New York City is moving migrants out of shelters and offering them plane tickets to anywhere in the world.

Here’s one approach to discourage migrants from settling in New York City: Give them a free, one-way plane ticket out of town.

Mayor Eric Adams is ramping up efforts to fly migrants to the destination of their choice, figuring it’s cheaper than sheltering them for months on end. And he’s simultaneously warning that those opting to stay in New York may be in for a winter of sleeping outside with shelters full.

“When you are out of room, that means you’re out of room,” Adams told reporters Tuesday. “Every year, my relatives show up for Thanksgiving, and they want to all sleep at my house. There’s no more room. That’s where we are right now.”

  • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This is going to sound crazy. But what if we like… Reduce our military spending budget by just 2% and use that money to build infrastructure/new towns. Those towns will need a workforce…

    You know. 2% less on the military budget.

    • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      China has tried that and they have ghost cities.

      There is nothing preventing people from buying a large piece of land in the hope of becoming a town. They can build infrastructure, and that’s all fine. Yes, it will require people to run.

      But who wants to move there? There’s nothing there for entertainment. There’s no family and friends there. Unless a lucrative company builds an HQ there, there aren’t really good decent jobs. So either 1) they have to promote remote work or 2) They have to be close enough to an area with lots of existing jobs. Otherwise, most people are going to have to commute if they don’t work for the local municipality.

      How do you propose to solve the desirability problem?

      • neptune@dmv.social
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        1 year ago

        You just focused on the dumbest part of his proposal. We won’t be literally China if we reinvest money in people, infrastructure and housing.

            • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              I’m going to need you to explain that a little better as I don’t get it. But the thing is (now that I’m on a computer and can type more), whether or not we take the funding from the military (of which I have no objection to), his solution makes no sense.

              Let’s say we have 2% of the military funding (and actually not from the military, in case there are people who are opposed), his proposal still doesn’t stand. If you take that money, you need to put it somewhere worthwhile. That’s all I’m trying to say. The first part is inconsequential because it doesn’t actually affect the solution.

              • neptune@dmv.social
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                1 year ago

                The original point was that we as a country have resources. Resources can be reallocated.

                If you don’t believe that resources can help or resolve and issue like homelessness or the growth in costs for housing… Well then you’d have to explain why.

                What you chose to do instead, was focus in on the idea of building “new” “town” which you understood to be some harebrained scheme to take cheap land in the middle of no where, build a “town” there and then shuttle all the poor people there. Even if the commenter literally wanted that, it’s still a strawman argument as you are taking the weakest version of the idea that resources can help solve the problem, and instead fixating on a bunch of ghost towns that are never going to be built anyways.

                • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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                  1 year ago

                  I guess you read into it more than I did. I took it literally at face value.

                  There is nothing wrong with allocating or re-allocating our resources to help issues in the country. I don’t think this point is contested. But what is the best use of those resources such that we can accomplish the goal of mitigating housing prices skyrocketing more or homelessness?

  • TrismegistusMx@slrpnk.net
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    1 year ago

    Phoenix got in a lot of trouble for sending their homeless to California a few years ago. This problem will continue as long as we let capitalists dictate the economy.

    • ramble81@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Choice vs tricked. Sounds like NYC is being up front about it. A lot of the bussed migrants were mislead and there’s multiple investigations into it.

        • ramble81@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          And they should be investigated for that. But that really has no bearing on this point as again it’s choice vs being tricked.

          • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            It is an illusion of choice though.

            Even in the article it says that they’re being warned there “may not be shelter space” this winter. Given NYC winters, that’s a threat.

            It is the same illusion of choice the conservative prairie provinces use on homeless to toss them over to BC. Free bus pass, or we revoke / prevent shelters from housing you.

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Bet their plenty of room. Imagine the amount corporate offices that sit empty or rich fucks owning empty apartments they never use.