New Hindsight

I’ve done a decent amount of traveling—not the kind where you stay at a resort, but the kind where you walk cities and actually observe how people live.

Bangkok. Paris. Prague. Berlin. Amsterdam. Puerto Vallarta. Rosarito. Mazatlán. Madrid. Barcelona. And most recently, London.

And somewhere along the way, I started noticing something I can’t unsee.

The Moment That Shifted Something

When my wife and I arrived in Bangkok, we went for a walk one night—just the two of us.

Now, no matter where I am, I’m usually alert. A little guarded. A little on edge. That quiet awareness most of us carry.

But that night felt different.

I realized I didn’t feel afraid.

And that made me stop and ask: why?

What I Was Seeing—and What I Wasn’t

There’s visible poverty in Bangkok. You can see it clearly.

But what stood out wasn’t just what was there—it was what wasn’t.

I wasn’t seeing people in the depths of drug-induced states.

I wasn’t seeing the kind of severe, public mental health crises that feel so common back home.

I wasn’t seeing people completely disconnected from reality.

That stuck with me.

So as I kept traveling, I kept paying attention.

A Pattern Across Places

In city after city, I noticed something similar.

Yes, there were unhoused people.

Yes, there was poverty.

But the energy felt different.

It didn’t feel as unpredictable.

It didn’t feel as tied to visible, severe addiction.

It didn’t carry the same underlying sense of fear.

London reinforced that for me.

Again—people without housing were present. But I didn’t see the same level of visible drug influence or crisis that feels so prevalent in many parts of the United States.

So What Makes Ours Different?

This is where my thinking started to shift.

In many of these places, homelessness seems more directly tied to economics—lack of access, lack of affordability, lack of opportunity.

But in the U.S., it feels more layered.

It feels deeply tied to addiction.

To mental health.

To something bigger that we don’t fully talk about.

Because if it were only about housing, then why do so many people here refuse it?

Why does the issue feel so much more complex—and more visible?

The Question I Keep Coming Back To

At some point, I stopped just observing and started questioning.

If the scale of drug use—and its impact—is this visible here…

If entire communities are being affected…

If billions of dollars are clearly moving through these systems…

Then how is this happening at this level?

And why do we spend so much time blaming individuals—

the users, the dealers, each other—

instead of asking bigger questions about the systems that allow it to continue?

Let’s Talk About It

I’m not writing this because I have the answer.

I’m writing this because I think we should be talking about it.

Because something is different.

And I can’t be the only one who’s noticed.

So I want to open this up—

What have you seen?

If you’ve traveled, did you notice differences in how other places experience poverty or homelessness?

If you haven’t traveled, what does it feel like where you are?

Does this reflect your experience—or not at all?

And what do you think is really at the root of it?

I don’t want this to be a one-sided thought. I want it to be a conversation.

So tell me, What do you think?