So if we brought all the troops home tomorrow, how many homeless shelters would need to be built?

[lonestarnot]

Will the majority be coming home to jobs, or no?

[Poll_Blind]

1. Bringing the troops home != Kicking troops out of the military

PB

[TriMera]

2. If they are Reserve or Nat'l Guard, they are coming home to jobs.

If they are regular military, they still have a job in the military until their length of service is reached. After that, they can re-up if they wish.

Edited to add (for clarification): Reserve and Nat'l Guard will come home to jobs if they had jobs when they left.

[provis99]

3. If we brought all the troops home,

with the money we will save from the wars, we could likely provide housing for everybody in America that doesn't have it.

Of course in reality, any money saved from shutting down the wars would simply go towards tax cuts for the rich.

[Cid_B]

4. I wonder about this sometimes...

If you just magically poofed every homeless person in America a 2 bedroom apartment, do you think that would turn out well?

[JDPriestly]

8. Yes. It would turn out very well.

I used to work for a homeless project. Getting people into good housing and especially if the housing is actually mixed into housing in which people who are not homeless are living, works very well for most of them. Having access to regular showers, cooking facilities, a table, chairs, all the things that help us function as humans would change their lives for the better.

I have a friend who was homeless and then got a place in a decent neighborhood. Totally changed her personality. It was wonderful!

It won't completely change all homeless people. But it will help them all, and drastically change a lot of them.

One of the guys in our shelter in downtown LA found out about a job in Orange County. He had no transportation to get to the interview so he started walking. It was ridiculous to try to do that. But that is how much so many homeless people want to have a chance.

[OneGrassRoot]

9. Thank you for sharing that. n/t

[Cid_B]

25. As open as I left that...

... you are probably right.

If there was an infinite money pot that would allow for free housing and cleanup in perpetuity but in my mind the goal is to get them to a productive and self sustaining state.

I think they would take it as long as you would give it, trash it once it stopped coming and head back to the streets when it was all gone. That is all generalities ...

[dkf]

5. You really think they would send the money that way?

Lol. They would probably pass another tax cut.

[StarsInHerHair]

6. & how well could a new G.I. Bill ameliorate that?

[JDPriestly]

7. Bring the troops home. Put our military industry to work

creating a green economy and a healthy environment.

What do we get in exchange for our wars? Oil.

So, if we brought our troops home, we would need their efforts to help us create energy sources that don't require so much oil.

Of course, part of the work in a green economy is in upgrading not only our grid and energy delivery facilities and systems but our homes, offices, churches, schools, hospitals and manufacturing plants (what is left of them) to use less energy. Lots of our soldiers could be employed doing that.

We would just be taking money now spent by the government on wasteful military equipment, air conditioning in the desert and having the government transfer that money to be spent here on our green economy.

It would not add to the deficit. It would probably lower the deficit especially if we started the building upgrades on our federal and state government buildings, schools and other publicly owned buildings.

I say, let's bring the troops home now and set an example for the world.

[NNN0LHI]

10. We can put them to work in our factories like we did after Vietnam

Oh, wait a minute.

Most of our factories are gone now.

Don

[midnight]

11. K&R Put America back to work and wipe away toxic mortgages....

[Warren Stupidity]

12. zero?

[lonestarnot]

14. zero shelters or zero jobless?

[Warren Stupidity]

18. This ain't WWII. it ain't even Vietnam.

We don't have a gigantic standing army of draftees that will be disbanded. We have a permanent relatively small by post WWII standards standing army augmented by part timers (made more or less full time by the endless global war bullshit) in the reserves and national guards. The reservists and national guard units would be the ones 'coming home' and they would for the most part pick up where the left off.

Will some be homelesss - yes of course. Will some be jobless - yes of course. Will we, as we have done for the last 30 years, do fuck all about it - yes of course.

[Obamanaut]

13. Suddenly bringing home all the active duty troops does not necessarily

make them homeless.

Many have quite a length of time left on their enlistments. They will not be jobless or homeless.

Closing all the military sites worldwide and bringing home all those personnel and the families (many are on accompanied tours) is, IMHO, doable.

Distribute all the returnees among the military sites stateside and see an influx of dollars in the local economies.

Closing all the sites in other countries saves a pile of money currently being spent on leases, upkeep, and local civilian worker salaries.

Gradually reduce the total size of the military via normal attrition as enlistments expire and reduced recruiting efforts.

Stop being policemen to the world.

[dionysus]

15. uh,they'd still be.... employed by the military and living on base...

:crazy:

[lonestarnot]

17. Only until the end of their enlistment for active duty. Then whut?

[Fleshdancer]

20. but that would be the same regardless if they were currently in Afghanistan now or not. n/t

[lonestarnot]

21. No, it would not. If they were home, they could at least network.

[dionysus]

23. they could reenlist if they wanted to? granted, it'd be tough to find private sector jobs, but

no one's forcing them out.

[Brickbat]

16. Gosh, good point. Better just leave them there, then.

[lonestarnot]

22. No, better point is that Ickyfuckingleaker better get busy with his job creation, as they will be

coming home one way or another. Maybe he's counting on the boxes.

[MadHound]

19. If we started a true job creation program, none.

But even if we don't do such a thing, we still need to bring the troops home, now. Otherwise we will continue to spend our way into oblivion.

And frankly, given the number of people who are unemployed, the troops that are abroad and would brought home, they would be a drop in the bucket.

[roomfullofmirrors]

24. many of them will be using newly earned GI bill benefits and attending college.

then they'll be competing in the job market. Their honorable service will give them lots of solid resume filler.