America: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 8 Check-in Supplies

"Hello to you too."

Zhang Ailun smiled. "I'm going to pick up my relief meals now because I got a tip that the Bali relief food truck will be showing up on a certain street today. Do you want to come with me?"

"Yeah."

Simone readily agreed, then took out her toothbrush and water glass. "Can you wait three minutes?"

"certainly."

Zhang Ailun readily agreed.

About three minutes later, Simone finished washing up, put on her coat and knitted hat, and pushed her bicycle and backpack to the main road, showing that she was not a person who liked to dawdle.

Perhaps due to the inherent carefree nature of her original race, she quickly put aside her previous unpleasantness and asked curiously, "Allen, how did you find your way here?"

"Dominic brought me here; he's a good friend of mine," Zhang Ailun replied.

"Oh." Simone relaxed a lot more. "So you'll be living here from now on? Welcome to Lori Louis 19!"

They ceremoniously extended their fists to welcome them.

"Thank you." Zhang Ailun raised his hand and bumped fists with her.

"Were you running or working out before? Dominic usually doesn't get up until noon, why didn't you choose to sleep a little longer?" Simone asked again.

She'd been here so long, and this was the first time she'd ever seen a homeless man with such boundless energy.

Most homeless people seem to be neither full nor starving every day.

They only show their joy at getting something for free when they receive subsidies and shopping vouchers.

More often than not, they numbly push small carts bought for free from the supermarket, carrying large and small bags of luggage, aimlessly wandering the streets.

Compared to physical suffering, the mental torment that plagues the homeless is far more devastating. If they can't hold onto their principles, many of them will develop mental instability over time.

Zhang Ailun smiled and said, "Maybe it's because I just arrived here and I'm used to going to bed early and waking up early. It's hard to change even in a new environment. But you woke up early too, Simone. I only saw you the whole way here. You're really a very diligent girl."

"Of course, because I have to go to work."

Simone was happy to hear praise, saying, "I found a decent day job on the street, working at an Indian restaurant, cleaning and delivering food. Of course, sometimes I inevitably face workplace sexual harassment."

"How did you find a job without a house?" Zhang Ailun asked curiously.

"The reasons are a bit complicated. I stayed at my friends' house for a while and asked them to help me fill out forms to deal with the community union's spot checks and the inquiries from the companies I applied to. This made the company think that I was a person with a stable residence, and thus I got a part-time job," Simone said.

"But the community always conducts random checks from time to time, and I can't keep bothering my friends, so I found a rental company on the street and asked them to rent me a 'non-existent house'. They would only issue a rental certificate, but the house was actually uninhabitable. I only needed to pay a small amount of rent each week to let them handle it for me. This is also a solution."

Most of the non-existent houses are dilapidated buildings that have collapsed due to years of disrepair or unfinished renovations, such as motels, but their permits haven't expired. You could call them legal, or you could consider them illegal.

Their main selling point is low rent; a single floor can house hundreds of people registered under its name. While called a rental company, it's more like a business that forges and sells licenses and permits. As long as the address information can be found online, anyone can find a job there.

The same benefit is that you can simply check out of your accommodation on the day you receive welfare, become homeless, and then receive subsidies and shopping vouchers again as a homeless person.

Simone shrugged. "But sometimes things go wrong. Mail from work is always lost, or even thrown away as trash by the housing department staff. That's how I lost my jobs the last few times. I almost ended up on the blacklist of untrustworthy people and never found a job again."

This is what they mean by "the higher-ups have policies, the lower-downs have countermeasures"?

Zhang Ailun was somewhat surprised.

It has to be a local Manchu person.

"Now that you have a stable job, you shouldn't be homeless, right?"

Zhang Ailun inquired.

"Then I have to mention my ex! My life was finally getting back on track, but because he didn't want to break up with me, he went to my workplace and caused trouble, which resulted in me losing my job and being listed as a temporarily untrustworthy person. I absolutely hate him!"

Simone was somewhat annoyed.

"The Indian restaurant I work at now isn't very reputable, and the pay is much lower, only $15.2 an hour. That's just twenty cents more than the California minimum wage!"

Simone said helplessly, "Honestly, you have no idea how hungry those Indians look at me. They always find some excuse to take advantage of me; it's disgusting. Sometimes I think, if they keep staring at my butt, I'll smash my plate in their face, slam the door, and walk away!"

"If I were you, I would definitely punch them in the face and make them never dare to do disgusting things again," Zhang Ailun said seriously.

"I'd love to do that! But I'd rather have money than be taken advantage of."

Simone shrugged and spread her hands helplessly. "I need money. That's life, bro. Welcome to the West Coast, welcome to Los Santos! Everyone here loves to smoke."

"I know what you mean."

Zhang Ailun laughed and said, "Yo! We sell music and cocoa on the west coast."

"Wo~"

Simone laughed, her voice immediately betraying her West Coast roots. After all, gangsta rap is inseparable from music and cocoa, and she acknowledged his musical talent.

The two chatted as they walked, and their relationship quickly became much more familiar.

This person officially became the third friend Zhang Ailun made on the West Coast.

Communication between people is actually quite simple!

Aside from some street litter and extremists, there aren't that many racists at all.

If you have enough self-confidence, you will easily be popular.

The premise is that both parties are on equal footing and of the same class, and that they can have a good conversation.

You can't exactly put your arm around the governor of California, can you?

……

A few minutes later.

We arrived at the location of the Bali relief food truck and successfully caught up with the first group.

Zhang Ailun lined up at the food truck and received two meals: a double cheeseburger, a Pepsi, and a cream ice cream cake.

Damn, this meal is better than anything I've ever eaten before.

More importantly, it's free.

You know what, this thing is sometimes really good at providing basic welfare for the homeless.

This little cake must cost at least ten dollars, right?

It's topped with strawberries, and one bite is full of industrial cream.

Unlike the "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" policy implemented in my hometown, you can live a decent, normal life as long as you are willing to go to work.

In the US, the problem is that they can't stop the emergence of homeless people, and they need the homeless to exist. They're too lazy to provide any jobs, and they're also taking the approach of "providing basic needs." It's better to guide than to block. Sometimes, all they have left is national debt and money.

During elections where voting is required, a meager subsidy of $600-$1000 per person per month is enough to keep the homeless firmly in their grasp.

I'll eat your food and not complain about your actions; I'll definitely vote for you!

Under the policy of "evicting people from their homes," if you don't have money, you have to become homeless. On the streets, there are many single mothers with two or three children who are homeless because they cannot afford rent. Often, the more developed a city is, the more homeless people there are, because the welfare benefits are indeed in place.

Many homeless people from other states travel long distances just to get a meal from the relief program, only to find themselves trapped and unable to leave the poor neighborhood.

Anyway, it's the capital that's paying, not the legislators. The big companies can easily leak a little bit of their money to avoid taxes, which is enough to support millions of homeless people. And yet, some people still embezzle it.

When it's time to vote, a homeless person is still a person. If you have no use to them, then just go die somewhere else.

Who cares about you?

(End of this chapter)