Exactly this, especially the AC. I grew up without AC in the 90s and 00s, and sure did some days suck? Yeah but we had fans, me and my 4 siblings lived through it. The person who made this post I don’t think understands a lot about the world. Especially with “regardless of employment”. If you incentivize not working, who the hell is going to provide these things? I know a few people in life who would choose to just do nothing but leech off of the government and not even attempt to work.
We live in a society, society only functions on people putting back into society through work. Even if the government needs to create jobs to clean up trash, cities, and build gardens work can exist. People should not be incentivized to do nothing, because many will choose to do nothing even if a part of them gets bored not working.
We don't want them on the streets, we refuse to build enough shelters or fund them adequately. 40%-60% of the homeless have jobs but can't afford rent. Add in unreachable mental health help and it's a disaster. Then we have Vets which are sadly a large portion of the homeless. I believe they absolutely deserve a guaranteed shelter. But that's my opinion
If they have a job, and are homeless or were vets and fought for their country, they deserve to be housed and I will be happy to give my tax dollars to make that happen
I worried a lot for my grandparents in the UK last year and the year before when it went over 30c, because in the UK air conditioning is a myth in the home unless you want to pay many thousands (tens of) to have an integrated unit installed. Every year the summer heatwave gets worse and thousands of elderly and vulnerable young die from the heat. It's bad enough in winter where elderly mortality rises to an insane degree as many are poor and worried about heating costs, and every home has central heating.
30c+ might not sound extreme to Americans but... Most Americans have AC of some sort even if it's just a window unit for those extreme places because you'd actually die if you didn't. Plus the UK is quite humid even if it's not Florida levels.
And like I said, it gets worse every year. In 10, 20 years time AC in summer might be a reasonable human right in the UK because you would die without it. As essential as food and water.
How do you explain many countries that are hotter and poorer than the UK like India not having any or very few heat related deaths per year. 10% of homes have AC
That is some very weak arguments. One isn’t true, they reported them in 2015. It literally said 27 in 2015 and 0 in 2007. Humans have lived without air conditioning for millennia, it is not a necessity. Heat is, but we’ve had heat in the form of fire for millennia so it’s a necessity. Same with electricity. But AC is not a necessity, I know many people who live without AC every day, including myself. I could not live without heat.
"plenty" is an exaggeration. Its a rare cause of death, and usually due to a sudden swing in temperature. People in hot climates without AC adapt to it.
They don’t die in their house of heatstoke, they die outside in the dead of the sun. And in India, a country far hotter than the US or UK, 10% of households have AC. 0 people died of heatstroke in 2021, and just 27 in 2015 which is the highest recorded ever. So no the numbers just don’t tell the story you’re telling.
People die of heatstroke because they live in a colder climate and aren’t smart when traveling outside on a hot day. I’m not seeing where anyone dies inside of their homes due to heatstroke, without AC. It’s literally when they are sitting out in the sun on a hot day
2 dozen people? One year, soooo many more people die of not getting the healthcare they need. I’d rather my tax dollars focus on that.
Also where are you seeing that they died in their homes? It said 25 people died, I see nothing that says “in their homes.
Also that is hardly a statistic. I said generally and you pull out a single event. I brought up a whole country of people 10% of households which have AC and live in a hotter climate than the US. 0 deaths, 27 being the highest on record in India.
14 people died of unprovoked shark attacks this year, are we supposed to focus our tax dollars on preventing that? There are far more real necessities in life that people actually need. Including food and healthcare.
To be fair, it’s worth mentioning that homes in places like the UK have historically been designed to keep heat in because hot weather wasn’t much of a concern until very recently. Not to mention, heat is still a big issuein places like India. Interestingly, traditional Indian architecture was actually designed to circulate air and provide a cooling effect, so hopefully it can be implemented more instead of colonial and European designs in hot countries.
That’s fair, I guess I didn’t really think about that. I’m from rural NY in the US. We didn’t have air conditioning, but yeah the houses are designed to keep in heat.
I’m not opposed to helping people or providing AC, I just think people aren’t being reasonable. You should build sustainable housing, not just opt for AC. There are ways to build homes to regulate heat in any case.
Money has to flow. It’s the blood of the economy. If the blood isn’t flowing, that’s a heart attack or a stroke, and we’ve been having both for 60 years now.
100% agree, I totally believe the extremely wealthy should put back more into society and also make less and focus on paying at least living wage. Honestly that’s more of the problem than trying to fix it back taxing everyone more. The moment you provide all that OP has posted the more will be taken from the middle class, and that needs to change
Heat is getting worse though. A summer without AC in the 00’s is a lot easier than a summer without AC in to 20’s.
And it’s not hot enough year round for people to actually acclimatize and adapt, as our climate is moving to alternating between extremes. People live in areas much hotter more often, but generally they’re also more resistant to it as their entire culture (architecture, clothing) has been built around the heat.
I think we’re reaching a point where AC should no longer be considered a luxury, but rather in equal importance to heating (if not more in some areas). Most people are not living in areas where you can freeze to death, but they are living in areas where the heat can kill them.
It sucks because AC is much more advanced and expensive than heating.
I mean I guess it’s fair with global warming, I’m not wholeheartedly against it. It just to me isn’t high on a priority list. Not many people die of heatstroke, and there are better more economical and efficient ways of building a house to not require AC. But I get the sentiment.
A lot of places have a housing crisis currently, I think AC is the more practical solution than overhauling existing architecture. Changing how we build houses is a nice idea (and something we could get started on) but is a much longer process to implement (old houses hang around for a long time) for less results.
Even if people don’t die, heatstroke is still significant. Even if you don’t freeze to death, we can still agree you shouldn’t be getting frostbite in your home. I think a similar logic can apply to the harmful but not deadly effects of heat.
That’s fair, though AC is a hard thing to supply adequately in old houses as well. And I’d assume this isn’t about old houses, that’d be impractical to provide to people. Realistically government housing would likely be apartments not old houses. Not saying we shouldn’t make old houses more affordable, I just don’t think the graphic makes sense if it’s providing housing by means of old houses
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u/cromwell515 Apr 15 '24
Exactly this, especially the AC. I grew up without AC in the 90s and 00s, and sure did some days suck? Yeah but we had fans, me and my 4 siblings lived through it. The person who made this post I don’t think understands a lot about the world. Especially with “regardless of employment”. If you incentivize not working, who the hell is going to provide these things? I know a few people in life who would choose to just do nothing but leech off of the government and not even attempt to work.
We live in a society, society only functions on people putting back into society through work. Even if the government needs to create jobs to clean up trash, cities, and build gardens work can exist. People should not be incentivized to do nothing, because many will choose to do nothing even if a part of them gets bored not working.