Homelessness ‘solutions’ don’t help the homeless

Capitalism is centered on the core value of competition for resources: food, housing, employment etc. The reasons for finding yourself at the bottom of the competition spectrum are many and varied. Often a combination of factors is at play, creating a situation where a person wears down and opts out of the value system based on competition.

We have a capitalistic system that is controlled by the wealthy, where the very rules that order the system are written by the ones who have the most. Setting aside any value judgment about whether or not things should be ordered in that manner, we can look honestly at the results.

The wealthy want the dividends of ownership. Decisions are made with zero regard for whether or not the country or the average working person is served by the system. Automation creates dividends. Off-shoring jobs creates dividends. Reducing corporate taxes and subsequently social programs that alleviate poverty increases dividends. All of this creates a bottom layer that grows in number until it starts to show up in ways that embarrass all but the bottom layer. For self-preservation the bottom layer has had to relinquish the luxury of embarrassment.

Our solutions for homelessness have not been solutions for homelessness. They have been solutions for the embarrassment created by a system controlled by the wealthy. They are nothing more than projections of our collective guilt onto the least among us for the crime of showing us that our hearts have opted out of compassion.

— Don Fultz, Oroville