Money is not a panacea for the ills of this country, including homelessness.  �Arguably�, the homeless problem as we know it was created by the �left� in this country.  The ACLU fought for the rights of the mentally ill quite vigorously and got many released from institutions in the 1980s.  Some say it was a vast �left-wing� conspiracy to embarrass Reagan… I didn�t say it��some� said it I remember seeing bunches of homeless in DC around the White House when I visited home.  Apparently, these newly freed citizens were exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights to live on the streets and overindulge in drugs and alcohol.

I know I�m gonna catch it for this because it is an oversimplification of a complex issue.  In my observation, many, NOT ALL, homeless people are homeless by their own desires or actions.  Even my Mom, a die hard liberal, thinks the same thing.  I had a cousin who got hooked on heroin, became homeless, acquired HIV, and died from AIDS.  I grew up in the precise same environment as he did, but I chose another way.  I saw people doing hardcore drugs and thought, �Man, that don�t look cool�.  My cousin was a smart guy, but he just got sucked into that shitty lifestyle.

I took a sociology course a few years ago (education is wasted on the young).  The professor set up a mock exercise where we had to go in to a community, with chronic unemployment and homelessness, and cure their problems.  I immediately smelled a trap.  We had unlimited resources and eagerly went about setting up a utopian community.  The people in this community would have no wants as long as they followed our rules.  Then the Prof dropped the bomb, �What happens when you have people who don�t follow the rules?� It got ugly.  The responses ranged from Mother Teresa-styled kindness to Josef Stalin-styled purges.  The moral of the exercise, you can�t solve problems with money and good intentions alone.

Eric, you forgot to factor in the 732 bagazillion dollars Congress wastes on pork barrel projects every year! You have to adjust per capita GDP to about $257, which still beats the crap out of 2 or 3 third world countries

I agree that money is absolutely not a panacea but, I was simply offering my previous entry to show what could be done. There would be a certain percentage who would immediately cash their $50,000.00 check and race off to the casino and blow it all (or maybe double it...nah) in the first 24 hours, some would end up buying so much drugs and/or alcohol that they would overdose, and some might buy as much cat food as they could afford, or tinfoil, or computer equipment.

Sure there would be some people who would ultimately end up broke even after they were given their share, but to use what some people may do as an argument against leveling the playing field is just saying some people may fail so why try to change? Well, some people die every year from exposure while living in the street. Some people can’t afford proper medical care for pregnant mothers and infant children (when the care is most needed) so sick children grow up to be sick adults and become a greater financial burden on the health-care system and society as a whole. And what does it do to the rest of us to have to ignore this sub-class of human beings when we see them in the street picking through garbage to survive, is it a good thing to think that they somehow deserve their fate? That they themselves are human garbage or that their lives are somehow worth less than that of our family pet (the one that we feed regularly, take to the vet, and would never leave outside all night on the coldest night of the year)? I guess this is what they call liberal guilt.

Some people will always fail, I don’t think I could argue otherwise but is that enough of a reason, especially in a country as wealthy as the United States, not to try something? That would be like me saying that because my engine will eventually fail on my Buick that I shouldn’t bother shelling out the money to replace my front rotor. I may get another 100,000 miles out of my car and I may only get another 10 But I will fix the rotor because I need my car. I guess we just need to decide if other people have any value.

Response to a comment a few back from Bill:

The draft may not have demonstrably prevented our involvement in any harebrained wars, but it DID play a major role in solidifying public opinion and action against our continued presence in Vietnam. 

Also, I never conceded that you couldn’t tell who was rich, merely that it would not be morally consistent to draft only the rich.  Give ‘em their share, however.

Eric,

Kudos on your last closing statement.  Conservatives who think governance is like running a business, and that we should model our government on “free-market” concepts, fail to point out that businesses measure success by profitability, not quality-of-life issues.  Furthermore, they stay profitable often by exercising massive layoffs, and/or the relocation of critical facilities and functions to cheaper overseas markets.  Additionally, the most “successful” of our corporations never really rely on the mythical free market anyway - they are the kings at wheeling and dealing for corporate welfare, protectionist legislation, and shady quid pro quo. 

The neoconservative/globalization craze we are suffering under fits this model to a tee, but you don’t hear any recommendations about what those “laid-off” from our citizenry (or in peripheralized regions around the world) are supposed to do.

I know that I am a cynic but I think that the reason the Neo-Con model does not take the human victims of business decisions into account is because they can see them as units, or assets, or whatever the hell else does not equate to a person. On paper everyone is a number and you shuffle those numbers around, delete some from the equation, and look how much money the company will save this quarter in manpower. Won’t that make the investors happy? Oh, and don’t forget a nice fat bonus for the CEO. I guess that is Capitalism at it’s best. Happy hatchet-men congratulating each other over a snifter of brandy for being courageous captains of industry.

But are we living in a Democracy or are we all to be managed as if under a Capitalist state? Aren’t the elderly fairly unproductive and extremely expensive when it comes to their upkeep? I say we dump them from the books, they are a drain on the country. And look here, the mentally ill, the physically handicapped, the chronically sick...of what use are they? I guess we will have to tolerate those indolent infants but can’t we get some productivity by squeezing the children grades K-12? Maybe a work for education program.

“I see a lot of room for improvement in this country, everyone is not doing all they can, but I believe that in the coming year we will all pull together and increase the shareholder value in these United States. We do have competition in countries like India and China who can provide a lower bid price because they have a cheaper labor metric, but I think that we have a superior product, Democracy. You are this countries greatest asset but we must remain competitive so we have decided to move some of our poorly performing units to a more inexpensive locale, for the good of the country. It is the only way we can continue to compete in this market. Those of you being separated will receive two weeks salary as severance and will be given benefits coverage until the end of the month, those who remain will see an increase in duties. Thank you for your time and attention.”

Sincerely,
The President of the United States.

And thank you Mr President

Eric,

You bring me back around to a point I made weeks ago.  Our troops are currently serving as (to quote myself) “captive consumers” by the administration and their corporate sponsors.  You start a foreign war - creating the excuse if need be - and billions of dollars in tax money just flows into the coffers of the companies supplying recently privatized services to our troops ordered overseas.  Imagine that deal!  No competition, no slow-down - just 24 hour a day billing!  Some of your customers may be killed by a grenade, sniper, or disgruntled GI, but your marketing team back home (the Bush Administration) will see to it that demand stays high.

Bill,

These are the same companies that key members of our administration used to work for (or run), will work for (or run), and remain heavily invested in.  In reference to our other running discussion: doesn’t this yield at least slightly more stench than any stinky Arkansas land swindle that may have been perpetrated by the crooked Democrats?  To reiterate: put them all in jail, but let’s start with the guys that show a real talent and high aspirations for their graft - and who are actively causing severe damage.

I know I wind up repeating myself on this point, but it is such a clear, simple, and well-documented scenario that I can’t understand how Americans put up with this shit.

Ken, You are totally deluded if you think that’s how it works.  Your post proves to me you have no friggin clue how things really work.

we should of just bombed the whole fuckin place . would of saved us all time and money

All I have to say is it’s pretty damn easy to sit back on ur fat lilly asses and bash bush and country. BUT I’m bettin u couldn’t better, because from what I’m reading here, all I see is a buncha wanna be arm chair dumbasses spewing off at the mouth. And not only spewing, but spewing bullshit that they’ve had pounded in there head from the damn media. Shit guys wake ur asses up and smell the coffee. If you lived in a frikken oppressed country under tyranny (real tyranny take ya in the dark and gut u and ur family tyranny). You damn well would want somebody to come deliver ur ass from it, and you damn well would wonder why they would be arguing about it. Geez. Nothing like living in a country where u have the luxury of bitchin about that, whil;e sitting home in your comfortable living room, being brain washed by a media run by socialist who call themselves democrats. Our frikken fore foathers wudda gone over there ina second and thouhgt nothin of it. Because they went thru the same thing themselves. Fortunately for us they were’t the panzies most americans have become. God Bless America and those who believe in what she stand s for. and to those of u who don’t wy the hell don’t ya just leave. But for Gods sake shut the fuck up.

LOL typnig in the dark is a bitch. But I meant everyword that i said even the mispelled ones. I’m just so pissed from everybody whinning their asses off aboput going to a poor downtrodden country and helping the poor bastards get rid of a dickhead who abused em. Sure is easy to bitch when you’ve never been in that position and had everything handed to ya on a platter all your life huh. If our country ever fell from economical demise or whatever half of u jackasses wouldn’t survive because you just about can’t tie your own shoelaces without help. You’d sure becrying loud then, why won’t somebody come help us. Because they’d be over there in their country arguing about it forever, just like the democrats wanted to do and still are doing.