When I was in my mid-twenties, I struggled mightily with my finances. It was a tough job market, I had very little experience and I was temperamentally unsuited to take orders from people that weren’t as smart as me. This led to a repeating pattern. I’d take some horrible job that didn’t pay a lot, struggle along, get sick of the idiocy at work and quit – oftentimes without having another job lined up. Although I had no savings and my car was a lemon that frequently broke down, I managed to limp along, barely paying my bills. Eventually, as my education in the school of hard knocks started to pay off, I concluded it was time to start getting ahead of the game. That led me to seriously considering planned homelessness. I figured I could get a membership at the YMCA, take showers there in the morning, work, exercise, kill time in the library, and then sleep in my car every night. I figured I could do that for 3 or 4 months, save up $2500 or so (which seemed like an ENORMOUS sum to me then) and then I could move back to an apartment and be way ahead of the game. It actually wasn’t the worst idea I’ve ever had, but my family was HORRIFIED by it and talked me out of doing it. So, I continued to struggle with money a bit longer until eventually, I moved to Alexandria, VA which had a much better job market, and finally built up my nest egg. So, I do believe that it is possible for just about anyone to be homeless. After all, how could I not believe it after almost getting to that point myself?
Jan 1, 2022·edited Jan 1, 2022Liked by John Hawkins
A quote from Manhattan Contrarian, Francis Menton, regarding New York's ineffective use of taxpayer money: "the level of spending remains astonishing. $3.5 billion for about 48,000 homeless represents about $73,000 spending per “homeless” person. That’s close to $300,000 for a family of four, a level that, if the family earned it, would put it in about the top 5% of income earners in the country — not to mention subjecting it to an income tax bill of close to $100,000 among the federal government, New York State and New York City.....But then, as noted here many times, no government bureaucracy ever solves the problem it is tasked to solve. To solve the problem would be to risk ending the program and putting the agency out of business." https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2021-12-31-as-bill-de-blasio-prepares-to-leave-office-part-ii-homelessness
The welfare industrial complex keeps this problem alive and it won't ever go away because of it.
Best Wishes for a Happy New Year, John. I became a paid subscriber in September so now I'm going back into the archive and reading some of the essays before then. This is an excellent summation of why it's incorrect to name people who chronically live on the streets homeless. That word is a marketing ploy used by the city, state and federal government to continue throwing taxpayer money at a problem they don't want to solve. Some of those serving the "homeless" need that population to avoid becoming homeless themselves. Ok. That might be an overstatement but there's a reason huge sums of taxpayer money is wasted with nothing to show for it. Enabling the mentally ill and addicted is NOT helping them, however it is helping those who choose it as a lifestyle, and those who get paid to keep that population on the street. Love the way you keep it real, John. Hearing straight talk is music to my ears.
Americans Aren’t Homeless Because of a Lack of Resources
A quote from Manhattan Contrarian, Francis Menton, regarding New York's ineffective use of taxpayer money: "the level of spending remains astonishing. $3.5 billion for about 48,000 homeless represents about $73,000 spending per “homeless” person. That’s close to $300,000 for a family of four, a level that, if the family earned it, would put it in about the top 5% of income earners in the country — not to mention subjecting it to an income tax bill of close to $100,000 among the federal government, New York State and New York City.....But then, as noted here many times, no government bureaucracy ever solves the problem it is tasked to solve. To solve the problem would be to risk ending the program and putting the agency out of business." https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2021-12-31-as-bill-de-blasio-prepares-to-leave-office-part-ii-homelessness
The welfare industrial complex keeps this problem alive and it won't ever go away because of it.
Best Wishes for a Happy New Year, John. I became a paid subscriber in September so now I'm going back into the archive and reading some of the essays before then. This is an excellent summation of why it's incorrect to name people who chronically live on the streets homeless. That word is a marketing ploy used by the city, state and federal government to continue throwing taxpayer money at a problem they don't want to solve. Some of those serving the "homeless" need that population to avoid becoming homeless themselves. Ok. That might be an overstatement but there's a reason huge sums of taxpayer money is wasted with nothing to show for it. Enabling the mentally ill and addicted is NOT helping them, however it is helping those who choose it as a lifestyle, and those who get paid to keep that population on the street. Love the way you keep it real, John. Hearing straight talk is music to my ears.