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I didn't suggest it was only America that had homelessness. But we have it pretty bad.
Then why doesn't capitalism fix it? Invisible hand and all that; it's supposed to fix all problems. If there are people that need homes, should not the market meet that demand to provide homes?
From what I googled up, France has 3 million vacant units in the country. Doesn't seem like an efficient use of them to me.
France has 300k homeless. Apparently this problem in France has tripled since the year 2000, when they only had 90k. Sounds like something capitalism is NOT fixing. Rather, it's getting worse.
1. Well. Looking at the numbers our slightly tougher version of capitalism yields fewer homeless.
2. Presupposing any economic system will be able to eradicate homelessness is a false test.
3. Adam Smith has been dead for hundreds of years.
4. Per France the point is our version of capitalism works better. Much higher financial quality of life overall, vastly lower tax burdens generally, fewer homeless pro rata, much better OECD Better Life Index score etc. etc.
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If anything France and some of the others prove big .gov and exceptional handouts don't work. Conservatives have been telling you guys that for decades and your side won't even look at the data.
This is a straw man of capitalism, that it can solve all problems.
One reason capitalism works is because of the incentives it provides. And one of the incentives is that if you don't work, you don't get money. There's a lot of wiggle room in there that mixed economies provide. Capitalism works better than socialism, however, because people can lose and get nothing. That aligns incentives with productivity.
I always associated capitalism with social darwinism more than being a social swiss army knife. Capitalism can't solve all problems, but it can optimize for productivity given those constraints better than any other system.
If you were not mentally ill before you went on the street, you will be after a few weeks or months on it. The middle class people I knew who went homeless for a while both started to go crazy after a month or two of the stress. They started to say delusional things similar to what long term homeless say. They looked and smelled a complete mess.
The stress is unbelievable. Things as simple as going to the bathroom become stressful ordeals. Being cold and unable to warm up when the temperature drops, being hungry, takes a toll pretty quick. Once you start to "look" homeless for lack of hygeine, the whole world treats you differently, poorly.
The woman was previously a very pretty middle class 30-something. In the beginning she faced a lot of threats of rape. Men were willing to give her housing if she became some kind of concubine for them. Imagine dealing with that.
It was like Fantine. And just like Fantine, so few were willing to help and a lot of people turned their back on her and blamed her. Then when she didn't look as good, things like hygeine and dental work go by the wayside, people helped less & blamed more. When she was pretty there was still a bit of pity help. It was shocking to see it happen to someone I knew and cared about.
Great system, this.
Funny you would bring up France, which has produced some of the most poignant literature in world history on poverty. Obviously they have a lot of it.
1. In part I brought up France because France is #1 in social welfare spending and has both high homelessness and increasingly bad COL adjusted poverty and child poverty numbers.
1.1. Agreed per your literature comment.
I mean, I agree with you. I’ve seen speeches on the homeless and that’s one of the major issues is that whether due to drug addiction, mental issues, or attitude many won’t stay at places designed to help them because they have to submit to authority and rules (curfew, no drugs, drinking, ect.)
Another issue can be the money they can get panhandling. Money of course isn’t the solution to anything, and can actually be the worst thing because they could outright end up dead from having access to drugs.
That’s why it’s such a complex issue. You can’t just funnel money from the haves to the have nots.
Homelessness is no doubt confounding in many ways.
My son told me much literature and his experience indicate that for many homeless it starts with anxiety and or depression those lead to self medication through booze and or drugs. Drunk and or high anxious and or depressed people can't hold jobs or manage money.........so vast numbers of the cadre drift into homelessness.
Courts have made it clear even doctors have very limited power to involuntarily confine or involuntarily treat homeless people no matter how sick.
Redguard will hate this but it's a fact. The overwhelming majority of chronic homeless have low IQ. A melange of studies peg homeless IQ around 85. That's a full standard deviation below the mean. Low IQ people have poor impulse control and are much more likely to be wrecked by booze and drugs.
Homelessness is no doubt confounding in many ways.
My son told me much literature and his experience indicate that for many homeless it starts with anxiety and or depression those lead to self medication through booze and or drugs. Drunk and or high anxious and or depressed people can't hold jobs or manage money.........so vast numbers of the cadre drift into homelessness.
Courts have made it clear even doctors have very limited power to involuntarily confine or involuntarily treat homeless people no matter how sick.
Redguard will hate this but it's a fact. The overwhelming majority of chronic homeless have low IQ. A melange of studies peg homeless IQ around 85. That's a full standard deviation below the mean. Low IQ people have poor impulse control and are much more likely to be wrecked by booze and drugs.
I don’t remember the exact numbers, and I know redguard doesn’t seem to like Jordan peterson but that was one of the iq studies he speaks about. I.E the dirty truth that 10% or so of the population has a low iq to the point where the studies done by the u.s military in ww2 (an entity needing bodies and tons of labor, ect) deemed that anyone under an IQ of 85 or so had no job that they could be used for anywhere in the u.s military. That’s an organization that could have used box movers, potatoe peelers, or fodder, deemed nearly 10% of the population non functional. Which then brings up the ugly question of “what do you do with these people then?”
That's irrelevant. Free market capitalism made everyone up and down the socioeconomic ladder better off. To claim otherwise is pure jealousy.
Would you rather be poorer yourself because Elon Musk might also become poorer?
Even Communist China abandoned communism because too many people were starving to death.
How is it irrelevant?
You said "if we had a viable alternative to capitalism, we would have implemented it already".
No, "we" wouldn't have done anything because the capitalists control the government and society largely, so they have all the incentive in the world to keep the system as-is, if not tilting it in their favor even more.
Our democracy is a farce. It is democracy for the elite.
The premise you present, that everyone has to be poorer because the ultra wealthy are less rich is a false choice. It is not a binary scenario.
Again, I don't have all the answers. I only know that the current system is doomed to fail. When the working poor have to spend all their income for sustenance, society will collapse.
I don't hate capitalism, but I hate what our version capitalism has become. It needs to be highly regulated and cannot be rigged in favor of the rich by the rich. Much like our democracy.
You said "if we had a viable alternative to capitalism, we would have implemented it already".
No, "we" wouldn't have done anything because the capitalists control the government and society largely, so they have all the incentive in the world to keep the system as-is, if not tilting it in their favor even more.
Our democracy is a farce. It is democracy for the elite.
The premise you present, that everyone has to be poorer because the ultra wealthy are less rich is a false choice. It is not a binary scenario.
Again, I don't have all the answers. I only know that the current system is doomed to fail. When the working poor have to spend all their income for sustenance, society will collapse.
I don't hate capitalism, but I hate what our version capitalism has become. It needs to be highly regulated and cannot be rigged in favor of the rich by the rich. Much like our democracy.
1. We're a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy.
2. Alternatives to capitalism equalize inequality by making everyone equally less well off. That's the only way the State (government) is capable of equalizing inequality.
3. Crony capitalism is still a superior economic system to socialism or communism.
I think you're missing several things that are abundant in certain locations such as Silicon Valley. All across the country & the world, civic leaders have attempted to replicate Silicon Valley's success - mostly with poor results.
Japan did very well in the 80s, before the internet and software engineering boom.
China has their own silicon valley and will surpass the US soon. Especially if the US continues to pursue the China Initiative Act. We will face a serious brain drain from countries like China and India if this continues.
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