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by pandemicsoul
1033 days ago
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The problem with American treatments of homeless, drug addiction, even public health is the idea that EVERYONE has some level of personal responsibility – that there is a minimum threshold to "earn" something that you have to do and if you don't, you deserve your fate. And this transforms into public resentment because "if they aren't willing to do the bare minimum, why should my tax dollars support them?" We need to get away from thinking about these problems as a way to force people to "earn" the relief, and instead think about the resolutions as a way of making everyone else's life better. I don't like that there is homelessness. I don't like seeing drug addicts poop in the street. I want folks in that situation to be taken care of for MY sake – to make my city better, to relieve me of the moral burden of thinking about people suffering, etc. Because here's the thing: Some people are NEVER going to be able to maintain responsibility. Some people are NEVER going to be upstanding adults. NO MATTER WHAT we put them through, the worst prisons, the worst homelessness, the most outrageous policing, they're just never going to change. There is no remedy that solves this problem with a burden on the unhoused individual. It's society deciding to solve the problem REGARDLESS of whether the individual has "earned" the resolution. |
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I think most people are willing to chip in to solve the problem. Not just for the transactional benefit of making their own life better, but also just for moralistic purposes of not wanting to see others suffer. I think what you're referring to is more of a political one, where people see their tax dollars consistently being spent without any discernable improvement in the problem. And it's natural for people to balk at the idea that the way out of the mess is to continually throw more money at it.
The second issue seems much more difficult. Again, I think most people want a society that takes care of the infirm, or those just genuinely unable to take care of themselves. But when that population gets relatively high, we need to take stock of why that's occurring. Is it because society has just changed so much that it's incompatible with so many people's constitution and ability? If so, that implies we need to restructure a lot of societal aspects or take a second look at whether all those changes were really for the better, given the blowback. As an example, was the revamping of mental health services in the 1980s under the guise of increasing personal liberty really a net benefit?