Treat Diseases, Not Symptoms

A few words about solutions for the homeless

I’ve had more people effectively split hairs with me over the political correctness of “houseless" versus “homeless” far more than I’ve heard the same advocates condemn the cruel economic system that leaves humans unhoused.

Typical mental wormhole: we’re left to bicker over the minutiae while the fat cats operating the broken system continue to count their coins.

This thing we call "the state" should not just treat the symptoms, but the disease.

If they have money for homeless folks to have space to shit and shower, why don't they have the funding for spaces for them to sleep?

Throwing money at problems only prolongs them, even if your intent and achieved goal is harm reduction - you're not getting to the root cause of the harm.

This thing we call "the state" can do more to prevent homelessness.

But why do that when these solutions, which are the moral equivalent of giving a starving child a lollipop, benefit someone else, somewhere else with money, power, and influence?

As Frank Zappa wrote, “If there is a Hell, its flames await them, not us.”