close to changing the circumstances for one of them. With a little more luck we would have. The man who called himself Steve Harvey learned for the first time that night that he had legal right to a warm bed every night of the year, and he also seemed genuinely touched by the concern these random strangers had for him. Here's hoping that we made some progress  and next time around he'll take that bed.