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I wish I had a good answer for your first questions. My best guess is some mixture of American propaganda about poor = lazy, puritanical views that hardworking people are morally good, and a refusal to believe that it will happen to them because they are good, hardworking people.

As for your question about the unhoused, I’ll paraphrase something my spouse, who has been unhoused, told me in the past:

“The false hope is necessary. The people who lose that hope are the ones who OD trying to escape (though those who still have that hope may also use drugs as an escapism) or quietly kill themselves and no one but the few unhoused they know will notice, and most won’t have the energy or mental space to care.”

^^ to add a bit to that of my own; we have studies that show the psychological effects chronic starvation and stress cause: increased irritability, impulsiveness, decreased ability to plan or critically think (from their own previous ability, not saying it immediately drops your IQ to like, 70 [also, let’s agree to brush over the issues of IQ as a measure of intelligence since I am just using it as an example]). And that is a permanent effect. It doesn’t rebound if you suddenly become food-and-shelter stable. Your brain is just permanently fucked up.

Also, I don’t know where else to include this, but I feel like it is important if discussing this topic. My spouse was unhoused for approx 1 year. It has taken 5 years of therapy to get them to view themselves as a person again. After 12 months, they had internalized their treatment as subhuman to the point it has taken 5x that to undo. And that’s not like, positive self-esteem. They still have insanely low self esteem and negative views of themselves and their abilities (along with CPTSD). This is them viewing themselves as a person as much as any person walking down the street. I cannot imagine how it is for people who have been unhoused longer.