Res Ipsa wrote:It’s been a long and tangled conversation, but I don’t think Markk has argued that immigration is the cause of the spike in homelessness. He’s given both as examples of deteriorating conditions, but hasn’t argued that one caused the other. It was Cam who made that argument.
I agree he has not directly said it, which is why I qualified my statement as "so Mark is right *if* he thinks".
But the position is implicit within his other beliefs. Recall his claim that everything is getting worse, that buying power is shrinking, that carpenter wages (and wages everywhere) are falling because of illegals -- if all that is true, then how could it *not* contribute to homelessness? However, a person may reject the implications of their beliefs, and in this case Mark has clarified his position now and so the point is noted.
ETA: I really do think in another conversation we would not be surprised to find Markk making this connection. I think given the right day of the week, it's something he very much could believe. Let's be clear why he rejects the logical implications of his beliefs about illegals thrusting down wages and standard of living of workers generally. Because a tangent topic suddenly arose about the homeless pissing him off during his commute, that shaped the context of where they fit in. If a carpenter is pushed onto the street because his job was stolen by an illegal, we should have nothing but sympathy for the plight of many of the homeless. To keep his righteous indignation up, the homeless need to be as guilty as possible. Druggies, potheads, party animals with no responsibility, people who don't want to work. He even suggested the causal role of drug addiction to mental illness, which to me was a sly way of avoiding giving the mentally ill a pass for their condition.