We need to treat the mentally disabled better. S Korea is bad, but just looking at places like SF (I feel that most of the homeless have mental issues here); it feels that we're not doing a great job either. The obvious solution is that mental hospitals need more funding. However where will they get that money from? Is there another more optimal solution that doesn't require as much money?
Sometimes when I read stories like this (which I'm glad that it's being exposed) and the recent NYT article about cramming school in China, I wonder if they are just printed to make American feel better.
I'm not sure you have to go as far a mental hospitals. If you just build half decent government funded accommodation it deals with a lot of the problem. Plus maybe the odd visitor to help them fill forms etc if they are not capable of doing that. It surprises me that the US doesn't do more of that.
There is a history of modern worldwide homelessness. A single law signed by Reagan was only a small part of this phenomenon. The bipartisan law itself mainly concerned ending indefinite detention (sound familiar?) and for the most part, added programs to help the mentally ill. It did affect funding.
A large portion of Americans are too selfish to pay extra tax to support the poor. They don't realize that their selfishness hurts everyone, including themselves:
http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson
The homeless consitently reject services offered to them. One way to solve this problem is to force them to have treatmemt and lodging but this seems rather harsh.
EDIT: I guess we're not that different
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/14142/bulls_hit_farm_l...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/06/05/119393/-Slavery-in-...
http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/