There will always be homeless people, the ones we have are either crashing or simply do not want to live inside (due to a multitude of reasons involving decades of living in the streets with substance abuse and mental issues). The only folk you’ll find here sleeping on benches are aforementioned and students who have had one too many. Plenty of benches for both and even if all benches are turned into chairs we’ve got intoxication centres and housing available for those who prefer it.
Just for anyone who’s unaware; it’s social democracy, not communism. It is possible to have a wide public safety net without resorting to communism, which is inherently genocidal.
It’s around 4,400. It bears mentioning that the population of Finland is only around 4.5 million. The Dallas Fort Worth Metro area has a population of about 6.5 million and a homeless population of around 4,500
I think your instant assumption about it being done for evil says more about the country you live than it does about Finland, because homelessness doesn’t seem to be a big issue in Finland. That’s ~5k homeless people in a country with ~5 million people, that’s ~0.1% of the population being homeless.
The US is roughly the same percentage and it was definitely a comment from a US political frame. In the US they are simply more visible as they congregate in cities.
In this case Finland actually takes care of their people and homelessness isn’t a problem there. They’re just really polite introverts who I might guess prefer sitting alone as opposed to on a bench close to others.
Source - my introverted niece met a Fin, fell in love, moved to Finland and is in absolute heaven. Her husband has visited the States a few times and is always overwhelmed with the casual social interactions with strangers in public.
My first thought. You could put up three 2 person benches there without too much trouble. It’d still look fine with spaces between so people can sit alone.
I can see the appeal of this in some ways, but I hope there are also two-person benches in the same area because when I’m, for example, out with my daughter and we both want to sit down for a minute, it’s nice not to have to yell to talk to each other.
Apparently they’re being made by Sineu Graff from Denmark and this is somewhere in Helsinki, but I heard that those aren’t too common in Finland, so hold your horses, you isolationists ;)
I actually think that it has more to do with the fact that i prefer to sit alone but i don’t straight up want to make sure that i don’t speak to any stranger ever again
But then again i don’t like too much socializing, ig my brain just doesn’t know what it wants
You can just walk up to them and talk, but since they are sitting in one of these chairs, they likely will want a brief conversation and be left alone. Also, socializing in other places like a bar or in a park is not outlawed. Do try to be friendly and courteous. The best way to start a conversation is by introducing yourself. Then, hop into what you wanted to talk about. Maybe even try to start with a topic that can transition to your final goal. In the end, there is an intention behind every social interaction, and it can either be casual or formal. Maybe that is what you are desiring, for a known intention/goal to connect with others.
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