Most of us have a home, or at least a place to live. However, there is a significant number of people in the United States who are homeless. For example, it is estimated that there are over 21,000 homeless people in Atlanta, Fulton, and DeKalb county.
Naturally, some folks are inclined to think that the homeless have brought their homelessness on themselves by bad decisions. In some cases, this is probably true. In most cases, however, people seem to be victims. A homeless person might have been hurt, then lost his job and then lost his house. Or he might have a mental illness that has been untreated. Or she might have lost her job and home in the economic meltdown.
While our society does provide homeless shelters and charity, it is certainly a sad state of affairs when a country as wealthy as ours still has such a condition. While folks like John Kerry, Al Gore, John McCain and others have mansions, some folks have nowhere to call home.
Since I’m not a big fan of being called a socialist or communist, I’m not going to suggest that it might be nice for folks who own numerous houses to donate one or two to be turned into shelters. Rather, my view is that we should do more to address the underlying causes of homelessness. For example, we can do more as a society to prevent the conditions under which working people can lose everything due to illness or due to the money games of the financial class. As another example, we can do much more to help people with mental illness.
Naturally, folks who are homeless because they want to be or because they intentionally took actions that ruined their own lives would still be on their own. After all, we have no real obligation to force help on those who do not want it nor do we owe people who ruin themselves.
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I consider myself an expert on homelessness. The majority of people I dealt with that I’d classify as homeless were either addicted to alcohol or had a serious mental illness. That is not to say that they did not have roofs over their heads, as the Bangor Maine area has quite a few homeless shelters.
I can honestly say, too, that many of those people were truly beyong any of our systems’ abilities to rehabilitate.
Your some and most are misplaced. Most make the choice. Some are victims of circumstance. And suggesting helping to prevent conditions where people can lose everything because of illness is just code for increasing the size of the entitlement programs. Socialism, pure and simple. Controlling the money games of the financial class is just code for regulation. Pure and simple. And we can do more for the mentally ill. Lift some of those needless, onerous government regulations on drug companies and businesses in general and soon enough you’ll have plenty of solutions for the mentally ill.
Those who freely chose to be homeless should have their choice respected. If they really want to live that way, they would presumably reject attempts to change their condition.
I have no desire to enhance entitlements. However, I believe that a vital part of civilization is providing protection for the citizens against harms and dangers. This applies whether the danger is an enemy with explosive underwear, a thief or a virus. If providing protection to citizens is socialism, then all societies are socialist and the term would mean very little.
Yes, controlling money games is regulation. Just as policing thieves, con-artists, and other criminals is regulation. A basic function of a society is to regulate conduct so as to limit harmful and destructive behavior. This applies whether the harm is done with a knife, a con or a financial derivative.
Those who do good, should be be free to do so. Those who do harm should be regulated.
“Lift some of those needless, onerous government regulations on drug companies and businesses in general and soon enough you’ll have plenty of solutions for the mentally ill.”
You mean the drugs that do no better than placebos, like Zoloft and Paxil?
I was thinking of something more along the line of Vioxx. And I was being facetious when I used the word “needless”. And I imagine, left alone and with the need to satisfy their bottom line they could soon enough come up with a nice, neat “final solution” for the mentally ill and the homeless in general. 🙂
Maybe we should force banks to give risky loans to the homeless. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can give them the money as they have unlimited life lines now. I have a better idea then looking for bans aids though. I say we look to the future and try to strengthen the family unit, build a strong moral foundation and reinforce good ethical behavior with our children. Eventually most problems would work themselves out.
No, forcing banks to give risky loans would be a bad idea-as bad as banks deciding to do it on their own again.
Bob Corker’s hardly homeless. He’s less gray and balding than McCain, Less pudgy than Gore and more photogenic than Kerry. Why not use his image? A man’s home is his castle.So the guy who lives in a box under an overpass lives in his castle. We’re told a house is not a home. But a castle or a mansion can serve as a home or just a money maker like Biltmore. It’s called a national landmark. I hear in jolly old England some of those with pure blood lines have taken to making money off their inherited mansions/castles. Maybe Old Bill in the refrigerator box will survive the current deep freeze. Maybe the poor bugger’ll live long enough to say screw you Corker or Gore or McCain or Kerry as they rent out their mansions to survive.