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In spite of many trillions of dollars being spent on the "War on Poverty", poverty has not gone down.
Just to devil's advocate, most of those trillions have been spent on chronic, often multi-generational, welfare recipients. It's possible that a one-shot infusion of cash to people who are down and out but neither eligible for nor recipients of more traditional chronic welfare programs could have drastically better return on investment.
Shelter and a shower, clothes, hygiene supplies, a prepaid cellphone, and the other things needed to get a job; a taste of the nice things you can get with some cash in your pocket, enough money to move anyway in America you darned well please if you have no ties to your current location and the job market isn't good, a sudden reason not to make tomorrow like yesterday and the day before that and the day before that...... not necessarily saying that it would work because we don't have data, but doing that once or twice (i.e. not making it a national habit which would cause moral hazard and become a repeat handout) might well be worth it and effectual in a non-negligible percent of cases.
interesting article. the way to eradicate poverty is give people money. i did that for 12 years. i was mr ATM. they spent it on drugs and booze. when i left many were exactly where i found them only fatter and older.
without working we dont get moulded into useful members of the community. work is a salvation and cure for many ills but by many in the community it is seen as something only a fool would do.
^^^ We don't need any more homelessness. Welfare and other social safety net programs help keep homelessness in check. They also help keep children fed. Before there were food stamps and Social Security widow's benefits, kids frequently went without food. I had relatives who were among those kids. Life was very rough, in spite of widowed moms taking whatever work they could find (very limited options: taking in laundry, cleaning houses, prostitution). People who think life would somehow be better without welfare and other anti-poverty programs should try living while jobless and having dependents to care for.
Americans with Disabilities Act
OSHA
Excessive property taxes
Excessive zoning regulations
Fire codes
Unions
These things have created the homelessness situation. There was a time when rooming houses existed all over the country, where a person could sleep for trivial amounts of money like $1/night. Sometimes breakfast was included for an extra quarter.
I'm not saying these laws are a bad thing; most people would agree that they've raised standards, saved lives, made us safer, etc. But the fact remains, it's made basic housing too expensive for the bottom 10%.
The WSJ reported about a homeless shelter for men in NYC, run by nuns, that was forced to close down because it did not have an elevator, even though the nuns offered to carry people up the stairs as necessary. They did not have the $50,000 to modernize the building, so 50 men were put back in the street. None of these men were disabled, by the way.
Every time you pass a law that is intended to fix a problem, there will be unintended consequences. Even the notion of giving money to the poor has consequences that we may not like.
I guess I'm an advocate for an older, simpler time when people were expected to pull their weight. In the old days, although there was poverty and hunger, ultimately more people did pull their weight, more people had the work ethic, and there was more opportunity to "make it" as they used to say.
I'd like to see the statistics of homeless people since the government closed funding for the big mental hospitals. I think that was back in the 80's? Most homeless I met are a little "off" and would probably do better in an institution where they can be fed, medicated, and kept off the booze and the dangerous streets.
I know those places were expensive to fund, but I'm thinking them being on the street is costing more.
I'd like to see the statistics of homeless people since the government closed funding for the big mental hospitals. I think that was back in the 80's? Most homeless I met are a little "off" and would probably do better in an institution where they can be fed, medicated, and kept off the booze and the dangerous streets.
I know those places were expensive to fund, but I'm thinking them being on the street is costing more.
Many if not most homeless since the 1970s are mentally ill and/or substance abusers, plus some families. De-institutionalization accounts for a lot of them.
In my opinion, we should return to institutions for some mentally ill since mainstreaming them hasn't worked out very well.
Baically what ever amount the poor gets other will want more for actual production. Once poverty amounts were sold middle class in yesterdays dollars.miney represents a value as always.
no--- earning money by having to work for it and deal with a lot of baloney including our own is the best way out of poverty. people that get something for nothing are not invested people and feel no obligation to be contributing members of society, which means we are still a poor community since there is no giving only taking.
no--- earning money by having to work for it and deal with a lot of baloney including our own is the best way out of poverty. People that get something for nothing are not invested people and feel no obligation to be contributing members of society, which means we are still a poor community since there is no giving only taking.
You get an "A+".
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