# My lack-of-God, I'm a communist! Persecute! Persecute! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 1, 2007, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-lack-of-god-im-a-communist-persecute-persecute/421209 "2007-10-01T23:25:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2007, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-lack-of-god-im-a-communist-persecute-persecute/421209/41 "2007-10-03T02:22:40Z")
Yeah, I don’t mean to be cruel or dismissive, but you should ask yourself two questions: 1. Do I know any chronically homeless people? 2. Do I know any farmers? The answer clearly seems to be “no”. If it was not, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2007, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-lack-of-god-im-a-communist-persecute-persecute/421209/42 "2007-10-03T02:43:35Z")
We’re paying farmers subsidies, because prices of the crops they grow are too low. What’s going to happen if we try to get _more_ people to try to grow the same crops? The farm lobby, which has managed to kill several attempts to end farm subsidies, isn’t going to like this… ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2007, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-lack-of-god-im-a-communist-persecute-persecute/421209/43 "2007-10-03T15:50:30Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] Yeah, I don’t mean to be cruel or dismissive, but you should ask yourself two questions: 1. Do I know any chronically homeless people? 2. Do I know any farmers? The answer clearly seems to be “no”. If it was not, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. [/QUOTE] Sure I do. A friend of mine and his girlfriend have been in and out of homelessness since I’ve known them. They’re not mentally ill or otherwise messed up; some people just have terrible luck. When you’re homeless, you can’t work because dealing with the probelms of homelessness is a full-time job. Your problems of shelter, employment, transportation, and food need to be solved all at once, or else one problem makes it impossible to solve the others. And yes, my mother’s side of the family are farmers, so I’ve spent plenty of time on farms. > [@Anne Neville](#): > > We’re paying farmers subsidies, because prices of the crops they grow are too low. What’s going to happen if we try to get more people to try to grow the same crops? The farm lobby, which has managed to kill several attempts to end farm subsidies, isn’t going to like this… I doubt if this would be on such a scale as to significantly affect commodity prices. And the land we’re speculating about is probably already in production. > [@Cervaise](#): > > What about the guy whose sole purpose in life is to track down the demon-possessed children who are giving him grotesque commands by beaming radio signals straight to his brain, so he can beat them to death with a hammer and grind their skulls into bread flour? We’ll just include that as one of the questions on the application. ---
**Author:** ![georgehanson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/13edae/32.png) [@georgehanson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/georgehanson)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2007, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-lack-of-god-im-a-communist-persecute-persecute/421209/44 "2007-10-03T16:52:39Z")
FDR built several communities like the one the OP describes. I grew up in one. Here is a wikipedia link, check out the history section. > **[Greendale, Wisconsin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greendale%2C_Wisconsin)** > > Greendale is a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 14,854 at the 2020 census. Greendale is located southwest of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is a part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. A planned community, it was established by the United States government during the Great Depression. > The first recorded inhabitants of the Greendale area were various Native American tribes, including the Potawatomi. The 1833 Treaty of Chicago struck an agreement between the... I think one of the key differences between the OP’s idea and FDR’s was the depression created many people, often families, that suffered terrible economic hardship, while many (not all) of today’s homeless have mental, substance abuse problems or are for some other reason simply unable to live in society. Sorry if I didn’t link correctly, I welcome any advice on board policy or culture. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-lack-of-god-im-a-communist-persecute-persecute/421209.md?page=2)